FORT MYERS BEACH, Fla. — If you're out on the water or swimming in the Gulf of Mexico, you may notice some barges out by Bowditch Point. The US Army Corps of Engineers is clearing sand out of the water, not because of Hurricane Ian.
"From what we’ve seen there are some large floating pipes that they’re kinda moving around from places," said Ryan Van Denabeele, Marketing Director of Salty Sam's Marina.
You can see it clearly, but they're still warning boat renters about.
"They’re not really interfering with boat traffic.," he said. "They’re mostly out of the channel."
The barges come from a US Army Corps of Engineers dredging project.
"It's to maintain the navigability for the boaters, the shrimpers, whether it’s pleasure craft, or commercial craft who use that federal waterway," said David Ruderman, a public affairs officer for the Corps.
Ruderman says the dredging in this area hasn't happened since 2020.
"The determination is made by surveys when to do it based on the accumulation," he said.
They're removing between 100,000 to 120,000 cubic yards of material. All of that material is coming from 12 feet down and then some.
"They’re going to pipe it down to Fort Myers Beach and disperse it along what is known as the near shore," Ruderman said.
With the dredges moving a lot of machines around, Van Denabeele is reminding renters to be careful.
"Definitely keep your eyes open on the channel," he said. "It looks like they’re kinda moving it around a little bit."
The federal project is expected to be done by the end of August or early September.
