Diggers are busy out in the ocean at Oamaru as they begin the first stage of the dredging of Oamaru Harbour.

The restoration of the harbour channel's depth and alignment comes after a fishing boat foundered attempting to enter the Harbour last year.

The two-stage half million dollar project requires a three metre channel to be excavated to allow a dredge into the harbour next March.

Next year's dredge work is being timed to prevent the work spreading marine algae and it will be the first time in seven years since the harbour was last dredged.

The Otago Regional Council's long-term plan is to spend one hundred and fifty thousand dollars dredging the harbour every second year.

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