By Alan Ritchie:
Wiggins Pass channel markers have been relocated to improve navigation safety.
In late August, the Collier County Office of Coastal Zone Management relocated the channel markers in Wiggins Pass to better reflect the deeper water in the marked channel. This improves safety for the mariners using this waterway.
Regular users of Wiggins Pass are fully aware that the pass is subject to continuous shoaling that changes the location of the best water in the channel. Since the last dredge, the better water has been slowly migrating north. The Estuary Conservation Association, Inc. (ECA) has been monitoring this movement and has made their finding available to the general public so that mariners using the pass can obtain an idea of how these changes affect the water in and around the marked channel. Because this information indicates conditions in the pass at a specific point in time, it is historical information and therefore it is not to be used for navigation at a later date.
In the diagram shown below, it illustrated the new locations of the western-most channel markers that have been moved to the north. Channel markers G1, G3, R2 and R4 have all been relocated and it is clear that they now better reflected the water conditions in the channel on August 31st adjusted to “mean low water”. Once again, because this is historical information, it is not a projection of future conditions in the pass and therefore cannot be used for navigation. You should also be aware that water levels just north of the green markers get shallow very quickly and there is little or no usable water for navigating the pass north of these markers.
Sounding like these are posted regularly on the ECA website at www.estuaryconservation.org to help you analyze the changes in the shoaling over time. In addition, these results are regularly posted on the wall just inside the Gas Dock office at the Cocohatchee Marina. Local knowledge of the conditions that exist in and around Wigging Pass are the responsibility of the Captain of the vessel (both large and small) to operate safely in this waterway.
Because of significant storm activity in the area during September, you can expect to see significant changes in the condition of the marked channel. As a result, check out this type of information each time you plan to navigate Wiggins Pass.
Alan Ritchie is a volunteer member of the Board of the Naples-based Estuary Conservation Association, Inc.