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Anglers, Coast Guard and county officials press for clearer marking of Great Wicomico rock pile
Summary
Anglers and local officials urged immediate maritime safety measures after a decades-old, unmarked rock pile near the old Great Wicomico Light was blamed for repeated boat groundings. The Coast Guard says it will work with NOAA on a new survey and chart updates; the board approved creation of a citizens' work group to coordinate next steps.
Anglers and County officials pressed for faster action this month after presentations highlighted a submerged rock pile near the old Great Wicomico Light that members called a persistent hazard to small craft.
At the February meeting of the Northumberland County Board of Supervisors, Wayne Young, a retired Coast Guard officer who prepared a report for the Northern Neck Anglers Club, described a circular pile of riprap placed as an icebreaker for a former screw-pile lighthouse. Young said the formation is about 60 feet in diameter, rises 10–12 feet off the bottom and lies just below the surface at mean low water — a configuration that has led to multiple collisions and serious damage to recreational boats.
Young urged updated hydrographic work, clearer electronic chart symbology and permanent markers. "The observation point needs to be replaced with a rock symbol," Young said, adding that a fixed, lighted marker placed in close proximity to the pile would give recreational boaters a reliable visual reference.
Representing the U.S. Coast Guard, Justin Strasfield said recent on-site checks found the aid-to-navigation buoys and lights in the area working properly and that the sector was coordinating with NOAA’s Office of Coast Survey on a bathymetric survey scheduled before Memorial Day. Strasfield said the Coast Guard had recently replaced optics on WR4 and WR6 and was open to exploring remediation if the rock pile was identified as Coast Guard property.
Local boaters described costly damage and near-miss events. One resident said owners had paid tens of thousands of dollars to repair running gear and lower units after strikes; others reported grounding and sinking incidents. Several longtime mariners in the audience emphasized that small-boat operators often lack the training to use subtle chart symbology as Young had described.
The board voted to establish a citizens' work group to coordinate evidence (sonar tracks, photos and approach headings) and to liaise with the Coast Guard, NOAA and the county’s congressional delegation. Supervisors Darrell Fisher and William (Bill) Williams were named as board representatives to the group; citizens and Coast Guard staff offered to participate.
What happens next: the Coast Guard said it and NOAA planned a survey and chart update; the county group will gather additional local track lines and sonar evidence to aid those surveys. Board members said they want to move quickly to reduce the risk to life and property while weighing options such as warning markers or, if necessary, converting the site to a permitted artificial reef with clearance for safe passage.
