Mattituck Inlet
As the Army Corps of Engineers website explains, the Mattituck Inlet is a navigation asset, which is a tidal inlet located on the south shore of Long Island Sound on the North Fork, about 85 miles by water east of the Battery, New York City. It provides for a federal navigational channel, 7 feet deep, 100 feet wide at the entrance and 80 feet wide thereafter, from the Long Island Sound, extending southward about 2 miles, to the Hamlet of Mattituck, in the Town of Southold, Suffolk County, NY.
It is the only harbor on the north shore of LI between Port Jefferson and Greenport Harbor, a distance of approximately 52 nautical miles. The Mattituck Park District owns three properties along the Mattituck Inlet. Breakwater Beach on the west and Bailie Beach on the east front the mouth of the Mattituck Inlet from the Long Island Sound. The Love Lane Boat House at the head of the Mattituck Inlet is the third property.
In the 1880s, the federal government began to explore the possibility of a federal navigation channel in the Mattituck Inlet. The US Congress passed the Rivers and Harbors Act of 1896 (29 Stat. 202), which was modified in 1935 (Public aw 74-409) and 1964. Also §111 of the River and Harbor Act of 1968, Public Law 90-483, approved August 1968.
Over a century ago, present-day Breakwater and Bailie Beaches were once a single beach. The current mouth of the inlet is located to the east of where it was originally. Prior to the Army Corps work the Mattituck Inlet flowed into the Long Island Sound at a point west of today's Breakwater Beach. The two riprap jetties created a new mouth for the Mattituck Inlet, dividing Bailie Beach into two. Work began on the two breakwaters in 1901 and were completed in 1906.
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The original navigation channel construction was completed in 1914 and is approximately 2 miles long. The west jetty was 680' feet long and the east jetty 775' long; the jetties are 400' apart. In 1935, there was a breach at Bailie Beach and an additional 280' of jetty was completed landward in 1946. The west jetty had a seaward extension in 1938. Digital measurements take in 2001 show the lengths of the east and west jetties are approximately 1,020' and 1,320', respectively.
Because of the construction of the jetties, littoral transport was disrupted, which is why there is more sand deposited on Breakwater Beach (updrift) and the beach is much narrower at Bailie (downdrift). For more information on the Inlet, please see an Army Corps report Evaluation of Downdrift Shore Erosion, Mattituck Inlet, New York: Section 111 Study, Brian K. Batten and Nicholas C. Kraus April 2006. (Click here)
The federal channel from the mouth of the Inlet to the head of the Inlet at North Road, was fully dredged in 1965. Maintenance dredging either in the channel or from Breakwater Beach was done in 1980, 1990, 2004, and 2014. Another full dredging is being planned for the near future. Here is an article about the 2014 dredging (Click here)
This asset serves as a Harbor of Refuge during severe storms. The harbor also supports recreational boating, including several commercial marinas. The Mattituck Creek Waterway Access Site, adjacent to the federal channel, is the largest boat launch site maintained by New York State Department of Environmental Conservation and provides public access to the waters of Long Island Sound. The latest hydrographic channel condition survey and controlling depth report can be found here: survey and report.
In addition to the Inlet being of great importance to recreational boaters and commercial fishermen, the Inlet is also an important diverse marshland ecosystem, offering refuge to fish and wildlife, as well as various flora.
Developing Conservation Plans for New York’s Long Island Sound Marsh Complexes is a current project funded by an agreement awarded by the US Environmental Protection Agency to the New England Interstate Water Pollution Control Commission (NEIWPCC) in partnership with the Long Island Sound Study.
The Marsh-Fate Interactive Viewer (map), which shows an estimate of how likelymarsh habitat is at each date, given model, data, and sea-level rise uncertainty.
Hundreds of model simulations with different assumptions about model inputs and data error were aggregated to produce this map. Use the sliding bar at the bottom to select the desired year.
In the Spring of 2021, NEIWPCC, NY State Department of Environmental Conservation, Long Island Sound Study, and Warren Pinnacle Consulting, Inc presented to the community a draft marsh conservation plan to assist in the prioritization of actions that will support healthy salt marsh ecosystems in Mattituck Inlet. This document describes the benefits of marsh systems both for humans and nature and discusses threats to marshes and strategies for conservation.
Videos of the projects can be found here.
Breakwater and Bailie Beaches are important nesting sites for endangered piping plovers. In 2021, the North Fork Audobon assumed the piping plover program at the two beaches. While the list is not limited to Bailie Beach, you may see this list of various birds sighted from the NY Bird Breeding Atlas around the environs of the Mattituck Inlet.
Here are birds-eye views of the whole channel from the Army Corps. Sediment Shoaling in the Mattituck Inlet: 1930 2021
