Dr. Mark Mihalasky, Coastal Research Center, Richard Stockton State College was the keynote speaker. He began his talk on Coastal Zone Management by giving some history of Townsend's Inlet and 7-Mile Island. He stated that in old maps the curvature of the words indicated the flow direction of the currents in the inlet. In 1706 the islands were called the Seaboard Islands, and it was not until 1771 that Townsend Inlet and 7-Mile Beach appeared in the records. In 1877 Avalon was called Leaming's Beach. Maps in 1884 showed the placement of the streets (and showed 5th and 6th Streets). Other photographs showed the railroad bridge over the inlet to Sea Isle City. The road bridge did not appear until 1939. Photos were also shown of the Borough before and after the 1962 storm.

The bulkhead/sea wall at the north end was built in 1963 to counteract the effects of the storm. The groins and the dogleg jetty pushed the channel out to the center of the inlet. Beach renourishment of Sea Isle City changed the course of the channel further and this resulted in a lot of erosion on the Avalon side. By 1995 the dogleg jetty had been extended and geotubes had been put in place. In 2001-2002 the 8th Street jetty was repaired and extended by about 450 ft. In addition the US Army Corps of Engineers carried out the large beach replenishment program on 7-Mile Island that resulted in sand being pumped from the inlet. The Beaches at 12th, 14th and 16th Streets are fine, not much of the beach fill has been lost due to weather.

The Avalon high dunes give a good solid base for beach maintenance. The depth of the beach in this area has increased in the last thirteen years.

New technologies have been developed in order to assess the viability of dune systems. Probably the most promising is the LIDAR system. An airplane fitted with a laser generator takes accurate readings of the height of the dunes. The location of the aircraft is fixed by GPS. Over a million points are taken along the beach. LIDAR enables a determination to be made of the susceptibility of dunes to storm action, by showing where the weak points are. A test program has been done at Holgate on Long Beach Island. Weak points were determined, including ones created when homeowners removed dunes to improve the ocean view, thereby making neighbors more susceptible to ocean wash over.

On the bay side the need for dredging is paramount. There is a lot of economic activity along the Intra Coastal Waterway (ICW). From the late 1940's until 1970 development included building fingers into the bay using dredge material to build up the land surface. Now islands are being formed in the middle of lagoons because of sedimentation. Semi-choked waterways decrease property values since it becomes impossible to get boats into the docks.

Not too long ago dredge materials were disposed of on dredge islands such as can be seen behind Ocean City, off of 36th Street in Avalon and Nummy Island in Stone Harbor. Today uplands disposal is more in vogue, however, the not in my back yard (NIMBY) principle applies, as can be pointed out from the trouble Stone Harbor had in disposing of dredge materials early this year. Some of the beneficial uses that have been developed are:

- Glass aggregate and tile manufacture. Fusion of the material gives a low grade ceramic material.

- Landfill capping and brownfield reclamation. This has been done in Pennsylvania.

- Manufactured soils ( a pilot project is being carried out in New Jersey).

- Soft aggregate for paving materials, concrete (including concrete blocks), building materials and other cement products.

AHLOA has been involved, with the Stone Harbor ROA, in the Bay Waters Alliance to make people more aware of the need for a proactive policy for maintaining the Intra Coastal Waterway. More information can be obtained by logging onto their web site at baywatersalliance.org.