Right after Tuesday’s East Hampton Town Board meeting, at which Councilman David Lys once again spoke of the urgent need to dredge the shoaling Lake Montauk Inlet, he got an assist from Suffolk County Executive Edward P. Romaine, who that day wrote to Col. Alex Young of the United States Army Corps of Engineers asking him “to utilize emergency funding to dredge the Montauk Inlet and deepen the channel to at least 17 feet.”
“While dredging is scheduled for the inlet sometime in the future, the problem is now,” the county executive wrote. “Some of the Montauk fishing fleet have been landing their catch in Port Judith, R.I., rather than risk the passage of the Montauk Inlet. This has economic consequences for New York State. Currently Montauk is the state’s largest fishing point. Landing fish in Rhode Island could result in New York State getting lower fishing quotas.”
The inlet is approximately 150 feet wide. Shoaling occurs when storms deposit sand and other sediment and it piles along the jetty. Currently the eastern side of the inlet is the dangerous side. The more it piles up the harder it is for larger vessels to navigate, especially if they’re heavy with fish and have deeper drafts.
The consequence? On Tuesday morning, three boats connected with Inlet Seafood idled at sea for four hours waiting for an opportunity to return to the docks, according to Amanda Jones, the director of operations at Inlet Seafood and co-owner of Jones Fisheries. The largest boat operating out of Montauk belongs to one of the Inlet Seafood fishing families, Ms. Jones said. When it departed last week, it bottomed out, dragging on the ground for 70 to 80 feet. Over the previous four days, the northwest wind had altered the floor of the inlet, she concluded.
“It is an emergency,” she said. “It’s a dangerous situation. Our boats can’t get in and out.” Situations like the one on Tuesday morning can be especially dangerous in unfavorable conditions, she added.
Capt. David Tuma, a 30-year veteran of commercial fishing who operates the fishing vessel Kimberley, also pointed first to the safety issues in getting in and out of the inlet.
“If we’ve got to try to get in before bad weather, we can’t come in this inlet because we can’t come in at low tide,” he said. “Even this morning, I sat out front of the inlet for three and a half hours waiting for the tide to come up just to come home.”
It has been many years since the inlet was last dredged. In a phone call, Councilman Lys said it was first brought up in a 2003 feasibility study. After Superstorm Sandy the concept was brought to a public meeting. Another study was done in 2020. By March 2023, the Army Corps even had a project manager present at a town board work session in anticipation of work that year, promising it would be done no later than 2024, yet once again the project was delayed, due to the presence of larger than expected boulders. The inlet is a federal navigation channel, and in the Army Corps’s jurisdiction, and it is therefore the responsibility of the Army Corps to conduct the dredging. “The town does not do dredging like this,” Mr. Lys said.
The Star has previously reported that the inlet is used by 500 vessels per day during the peak season and that tens of millions of dollars’ worth of fish has been landed in the last 15 years by New York State’s largest commercial fishing fleet, based in Lake Montauk. While for the last 75 years the channel has been 12 feet deep, the county executive asked that dredging be to a depth of at least 17 feet.
“When boats have to dock and port out of state, that is loved ones away from family members and that is lost revenue to shoreside infrastructure,” Mr. Lys said at Tuesday’s town board meeting, adding a human touch to what is often discussed only economically. However, often economic arguments move politicians to act. Both fishermen concurred in a phone call, saying that many are opting to land boats in other states, such as Connecticut, Rhode Island, or New Jersey, which Ms. Jones said will affect federal quotas for 2026. When the numbers aren’t met, it “results in less money for the economy in New York.”
“Our fishing fleet right now is being displaced,” Mr. LaLota said. When asked if it was possible for some reprieve from quotas thrown off from the shoaling, he said, “I’ll certainly help advocate for the local commercial fisherman fleet for whatever remedy we can get them," adding such a scenario might play out in court.
Besides struggling to bring in their landings, fishermen have also encountered difficulty with getting to Montauk to refuel, “so all the docks are greatly suffering,” Ms. Jones said.
“That means that it’s drastically getting worse and worse and worse, and those boats aren’t even attempting to come into harbor anymore,” she added. “They’re just fishing and unpacking their fish in other states.”
Even before Mr. Romaine penned his letter, Councilman Lys reported that the Army Corps would have a survey boat in Montauk this week and that discussions are underway about allowing dredging even within the endangered species windows. The inlet cannot be dredged when winter flounder are spawning, which occurs through the spring. “The Town of East Hampton is steadfast in our support for our fisheries and this project. We’re requesting all assistance possible to move this up. This is coming to a critical juncture right now,” Mr. Lys said at the meeting. In a phone call, he confirmed that the town hoped to have the inlet dredged “Obviously in advance of the summer season.”
If a “multimillion dollar yacht” hit the rocks and got stuck, “East Hampton Town would have a dredge boat out there the next day,” Captain Tuma said. “Unfortunately, they’re not doing that for us.”
“As of right now, we have a tiny sliver — a sliver — of room to get through,” he added. “If you’re off by a hair, you’re going to hit bottom.”
Councilman Lys expressed frustration as well, but said it simply was not in the town’s ability to act alone on the inlet. “The town is providing the federal government with all the information they need. We’ve been advocating for this project for many years.”
“The Coast Guard has already issued warnings to boaters as well as the fishing fleet about dangerous conditions of the inlet. Now is the time to correct this situation without delay,” the county executive wrote.
Captain Tuma emphasized his years of experience, adding, “For us to say it’s getting scary, it’s getting scary.” It’s only a matter of time before a boat gets stuck and the Coast Guard is not able to arrive in time, he said.
A request to the Coast Guard for comment went unanswered by press time.
“We haven't heard any negative impact from the Coast Guard yet,” said Mr. LaLota. “The impact is mostly right now being felt by the commercial fishing fleet.”
