Bird’s eye view of the leverman’s room. Cory keeps an eye on all of the vessel’s systems, from dredge pump pressure to cutter hydraulic pressure, while simultaneously pivoting the arm and spuds (poles used to anchor a dredge to the seabed.)
By Sara Cornell/ Fishermen’s Alliance summer intern
On a Tuesday morning in early summer, Cod Fish II is already hard at work in Wychmere Harbor. The dredge’s long mechanical arm, called a “ladder,” extends down into the seabed, where spinning blades loosen sediment before a pump sucks up “slurry” through a tube, depositing it on a nearby beach to rebuild shorelines from the stormy winter.
Wychmere, in Harwich, has been a particularly difficult case.
The project was long delayed. Massachusetts Department of Marine Fisheries had imposed a time of year restriction due to horseshoe crab spawning in the harbor, but the restriction caused a safety problem: As the channel filled in with sediment, shoals crept into what should be navigable water free of passage. At low tide, the depth in some spots became dangerously shallow for commercial vessels that navigate Wychmere.
Harwich ultimately sought and received a waiver from the restriction.
The dredging moved quickly. Barnstable County Dredge Director Ken Cirillo estimated the team would clear Wychmere’s channel in roughly two half-days of work, about 1,000 cubic yards of sediment relocated in a handful of hours.
Come along for a day on the dredge.
My ride for the day… Barnstable County Dredge Cod Fish II.
The vessel pivots on steel poles “spuds,” swinging across the channel in an arc controlled by anchors on shore like this one.
Swinging slowly back and forth across the channel, the arm takes away sediment brought in by winter storms and deposits it on the beach nearby.
Barnstable County seal on the door of the leverman’s room aboard Cod fish II. Cirillo, on the dredge that day, has been directing dredging operations for Barnstable County for six years. He oversees a fleet that works in nearly every town.
Cory the leverman uses this device to guide him where to dredge, which isn’t jetty to jetty, a common misconception.
Deckhands will help move two anchors via their skiff’s winch to help the dredge stabilize.
The dredge arm is in red and the anchor line lays over the jetty. You can see the carved-out edge and progress being made.