Nantucket Shoals is an area of dangerously shallow water in the Atlantic Ocean that extends from Nantucket Island, Massachusetts, eastward for 23 miles (37 km) and southeastward for 40 miles (64 km); in places water depth can be as shallow as 3 feet (0.91 m). Depth soundings are unpredictable due to constant change from strong currents, which are rotary rather than reversing. The shoals lie just off a major transatlantic shipping lane. Numerous ships have been wrecked here, most recent and notably the oil tanker Argo Merchant in December 1976. Until 1983, the edge of the shoals was guarded by the Nantucket Lightship.
Nantucket Shoals is made up of the following features:
- Asia Rip
- Davis Bank
- Fishing Rip
- Middle Rip
- Phelps Bank
According to the 2010 edition of the United States Coast Pilot, the International Maritime Organization has established an "area to be avoided" for the Nantucket Shoals. Vessels transporting oil or hazardous materials and vessels of more than 1,000 gross tons should avoid the area bounded by the following points (Note: not for navigational use):
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| Place data as RDF |
| Point | Coordinates (links to map & photo sources) |
Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Madaket | 41°16′30″N 70°12′30″W / 41.275°N 70.208333°W / 41.275; -70.208333 (Madaket) | |
| Southwest point | 40°43′12″N 70°00′30″W / 40.72°N 70.008333°W / 40.72; -70.008333 (Southwest point) | |
| Near Asia Rip | 40°44′30″N 69°19′00″W / 40.741667°N 69.316667°W / 40.741667; -69.316667 (Near Asia Rip) | |
| Near Fishing Rip | 41°04′30″N 69°19′00″W / 41.075°N 69.316667°W / 41.075; -69.316667 (Near Fishing Rip) | |
| Northeast point | 41°23′30″N 69°31′30″W / 41.391667°N 69.525°W / 41.391667; -69.525 (Northeast point) | |
| Great Point Light | 41°23′24″N 70°02′48″W / 41.39°N 70.046667°W / 41.39; -70.046667 (Great Point Light) |
Famous quotes containing the word shoals:
“It cannot but affect our philosophy favorably to be reminded of these shoals of migratory fishes, of salmon, shad, alewives, marsh-bankers, and others, which penetrate up the innumerable rivers of our coast in the spring, even to the interior lakes, their scales gleaming in the sun; and again, of the fry which in still greater numbers wend their way downward to the sea.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)