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
Fukushima leak may have flowed into Pacific: TEPCO
About 12 tonnes of radioactive water has leaked at Japan’s crippled Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant, with the facility’s operator saying that some may have flowed into the Pacific Ocean.
U.S. Coast Guard sinks Japanese boat washed away by tsunami
A U.S. Coast Guard cutter poured cannon fire into a Japanese ghost ship that had been drifting since last year’s tsunami, sinking the vessel in the Gulf of Alaska and eliminating the hazard it posed to shipping and the coastline.
Chilean Court Approves Huge Patagonia Dam
Chile’s Supreme Court has green-lit the highly controversial HidroAysén dam project in Patagonia, which environmentalists say will wreck a unique and pristine habitat in the southern tip of South America.
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Sediment in the Río de La Plata
A glimpse at the complicated mixing processes that occur at the interface of the muddy fresh water from the Paranà River flowing into the Río de La Plata estuary on the eastern coast of South America, and the ocean water of the South Atlantic, in an area known as a turbidity front.
Sand Mining Throughout Coastal Liberia
The city of Buchanan, Liberia, is gradually being swept away by sea erosion. But there is an even more serious matter – an impending environmental danger- that should claim the urgent attention of the government. It is the issue of sand mining in Monrovia and its environs.
More Rena Debris Washes Up, New Zealand
Debris from the Rena has started washing up on the Coromandel Peninsula, after the aft section of the vessel plunged further into the sea yesterday.
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615 Dead Dolphins Discovered on Peruvian Coast, acoustic tests for oil to blame?
Conservationists counted 615 dead dolphins along a 90-mile stretch of beaches in Peru, a wildlife group said Wednesday, and the leading suspect is acoustic testing offshore by oil companies.
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Council Votes To End Sand Mining, Barbuda
The Barbuda Council has voted to end beach sand mining, bowing to pressure from within its ranks and environmentalists, after several reports indicated that the operation posed serious health and safety risks.
Scientists Find Slow Subsidence of Earth’s Crust Beneath the Mississippi Delta
Earth’s crust beneath the Mississippi Delta sinks at a much slower rate than what had been assumed. However, these subsidence rates are small compared to the rate of present-day sea-level rise from the Florida panhandle to east Texas..
