Boaters Warning Issued for Packery Channel Shallow water along the south side By Dale Rankin A warning has been issued to boaters going through Packery Channel to be on the lookout for shallow water near the channels mouth. In the past three years a sandy shoal has emerged in the mouth of Packery Channel which has reduced water depth along the South Packery Jetty, in some cases to as little as three feet, according to Deidre Williams with the Conrad Blucher Institute for Surveying and Science at Texas A&M University Corpus Christi. The warning was issued for boaters to be aware of the shallow water when going through the channel. Williams, who monitors the channel under a contract with the City of Corpus Christi, said the sand bar which runs about 600 feet back from the mouth of the channel, was first discovered in 2011, then seen found again this year. “We were doing a survey of the channel in June when we discovered that something was going on that was causing this shoal to form very quickly,” Williams said. “We went back and did another run and realized that something very unusual was going on.” Williams said that while it is too early to say for certain what the cause may be, 2011 and 2014 were both heavy years for an influx of Sargassum weed. “It is possible that the seaweed combined with the sand blowing over the jetty on the south side of the channel is the cause,” she said. “We will be back out there doing more soundings in a few weeks and should know for certain.” She said the shoaling is limited to the area south of the centerline of the channel, with at least seven feet of water always found on the north side. The channel was originally dredged to fourteen feet and was re-dredged in the winters of both 2011 and 2012. However in both cases the dredging was stopped prior to Spring Break before any work was done in the first 500 feet between the jetties back from the channel opening. That area is where the current shoaling is occurring. One problem may be that the sand dredged from the bottom of Packery Channel is not pumped far enough southward down the beach and quickly is blown back into the channel by a prevailing southeast wind. “When the channel was originally dug a study on windblown sand was done and we estimated that about 30,000 cubic yards of sand would be blown into the channel from the south each year,” she said. Williams said the channel will likely clear itself of the sand when the wind shirts to the north during ebb tide She will give an update on the conditions in the channel to the Island Strategic Action Committee at its next scheduled meeting at 5:30 p.m. on Tuesday, September 2, at the Comfort Suites meeting room.
Posted on: Tue, 02 Sep 2014 17:12:42 +0000
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