CoastView - Dredging

Dredging becomes important to the coastal zone as either a means for providing material for beach recharge or, as a factor modifying coastal zone processes where changes made to the nearshore bottom topography, may influence wave shoaling.
Below is a list of references regarding the dredging industry around the UK.

Bellamy, A. COASTAL DEFENCE AND MARINE AGGREGATE DREDGING OFF THE UK. British Marine Aggregate Producers Association (BMAPA)

NEWELL, R. C., L. J. SEIDERER & D. R. HITCHCOCK 1998: THE IMPACT OF DREDGING WORKS IN COASTAL WATERS: A REVIEW OF THE SENSITIVITY TO DISTURBANCE AND SUBSEQUENT RECOVERY OF BIOLOGICAL RESOURCES ON THE SEA BED.

Simmons, R. & S. Hollingham 2001 Marine agregate dredging: a review of current procedures for assessing coastal processes and impact at the coastline SCOPAC technical report HYD10401, January 2001

Dredgers likely to get the go-ahead

The Argus, 22-09-1999

COUNCILLORS will today deliver their verdict on a plan to dredge more than a million tonnes of sand and g ravel from the seabed off West Sussex. The work will last ten years and the aggregate will be taken from between Worthing and Littlehampton. The scheme is likely to win the support of West Sussex County Council's planning committee. But councillors will want safeguards to protect any historic wrecks.
The county council is being consulted by the Department of the Environment on the dredging Proposal by Dredging and ARC Marine Ltd. The application involves extracting 1.5 million tonnes. Government experts say the proposals will not harm the coastline. An estimated third of all the sand and gravel extracted in West Sussex to meet the needs of the construction industry comes from the sea.

Storm over seabed dig

The Argus, 05-07-2001

Fears raised over fish stocks.
FISHERMEN are concerned that a massive dredging operation between Brighton and Hastings could harm fish stocks. Britain's marine aggregate industry has identified a large area of the eastern English Channel, 20 miles south of the Sussex coast, as a valuable new source of sand and gravel to meet the demand for new buildings. Part of the area they want to dredge is the Meridian Deeps, which is a valuable source of fish and crab stocks. It is regularly fished by boats from Newhaven, Eastbourne, Hastings and Brighton. Fishermen believe any extensive dredging in the next few years, even though it is 20 miles from the coastline and in the deepest part of the Channel, will seriously damage the seabed and fish stocks. They claim the constant dredging of the Hastings Bank for shingle has already depleted fishing stocks.
Peter Storey, an Eastbourne crab fisherman, who was yesterday 13 miles off the Sussex Coast in his vessel Royal Sovereign, said: "When you start dredging to this extent it will affect fish and crab stocks off the Sussex coast. "Dredging of one area has effects on an area ten times as big. "Fishermen have evidence that dredging of the Channel has damaged the fish stocks. "I am worried as it really mucks things up. There is always a film of silt for miles after any dredging operation."
The British Marine Aggregate Producers Association, after discussions with the Crown Estate and the British Government, is putting forward a dredging strategy for 700 miles of seabed in the eastern Channel, up to the limit of English waters. It would be in the deepest parts of the Channel where the bed is 100ft under the sea. Permission for dredging will have to be granted on a licence basis, section by section.
Consultation between fishermen and the industry will take place before any dredging starts and there will be environmental assessments on coastal erosion, marine archaeology and biology. Chairman of the association Kevin Seaman said: "The case for extraction of sand and gravel in the eastern Channel is really a case for homes, schools and hospitals. "The role this region has to play in meeting those needs in the future is a crucial one." Peter Rees, chairman of the Sussex Sea Fisheries Committee, which regulates and looks after the concerns of Sussex fishermen, said: "Our jurisdiction is six miles from the coast but there have been concerns about the effects of dredging, especially on the Hastings Bank."