During low tide you can practically walk across the Shark River navigational channels because of all the mud and silt, according to Neptune Township Committeeman Randy Bishop. He said the Shark River needs to be dredged to allow commercial fishing vessels to go into and out of the Shark River with ease.

However, there is a solution in the works, a proposed dredge project has obtained financing, according to 11th District (R) State Senator Jennifer Beck. It's also obtained approvals from the State Department of Transportation (NJDOT) and the State Department of Environmental Protection (NJDEP) but the hold up for nearly two decades has been over where to temporarily place the dredged materials.

In a recently released press release from Beck, Bishop and Monmouth County Freeholder Tom Arnone, they're hopeful 2015 will be the year that we'll see movement on the proposed Shark River dredge project.

Bishop said the reason the process has dragged on for so many years is because state agencies as well as state and local lawmakers were working separately to find a solution.

"Now, what we've done is we all began to work jointly together, looking at what is and isn't possible and there is some true outside of the box thinking that's going on," said Bishop.

No date has been given yet on when dredging will begin and the solution to the temporary storage of dredged materials has not been announced but there's more optimism than ever.

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