Officials get look at inlet shoaling

Courtesy of the offices of State Sen. Mary Beth Carozza and the Angler restaurant, county and state officials on Thursday were scheduled to tour the Ocean City Inlet aboard the Angler headboat and see for themselves the seriousness of the constant shoaling occuring in the inlet channel.

These shifting sands and rapidly building shoals have made navigating this narrow cut a difficult and occasionally hazardous business for vessels with a draft of any significance.

With the multi-million-dollar White Marlin Open just concluded, the economic value of the inlet should be obvious to local businesses and officials, as billions of dollars in sports fishing vessels steam into town, followed by a generally wellheeled crowd of friends, families and spectators.

And that’s just for one week. Ocean City’s offshore sports fishing industry brings in millions of dollars each year, making the preservation of a well maintained channel a necessity.

Unfortunately, the Town of Ocean City and Worcester County government remain divided on the issue of which authority should be the local party responsible for the inlet’s condition.

It’s a ridiculous argument considering the inlet’s importance to local tourism and the economic impact on the town. Given how focused on tourism Ocean City officials are, they should join the county in not just asking, but screaming for help from agencies and funding sources further up the government food chain.

Undoubtedly, skeptics will say the federal government would not allow inlet shoaling to reach the crisis stage, and the response to that is, yes, it absolutely would.

That is precisely what occurred at Oregon Inlet and Hatteras Inlet on the Outer Banks. Ultimately, the state and county governments had to step in to keep their inlets viable.

The importance of Carozza’s inlet tour Tuesday lies in its ability to make state officials aware of how critical the situation is, and how, if things get worse, they might be called on to help. A unified approach in that regard would be the way to go.

Ocean City Today

11934 Ocean Gateway, Suite 6, Ocean City, Md. 21842

Phone: 410-723-6397 / Fax: 410-723-6511.

EDITOR ............................................ Stewart Dobson

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