Survey work using an airboat and other methods will continue throughout the week on Shooting Island in Ocean City.

The N.J. Department of Environmental Protection awarded Ocean City a $5 million grant to restore the tidal marsh on Shooting Island. The work will restore habitat and create a living shoreline to help protect plants and wildlife. It will rebuild an important buffer against coastal flooding.

Shooting Island shields year-round neighborhoods from storm surge, and healthy wetlands are a great defense. The project will provide a beneficial way to use material dredged from the city’s lagoons and waterways. The material will be used to restore the original outline of the uninhabited island, which covers about 150 acres near Ocean City’s Riviera and Ocean Reef neighborhoods. Material also will be spread in a thin layer to rebuild the marshes.

An engineering firm is conducting the survey in advance of the restoration project, which will start later this year.