DUNGENESS — A Navy-contract barge crew has removed four obsolete “site targets” in Dungeness Bay, relics of another time in North Olympic Peninsula military history.
The numbered, 25-foot-tall markers were installed in the bay in 1964 to help Navy ships navigate through the Strait of Juan de Fuca, said Sheila Murray, Navy Region Northwest environmental public affairs officer.
“They’re taking them out now because they are pretty antiquated; they are obsolete,” Murray said.
She said global positioning system technology has long since replaced the low-tech, triangular site targets that could be spotted by Navy sailors to chart vessel locations.
“The number would tell them where they were,” Murray said.
Last week’s removal of the targets meant 12 old pilings were also removed.
Each was buried about 10 feet into the bay’s floor.
“By taking them out it actually lessens the Navy’s footprint and its better for the environment,” Murray said.
The targets off Dungeness Spit in the bay, which were visible from Marine Drive and Cline Spit, were inside the federal wildlife preserve, which she said made the piling removals all the more meaningful.
Murray said the Coast Guard also approved of the target removal.
The Navy knows of no other site targets to remove around the North Olympic Peninsula’s waterways, Murray said.
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Sequim-Dungeness Valley Editor Jeff Chew can be reached at 360-681-2391 or at jeff.chew@peninsuladailynews.com.
