Published on: July 29, 2026

Thirteen navigation channels dredged across seven Cape Cod towns, removing 146,943 cubic yards of sand to renourish beaches and strengthen coastal resilience.

July 29, 2026 (Barnstable, MA) – The Barnstable County Dredge Program has completed its 30th season of dredging on Cape Cod, marking several significant milestones for the regional program. Beginning in mid-September, the “Longer, Wider, Deeper” dredging project in the Popponesset Bay Approach Channel in Mashpee became the department’s largest single-season project ever, with more than 57,000 cubic yards of sand removed. For the first time, both County dredges worked together on the three-month-long project, which also incorporated a sediment catch basin designed to capture drifting sand and slow future shoaling of the channel. 

According to Ken Cirillo, Director of the Barnstable County Dredge Department, “This season was marked by significant challenges, as well as many accomplishments. Our season began in mid-September with the department’s largest-ever single-season dredging project in the Popponesset Bay Approach Channel in Mashpee, which was successfully completed in early December. As we moved into subsequent projects, strong winds prevented the Sand Shifter from operating in Yarmouth throughout much of December, and the ‘deep freeze’ of January and February left our other dredge, the Cod Fish II, frozen in Sesuit Harbor for two weeks. In addition to weather delays, we also had to work around the annual environmental time-of-year restrictions designed to protect winter flounder, endangered shorebirds, and horseshoe crabs. Despite those challenges, we were able to complete thirteen projects in seven Cape Cod towns.” 

Multi-Purpose – Multi-Use

The primary purpose of most dredging projects is to remove shoaling from navigation channels and restore them to their design depth for safe navigation. Beyond navigation, the projects provide numerous regional benefits, including rebuilding shorelines damaged by coastal storms, strengthening coastal resilience, restoring habitat for endangered shorebirds, improving water quality throughout Cape Cod’s embayments by increasing tidal flushing, and beneficially reusing dredged sand for beach nourishment and keeping our working waterfronts open for commercial fishing, recreational boating, passenger transportation, and other Blue Economy activities. 

Key projects completed during the 2025–2026 season include: 

• Aunt Lydia’s Cove, Chatham – A commercial mooring basin serving more than 50 fishing vessels was dredged, with all material used to rebuild nearby Tern Island, an Audubon-owned island, restoring nesting habitat for shorebirds while improving the harbor’s resilience to storm-related wave action.  
• Allen Harbor, Saquatucket Harbor, and Wychmere Harbor, Harwich – Maintaining these channels is critical to supporting the town’s commercial fishing fleet, recreational boating and ecotourism industries, and passenger ferry service to Nantucket.  
• Pamet Harbor, Truro – This annual project clears the navigation channel and mooring basin. Mobilizing equipment requires a two-to-three-day transit from the south side of Cape Cod. The harbor serves a large recreational boating community during the summer while supporting year-round commercial fishing operations.  
• Sesuit Harbor, Dennis – Completed in February, this annual dredging project was interrupted when the Cod Fish II was iced in place for two weeks. The harbor serves as a major winter port for the commercial fishing fleet on Cape Cod Bay. The County also contracted with a private company to break ice in several harbors, with Sesuit receiving first priority.  
• Green Pond Entrance Channel and Eel Pond Approach Channel, Falmouth – Completed in April, these projects restored navigation while improving water circulation. Sand from the Eel Pond project was used to renourish Menauhant Town Beach.  

Barnstable County Administrator Michael Dutton said, “For thirty years, the Barnstable County Dredge Program has demonstrated the value of regional government in action. By providing dredging services below market cost, the program has saved Cape Cod communities millions of taxpayer dollars while strengthening coastal resilience, supporting our maritime economy, improving environmental health, and helping protect the infrastructure that residents and visitors rely on every day.” 

About the Barnstable County Dredge Program

Since 1994, the Barnstable County Dredge Program has provided regional dredging services to every Cape Cod town with navigable harbors, with the exception of Brewster, which has no navigable harbor. The crew includes Dredge Superintendent Jason Bevis, Levermen Chris Armstrong & Cory Fleming, and Deckhands Andrew DiPietro, Brendan Cahill, Phil Marks and Noah Vecchione.   

For more information visit: https://www.capecod.gov/departments/dredge-program/