This Sarasota Bay channel will soon be closed due to hazardous conditions

The U.S. Coast Guard will close New Pass channel in Sarasota due to hazardous conditions.

The channel, one of three leading into Sarasota Bay, will be closed between Monday and Friday. Coast Guard officials said in a release that the channel has become unsafe due to shoaling that intensified after major storms during the 2016 hurricane season.

New Pass cuts between two keys just past Mote Marine Laboratory. It was re-established in 2016 after dredging.

Navigational markers will also be removed from the channel, however an exact date has not yet been determined because of unpredictable weather. Mariners will be notified before the removal starts and when it's complete, according to the Coast Guard.

Until conditions improve and the Coast Guard can safely mark the “best water” in the channel, navigation aids will not be returned, according to the release.

The Coast Guard expects to remove nine New Pass channel buoys. The following aids will be disestablished or removed:

• New Pass Channel Buoy 1 (21590)
• New Pass Channel Buoy 2 (21595)
• New Pass Channel Buoy 2A (21598)
• New Pass Channel Buoy 3 (21599)
• New Pass Channel Buoy 3A (21600)
• New Pass Channel Buoy 4 (21603)
• New Pass Channel Buoy 5 (21605)
• New Pass Channel Buoy 5A (21610)
• New Pass Channel Buoy 6 (21612)

Officials also plan to convert two channel lights into “Danger Shoal” markers with quick, white flashing lights visible for three nautical miles. Both are detailed (on page 53) in the Coast Guard’s recent local notice to mariners.

The following aids will be renamed:

• New Pass Channel Light NP (1345) will be renamed "New Pass Shoal LT A"
• New Pass Channel Light 7 (21620) will be renamed "New Pass Shoal LT B".

This story was originally published June 9, 2017 at 4:44 PM with the headline "This Sarasota Bay channel will soon be closed due to hazardous conditions."