Some traditionally navigated channels within the Pleasant Bay ACEC are outside of previously permitted maintenance dredging areas and therefore could not be permitted for dredging under current state regulations. The Pleasant Bay Alliance identified the need to examine the full implications of the improvement dredging restriction in light of the formation of a second inlet in the Nauset barrier beach in 2007, and the resulting dramatic shifts in sediments within Pleasant Bay and Chatham Harbor in the vicinity of the inlet.
