Easter Sunday began with rain and a little mist. The day cleared by eleven a.m. Captain Jason Landau eased Little Deeper away from its dock at the Blue Heron Bridge Marina. Captain Landau decided on reef dives south of the Palm Beach Inlet.
The Alaska, a gigantic dredge, was operating in the inlet that separated Palm Beach, Fla., from Singer Island. Tug boats, like the Miss Emily, were alongside in the channel. The dredge was operating in the inlet.
Dredging is never a good sign for Florida reefs. Communities insist on having sand restored to their beaches every season only to watch seasonal winter storms take it away.
“It’s a natural process. What nature removes it eventually puts back. Dredging is a destructive and costly waste of taxpayer money,” the late Dr. Robert Snyder said.
Dr. Snyder was a pioneer oceanographer and participant in many beach arming programs that depended on natural flora and environmentally safe ways of preventing beach erosion. Development and building on ocean shores removed many of nature’s armaments that prevented erosion.
