plain of the hazards. Daniels is one. 



"Most of the boats that get in trou- 

 ble in the inlet are people not familiar 

 with the area," Daniels says. Coast 

 Guard Quartermaster Dennis Purcell 

 agrees. Purcell, stationed at the Cape 

 Hatteras Coast Guard station, says 

 many out-of-state boats ask to follow 

 Coast Guard escorts or local fishermen 

 through the inlet. 



Situated near what scientists call 

 "high energy" beaches, Oregon Inlet 

 frequently shoals with sand and its 

 channel migrates southward. Four 

 fishermen lost their lives in the inlet 

 last April after their boat became dis- 

 abled and was smashed against the in- 

 let's ocean bar, Purcell says. The Coast 

 Guard station at Oregon Inlet 

 answered 320 calls last year; 180 to 190 

 of the calls came from boats in the in- 

 let, Purcell adds. 



In recent years, state and federal 

 agencies have answered fishermen's 

 complaints about the state's inlets by 

 dredging them. But some fishermen 

 say dredging is not enough to keep 

 some of the more widely-used inlets, 

 such as Oregon and Ocracoke Inlets, 



deep enough to accommodate many 

 commercial fishing boats. 



Fishermen are asking the state and 

 federal government to stabilize some of 

 these inlets with jetties, which would 

 fix the horizontal position of the inlets, 

 reduce the amount of sand deposited in 

 channels and decrease turbulence. 

 Many inlets along the Atlantic and 

 Gulf coasts have already been 

 stabilized. It's not a new idea. Fisher- 

 men in Dare County have been clamor- 

 ing for stabilization of Oregon Inlet 

 since the 1950s. 



"It's a big thing, a major undertak- 

 ing, to try to stabilize inlets along this 

 treacherous coast, but it can be done if 

 we the people push hard enough," says 

 Roger Jones, owner of R. W. Jones 

 Fish Co. in Carteret County. 



Masonboro Inlet is partially 

 stabilized with jetties now and plans 

 are in the works for jetties at Little 

 River and Oregon Inlet. 



The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers 

 maintains the inlets. But N.C. 

 Secretary of Natural Resources and 

 Community Development Howard Lee 

 has decided that the state should take 



a role in establishing priorities for inlet 

 maintenance. Last year Lee appointed 

 a committee of coastal specialists and 

 fishermen to study the state's inlets. 



"The corps has begun to look more 

 to the state for guidance on these pro- 

 jects and it may begin to look to us for 

 funding in the future, too. So it was 

 decided we should begin to take a 

 greater leadership role in establishing 

 which ones are essential to the state," 

 says Ronald Earl Mason, chairman of 

 the committee. 



The committee presented its recom- 

 mendations to Lee in October, but 

 Mason and engineers for the corps 

 emphasize that these recommendations 

 are not binding. 



The committee recommended that 

 those inlets programmed for stabiliza- 

 tion be completed as soon as possible, 

 that the deep water inlets at Morehead 

 City and Wilmington be maintained at 

 their present depth and that Ocracoke 

 Inlet be stabilized. 



Ocracoke Inlet, like Oregon Inlet, is 

 extremely changeable. Jones says fewer 

 and fewer fishermen are trying to 

 navigate the inlet and the dangerous 



inside channel, Big Foot Slough. In- 

 stead, he says, fishermen are using 

 Beaufort Inlet and occasionally Oregon 

 Inlet to bring in their catches. 



"You're risking a half-million-dollar 

 boat and sometimes life, too," Jones 

 says. "It's just not worth it." 



A jetty was authorized for the north 

 side of Ocracoke Inlet in 1960, but the 

 Corps of Engineers deferred construc- 

 tion. "We have not determined there is 

 need for a jetty at Ocracoke yet," says 

 Tom Swain, the Corps of Engineers 

 chief of navigation reports at the 

 Wilmington district office. "We have 

 the inlet under control." 



Swain contends that the inlet is deep 

 enough, but that its channel needs to 

 be more closely monitored and marked 

 for changes by the U.S. Coast Guard. 



"The real problem at Ocracoke 

 comes just inside the inlet in the sound 

 at Big Foot Slough," Swain says. 



Swain says the Corps of Engineers 

 plans to build sandbar dikes at the 

 Slough and dredge the channel to a 15- 

 foot depth. He emphasizes that there 

 are no plans for jetties. 



However, Lee said recently that the 



state may be willing to foot some of the 

 bill for stabilization of Ocracoke Inlet. 

 But corps engineers say unless the pro- 

 ject is begun soon the costs will out- 

 weigh the benefits. 



One corps engineer speculates that, 

 considering the rising cost of such pro- 

 jects, Oregon Inlet will be the last inlet 

 ever stabilized along the east coast. 



When authorized in 1970, the 

 Oregon Inlet stabilization was ap- 

 proved at an estimated $9 million. 

 Now after numerous delays, the corps 

 estimates that stabilization will cost 

 $61 million with an annual upkeep cost 

 of about $2 million. Congress has set 

 aside funds for starting the project dur- 

 ing the current fiscal year and the 

 Corps of Engineers hopes to begin con- 

 struction during the summer of 1980. 



In spite of Congressional approval, 

 the project still doesn't have the green 

 light. The Corps of Engineers must 

 answer some important environmental 

 questions before the U.S. Fish and 

 Wildlife Service and the U.S. Park Ser- 

 vice will grant the corps land-use per- 

 mits needed to begin construction. 



Larry Roush, chief of resource 

 management and visitors protection at 

 the Park Service's Cape Hatteras 

 National Seashore, says the park ser- 

 vice is concerned that the project will 

 accelerate erosion of its land on Bodie 

 Island. Officials of the U.S. Fish and 

 Wildlife Service are worried about ero- 

 sion on the wildlife refuge at Pea 

 Island. 



The proposed jetties, which will ex- 

 tend IV2 miles into the ocean, will stop 

 much of the sand that moves up and 

 down the beach. This will'deprive these 

 beaches of sand which normally 

 replaces sand lost to the continental 

 shelf and other beaches. 



The Corps of Engineers plans to 

 alleviate this problem with a sand 

 bypassing system that will employ a 

 pipeline dredge to transport sand from 

 the north side of the jetties to the areas 

 of sand depletion. 



Lawrence Saunders, chief of 

 economic analysis for the Wilmington 

 district of the Corps of Engineers, says 

 the corps expects to operate the dredge 

 once a year and bypass 400,000 to 500,- 

 000 cubic yards of sand. 



The final design plans for the sand- 

 bypassing system are not on paper yet, 

 though the system is "conceptually 

 feasible" Saunders says. The parks ser- 

 vice wants to see final plans, however, 

 before any decision is made. 



But East Carolina University 



"You're risking a half-million-dollar boat 

 and sometimes life, too . . ." — Roger Jones 



