The Health, Beauty and Ecosystem of Our Beaches is Under Threat.
Driving on the beach
The driving cause for most of these problems is overdevelopment and poor coastal management. If no buildings crowded the shoreline, there would be no shoreline armoring, beach nourishment, threats to the beach fauna and flora or shoreline erosion problems.
The work of the Santa Aguila Charitable Trust will emphasize the impacts of sand mining and shoreline armoring: the first because the effects of sand mining have been largely ignored on a global scale and the latter due to its overwhelming negative impacts on the world’s beaches.
- Coastal Care Introduction: The world’s beaches are in dire need of attention.
- Sea Level Rise: There is no debate: sea level rise is happening right now and threatens all of our beaches.
- Poor Coastal Development: Even a single building negatively impacts a beach, so it is hard to imagine what hundreds of them might do.
- Shoreline Armoring: Sea walls and constructed rock shorelines are not beautiful vacation destinations and can eventually destroy the natural beach.
- Sand Mining: Right now, sand is being taken off beaches all over the world destroying beach habitat, accelerating erosion, and reducing protection from storms.
- Pollution: Pollution is hazardous to animals and plants, takes many forms, and is an increasing global problem.
- Mangrove & Coral Destruction: Development and beach construction projects destroy critical habitat for beach plants and animals everyday.
The Beach Ecosystem is Made Up of Living and Non-Living Parts.
Heavy mineral accumulations
Plants and animals and sand and water influence each other, often amidst breathtaking scenery. Greater than the sum of its parts, beaches sustain major portions of global biodiversity. With over half the world’s population living within 50 km of the coast, human influence on that biodiversity is inevitable, making the study of beaches even more important.
- Beach Basics: Learn how a beach is defined, why beaches are different colors, and the parts of a beach.
- Exploring the Sand: Sand is a major part of most beaches. Learn some details about sand that you might not know.
- Waves: What causes waves to break, different types of waves, and rogue waves.
- Tides: Learn about tides, storm surges, and sea level rise.
- Sand Dunes: Sand dune formation, types of dunes, and where they exist.
- Flora and Fauna: The beach is home to scores of amazing plants and animals. Learn just a few of these and make your next visit to the beach a treat.
- Seashells: Seashells are an important part of biological and geological beach processes as well as an important part of human culture.
- Safety: Follow these safety tips to reduce risk of danger at the beach.
You Can Make a Difference and Help Save Our Beaches
Low tide seawall marsh, Pivers Island
Learn simple things that you can do to help protect beaches starting with simply educating others about the beach thereby helping us celbrate the beauty of the world’s beaches.
- Advocacy: Learn what the experts are saying on major beach issues. Follow these simple tips to make sure your impact is reduced and others can enjoy the beach too.
- Petition on Sand Mining: Sign our petition to end global beach sand mining.
- Petition on Hardened Beach Structures: Sign our petition supporting the ban on hardened beach structures in North Carolina.
- Donate: Support our mission.
How do you celebrate the beach? Let us know!
Celebrating the beach is key! Compete in our drawing contest, write a poem, share a photograph, tell a story or play a game. The beach holds something for everyone!
- Art Contest: Send us your art and it may end up on this site.
- Games: Mazes, puzzles, crosswords, coloring activities, and more.
- Resources: Our growing list of all things coastal.
- Beach Poetry: Drawing the line in the sand.
Surfing in / Features
India’s Illegal Sand Mining Fuels Boom, Ravages Rivers
The sand-mining frenzy, as it is happening right now in western India, illustrates one of the most important questions India faces in its march to become a 21st-century economic powerhouse: Can this nation of 1.2 billion people pursue economic growth without destroying its environment?
Green Rights Are Humans Rights : The Chagos Islands Case
For too long, despite the close relationship between environmental destruction and human suffering, human rights violations and environmental problems have been regarded as unrelated…Conservationists condemn exile of Chagossians for marine reserve. Greenpeace and other groups say the rights of the islanders, who cannot return to the archipelago, have been violated.
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Cannes: Underneath the Surface
As the 65th Cannes Film Festival is unfolding, a european environmental organization, Expedition med, released a series of videos depicting the grave marine pollution affecting the Mediterraneean sea, plastic and marine debris covering the seafloor… this, just a few feet away from the glitter and glamour of the Marches du Festival…
Eco-Art Coastal Reclamation Project
Volunteers planted mangrove seedlings on Virginia Key, getting down and dirty for an ‘eco-art’ project that aims to raise environmental awareness.
The Rugged, by Johnny Abegg
“Pure Man and Woman exists in the face of adversity, in the essence of nature and wild places. It nurtures the animal within. The South West National Park in Tasmania is one of those rugged places that brings you face to face with yourself… and it’s up to you what self it brings out…” Surfer, filmmaker, photographer and free-thinker Johnny Abegg reminisces about his experience with the South West Marine Debris Cleanup, Tasmania, 2012, Team.
Sustainable Earth: Oceans
Scientists ask Rio+20 leaders to protect the bounty of the Seven Seas for future generations.
Unparalleled Views of Earth’s Coast, NASA
Scanning the globe from the vantage point of the International Space Station is about more than the fantastic view. While cruising in low Earth orbit, the space station HREP-HICO, gives researchers a valuable new way to view the coastal zone.
Brazil’s Jubarte Field Oil Spill Under Navy Investigation
An oil spill was discovered off Brazil’s coast near the country’s Espirito Santo state, Brazil’s Navy said on Thursday, the latest in a series of spills that have raised questions about the safety of a massive expansion of the country’s oil production capacity.
How to Save Bangladesh?
Bangladesh sits at the end of the cone of the Bay of Bengal. The country is infamous for natural disasters. Most of the land is flat and just above sea level, every storm sweeps across the country without any obstacles, and tidal surges pound the coast. About 150 million people live here, and the population density is one of the highest in the world after places like Singapore and Hong Kong…
