The Sand on Keewaydin's North End Came From Gordon Pass. The Corps Has a Plan to Add More.

"We can see the fruits of our efforts; about 30 years later, we're starting to see the results." Kathy Worley, acting director of science at the Conservancy of Southwest Florida, told the Naples Press that this summer, as Keewaydin Island passed its old record for loggerhead nests. She was talking about decades of conservation work. The sand itself also has a decades-long record behind it. The beach at the island's north tip, the stretch Port Royal looks at across Gordon Pass, has been rebuilt again and again with sand pumped out of the pass. The latest load came last December. In October 2026, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers published a draft plan that could send more sand to the same stretch.

A Beach With a Ledger

Keewaydin begins right at Gordon Pass. The Corps describes the island as lying just west of the federal channel, "with its northern extent at the entrance to Gordon Pass." The Florida Department of Environmental Protection tracks that shoreline using numbered survey markers called R-monuments. In the 2026 Strategic Beach Management Plan for the Southwest Gulf Coast, published in August, FDEP places Gordon Pass at R-89 to R-90. It describes the north Keewaydin segment from R-90 to R-94 as about 0.8 mile long.

According to FDEP, the Corps has dredged Gordon Pass about every seven years. Beach-quality sand from each round goes onto Keewaydin, starting about 300 feet south of the pass and running roughly 4,000 feet down the island. The state's project history reads like a refill schedule:

The December 2025 round was smaller than the two before it. In September 2025, the Corps announced a contract for Gordon Pass Cuts 1 through 7 and the settling basin. The work was funded through Disaster Relief Supplemental Appropriations and was expected to deliver about 65,000 cubic yards to Keewaydin. FDEP's count of what reached the beach between R-90 and R-94 is the 53,875 figure in the table.

Why the Sand Keeps Leaving

The north end needs refilling because the pass interrupts the sand moving along the coast. FDEP describes "ongoing erosion impacts to the beach downdrift of Gordon Pass between R-90 and R-94." To hold the shoreline, two segmented breakwaters with detached low-profile rock groins were built in 2012, south of three existing T-groins. They fill a transition zone between those structures and the stretch near R-93 and R-94 where bypassed sand attaches to the beach. FDEP also notes that the Corps began an inlet study in 2020 to work out the best way to move sand past the pass to neighboring beaches.

Gordon Pass has its own hardening on the other side. After the 2003 dredging, about 800 feet of the south jetty was sand-tightened with steel sheet piling and armor stones weighing roughly one to four tons each. Seen from a Port Royal dock, it looks like open, natural shoreline. On paper, it is a maintained coastal project.

The Record Came the Summer After the Sand

The Conservancy has run its Keewaydin sea turtle program since 1983. The Naples Press reports that about 50 nests were recorded that first year, with heavy raccoon predation. As of Aug. 27, 2026, Conservancy biologist Jeff Schmid told the paper the island had 636 nests, above the previous record of 628 set in 2022. More than 29,200 hatchlings had been recorded with over two months of the season still ahead. The paper says Keewaydin is an 8-mile barrier island between Naples and Marco Island. The north end is only its first 0.8 mile.

Collier County's weekly Sea Turtle Activity Update for Oct. 12 to 18, 2026, lists Keewaydin at 633 nests for the year, compared with 558 at the same point last year. It also shows 511 hatched nests, up from 463. Keewaydin had more nests than any other beach segment in the county report. City of Naples beaches were next at 316, and Park Shore had 242.

The 558 figure from last year was itself a recovery. WGCU reported in November 2025 that more than 180 Keewaydin nests were lost in 2024 during Tropical Storm Debby and hurricanes Helene and Milton. So the December 2025 sand landed on a beach coming off a hard year, and the record season followed in 2026. The Corps' new draft lists sea turtles and birds among the expected beneficiaries of nearshore placement on Keewaydin, because currents and wave action carry the sand onto the beach and create more room for nesting, foraging and resting.

What the October Draft Proposes

The Corps' Jacksonville District has issued a draft Environmental Assessment, dated October 2026, for maintenance dredging on the Naples to Big Marco Pass federal project. It covers two separate reaches. Cuts J through O are near Big Marco Pass, about 9 miles south of Gordon Pass. Big Marco Pass has not been maintained since it was first built. Uncontrolled Channel Cuts 1 through 3 are close to home, near Gordon Pass. In an uncontrolled channel, the route follows naturally deep water instead of fixed coordinates. The Corps says the U.S. Coast Guard identified the need to dredge both reaches in 2024.

For the Cuts 1 through 3 reach, the preferred alternative would dredge to 6 feet MLLW, plus 1 foot of allowable overdepth. Sand would go to one or both of two places. One is the west side of Key Island, which the Corps places where the uncontrolled channel meets the Gordon Pass channel. The other is nearshore along Keewaydin between R-90 and R-94, the same stretch that took the December 2025 sand. In its real estate section, the draft notes that Key Island is owned by the state's Internal Improvement Trust Fund and leased to Rookery Bay. It also states that "Keewaydin Island is owned by the City of Naples."

The draft is specific about what happens if nothing is done. Shoals would keep growing, shift, and "eventually become visible from the surface," while the Keewaydin and Key Island beaches keep eroding. If the work goes ahead, the Corps expects equipment on the water for a while, the dredge typically running around the clock, seven days a week, and possibly more recreational boat traffic once the shoaling is cleared.

It is still a proposal. The Corps' Environmental Documents page lists the draft and its appendices under Collier County, with an issue date of October 13, 2026, and a review deadline of November 12, 2026. The Corps describes this as a 30-day public and agency review and says the work needs state water-quality certification before construction. In project correspondence, the Corps says this kind of maintenance happens "on an as needed basis." Pre-dredge surveys could also show that only part of the footprint needs work.

Getting Across This Season

For anyone without a boat at the dock, several operators advertise Keewaydin trips this winter. Hemingway Water Shuttle lists daily Keewaydin routes from Rose Marina at $44 per adult and $24 per child, plus tax and port fees. It also notes that food vendors are not on the island every day. Sand Dollar Boat Tours advertises a seasonal Naples Bay Water Shuttle running Friday through Sunday starting October 30, 2026, along with public and private Keewaydin shelling and dolphin trips. Rookery Bay's eco-tour partner, Rising Tide Explorers, offers a three-hour barrier-island shelling trip from 10 Shell Island Road for up to six passengers, bookable through the Reserve's boat tours page.

The Rookery Bay National Estuarine Research Reserve calls Keewaydin a wildlife sanctuary that thousands of boaters visit every year. Its published rules prohibit unleashed pets, unattended fires, glass containers, and harassing wildlife. Camping and fires are limited to designated areas, and visitors must carry out their trash wherever no containers are provided. The Reserve lists its seasonal shorebird access restrictions on Keewaydin as running March through August. Sand placed in the nearshore drifts onto the beach over time, so the Corps' long-term case for Keewaydin rests on a wider berm at the north end.

A Port Royal home on the water comes with its view of Gordon Pass, and that view changes with every dredging cycle. If you'd like to talk through what the pass, the channel, and Keewaydin's north end mean for a waterfront home you own or are considering, Gulf Coast Luxury Group can walk you through it. Schedule a Private Concierge Consultation with Lauren Rossi.