Military

Bombing Target (BT)-9 Brant Island Shoal (R-5306A)

Brant Island is a small island in Pamlico Sound. A mining exercise area is located just north of the target hulks and is TACTS scoreable. The target consists of a sunken freighter hulk and two sea-going tug boat hulks grounded on Brant Island Shoals. Night lighting by means of MK 24 or MK 25 air-delivered flares is authorized.

BT-9 is a scored target located in R-5306A, in Pamlico Sound within a five NMI radius circle centered at coordinates 35°12'30"N and 76°26'40"W approximately 28.5 NMI from the MCAS Cherry Point TACAN, Channel 75, bearing 057°. R-5306A extends from the surface up to 17,999-feet MSL. Air-to-ground exercises using conventional ordnance not to exceed 100 pounds Trinitrotoluene (TNT) equivalent and five-inch Zuni rockets are authorized. Strafing is authorized. BT-9 is a certified "safe" laser-designation target. A mining exercise area is located just north of the target hulks and is TACTS scoreable. The target consists of a sunken freighter hulk and two sea-going tug boat hulks grounded on Brant Island Shoals. Night lighting by means of MK 24 or MK 25 air-delivered flares is authorized.

Fishermen used to come during the summer to tend pound nets. During World War II, the military turned Brant Island into a bombing range, but the pound netters did not give up their fishing camps easily.

The realignment of F/A-18 aircraft and their associated personnel from NAS Cecil Field, Florida to Naval Air Station (NAS) Oceana resulted in a greater level of aircraft operations at NAS Oceana, at Naval Auxiliary Landing Field (NALF) Fentress, located in Chesapeake, Virginia, and within various aircraft training ranges and warning areas in and adjacent to Virginia and eastern North Carolina, including Dare County, BT-9 (Brant Island Shoal), and BT-11 (Piney Island).

Portage Bay is located in western Bellingham Bay between the southeastern shore of the Lummi peninsula and Portage Island. Portage Bay measures approximately one and a half miles east to west, by one mile north to south. The northeastern boundaries to Portage Bay are formed by a long sand spit extending to the north and west from Portage Island, ending at Brant Point, and by Brant Island (or reef) one half mile further north. These two features are fully exposed only at half tide and lower-water. The same is true of the narrow land bridge connecting Portage Point (the southernmost point of the Lummi Peninsula) with Portage Island.