Beach Nourishment

Sediment being pumped onto Figure Eight Island, North Carolina. View Beach Nourishment Gallery

If we must nourish beaches, we should use the least damaging source areas for sand and regulations/laws to that effect are needed. In addition, there is a global sand quality problem – poor quality (gravelly, muddy, shelly sand) is being pumped up on beaches (North Carolina, USA, and southern Spain). Recognition of the biological impact of placing sand on a beach is a particularly great need as beach nourishment temporarily destroys the entire nearshore marine ecosystem affecting birds, nearshore fish, and invertebrates. Source areas for sand are sometimes problematic as was the case in 2007. The US Army Corps of Engineers used off-shore sand from a former dump site from WW II resulting in the deposition of sand on a New Jersey beach along with 700 live rounds of munitions. Fortunately, no one was injured, but vacationers digging in the sand found the munitions. Dubai poses different challenges – fine sediment from the dredging operations there has done permanent damage to the coral reefs and ecosystem. Active coral reefs were buried when artificial islands were created after 2000.


Surfing in / Beach Nourishment

The battle for the beaches of Cancun

4485104229_3117a305d0

The science of why the beaches have eroded is not nearly as complex as the politics attached to their recovery.

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Louisiana’s Oil-Blocking Sand Berm Project Doomed

Chandeleur

Build a wall of sand: This project to save one ecologically sensitive area will ruin another.

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Kashima Beach, Japan

Kahima Beach, Japan

Kashima, 80 km east of Tokyo, is one of Japan’s most important ports.

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Recent / Beach Nourishment

The battle for the beaches of Cancun

4485104229_3117a305d0

July 29th, 2010

The science of why the beaches have eroded is not nearly as complex as the politics attached to their recovery.

Read More

Louisiana’s Oil-Blocking Sand Berm Project Doomed

Chandeleur

June 29th, 2010

Build a wall of sand: This project to save one ecologically sensitive area will ruin another.

Read More

Kashima Beach, Japan

Kahima Beach, Japan

November 1st, 2009

Kashima, 80 km east of Tokyo, is one of Japan’s most important ports.

Read More

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