By Maddy Vitale
Shooting Island, a nearly 150-acre wildlife haven off Ocean City, will be transformed into a “living shoreline” under a proposed project to rebuild it after decades of erosion.
The project will have the added benefit of creating a bigger buffer to protect the city from storms sweeping off the bay, officials said Tuesday during a public hearing at City Hall.
“In order to preserve the island, and preserve the city, Shooting Island has to withstand the impact and continue to break energy across the bay,” said Eric Rosina, an executive with ACT Engineers, the city’s dredging consultant.
The city is in the process of seeking regulatory permits for the project from the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection’s Division of Fish and Wildlife.
The total cost to build up Shooting Island, which is uninhabited, would be $2 million from the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation and a $1.2 million match from the city. Once permits are granted, work would start in September and the first phase of the project would go until December.
As described by Ocean City Public Information Officer Doug Bergen, the project includes two main components: construction of about 3,200 linear feet of living shoreline rock sill to protect existing marsh and allow for further development of marsh on the island; and construction of approximately 1,900 linear feet of living shoreline using oyster “castles.” The oyster castles are man-made block-like structures, like Legos, that provide the ideal habitat for shellfish.
Shooting Island, located off Tennessee Avenue, is a crucial part of the city’s extensive dredging program to clear out sediment-choked lagoons and channels along the back bays.
Sediment dredged from the back bays will be used to restore Shooting Island, inspiring the “living shoreline” name of the project.
The island has experienced significant degradation for more than 80 years. In some areas, the shoreline has receded up to 60 feet, officials said.
Ocean City officials are pointing to an acclaimed restoration project in the Chesapeake Bay as proof that dredge material can be successfully used to help rebuild islands.
Poplar Island, in the Chesapeake Bay off Maryland, spanned more than 1,100 acres in the mid-1800s, but shrank to a mere five acres by the 1990s due to erosion caused by waves, winds and tidal currents.
Now, Poplar Island is being rebuilt by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers using material dredged from the approach channels to the Chesapeake Bay.
Carol Beske, another executive with ACT Engineers, said Poplar Island is a good example of how important the Shooting Island project could be.
“The wildlife is thriving,” Beske noted.
“This is a project we are excited about in Ocean City,” she added. “This will be a good example for other communities along the shore dealing with the same issue.”
The public hearing was lightly attended, with only a few residents joining with city officials, ACT executives and a representative from the Division of Fish and Wildlife to discuss details of the project.
Suzanne Hornick, founder and chairwoman of the Ocean City Flooding Committee, was not clear as to why Shooting Island was selected as opposed to another site.
Officials said that other areas were looked at, but this was an area they felt should, and could be, rebuilt to benefit the community.
Another resident, Donna Moore, like Hornick, was unclear why the state and city wanted to put funds into building up the island, when there might be better suited areas to preserve.
“Why the big effort just to hold onto this island?” Moore asked.
“One reason to choose Shooting Island is the ongoing opportunity,” Beske said of rebuilding the area.
Rosina explained to the audience that as Shooting Island shrinks, the city takes more of a “hit” from flooding.
“Who will benefit?” Hornick asked of rebuilding the island.
Although Rosina could not say specifically what areas of the city would be affected by the project, it would roughly be the central part of town in the bayside area from about 18th Street to 26th Street.
Beske said the hope is Shooting Island could be an example of how a community works to successfully rebuild an island to benefit the environment and the community.
Hornick asked what would happen if the state and city opted to do nothing with Shooting Island.
Rosina responded the island would be gone by the year 2100.
