Tag Archives: Coastal Issues

Inform

Florida surfer uses drone to capture awe-inspiring views of sharks

black-tip-shark
Photograph: © SAF — Coastal Care

Excerpts;

A Florida surfer didn’t realize just how many sharks were swimming around him until he recorded drone video over the beach…

Read Full Article; CNN (02-20-2020)

Researchers captured footage of a rare shark nursery 2,500 feet below the coastal waters of Ireland; BusinessInsider (11-12-2018)
Drone footage of a rare shark nursery, found 200 miles off Ireland’s western coast, has been revealed. It’s being called a discovery on a “scale not previously documented in Irish waters…”

How Should We Respond When Humans and Sharks Collide? National Geographic (07-05-2013)

Beach Maintenance, Inform, Pollution

When beaches are trashed, who pays the price?


Photograph: © SAF — Coastal Care

By NOAA;

If you arrived at your dream beach only to find it littered with plastic and other rubbish, would you stay and play — or be on your way?

A recent NOAA-funded study found that when the amount of marine debris normally on beaches is doubled, coastal economies could experience a substantial negative impact due to a decrease in beach visits and loss of economic activity in those communities.

For example: The largest potential economic loss was calculated for Orange County, California, where a doubling of the typical amount of debris was estimated to cause a $414 million decrease in local tourism-related spending and a loss of nearly 4,300 jobs.

Conversely, along Ohio’s Lake Erie shoreline, a reduction of marine debris to near zero was estimated to add $217 million in local, tourism-related spending and more than 3,700 jobs.

The outcomes from this study further our understanding of how marine debris can affect the financial health of coastal communities that depend on beach recreation. Preventing marine debris before it enters our ocean, Great Lakes and waterways, can protect and help sustain a thriving coastal tourism economy.

To learn more, see our Story Mapoffsite link and NOAA’s Marine Debris Program website.

Original Article And Lean More; NOAA (09-26-2019)

Climate Change, Climate Change News, News

Twin bomb cyclones to merge into one of strongest-ever storms in North Atlantic


Atlantic storm battering Brittany’s coast, France. Photo source: ©© Cecile Nouail

Excerpts;

A potentially unprecedented scenario is unfolding in the North Atlantic on Friday, as a bomb cyclone batters Iceland with hurricane-force winds and blizzard conditions, just as another bomb cyclone, known as Storm Dennis, rapidly intensifies behind it…

Read Full Article; The Washington Post (02-14-2020)

Bomb Cyclone Storm Dennis Could Rival Some of the Most Intense North Atlantic Storms on Record; Weather Channel (02-14-2020)
A powerful cyclone is combining forces with another intense storm currently pounding Iceland and Greenland, bringing extreme waves and hurricane force winds. This storm will take aim at northwestern Europe this weekend, just days after Storm Ciara pounded several countries…

What is a bomb cyclone? AcuWeather (10-16-2019)

Climate Change, Ecosystem Destruction, News

Salvation or pipe dream? A movement grows to protect up to half the planet


Photo source: ©© Miramar2009

Excerpts;

Leading scientists and conservationists are proposing that up to 50 percent of the earth’s land and oceans be protected in the coming decades.

While some view the goal as unrealistic, proponents say it is essential for preserving the natural systems on which life itself depends…

Read Full Article; Yale E360 (02-13-2020)

News, Sea Level Rise, Sea Level Rise News

Beach access is a line in the sand that needs revisiting by Florida lawmakers


A Gulf Coast of Florida community. Photograph courtesy of: © Orrin H. Pilkey and J. Andrew G. Cooper

Excerpts;

The beach belongs, by law, to the people of Florida — the part that gets wet, that is. This is because the idea of the seashore as belonging to “the public trust” is grounded in an era before anyone ever considered sunbathing or swimming in the Atlantic Ocean or Gulf of Mexico.

The state’s prime attraction — 825 miles of Atlantic Ocean, Gulf of Mexico and Intracoastal Waterway sand and surf — is secondary only to its subtropical climate.

However, some 60 percent of Florida’s beaches front private lands, and even renourishment projects funded by taxpayers do not guarantee access to the beach.

As more beaches wash away, individual landowners are unlikely to see this loss as theirs alone…

Read Full Article, the Herald Tribune (01-25-2020)

Does new law restrict public access to Florida’s beaches? Miami Herald (04-06-2018)

Portions of beaches across FL could soon be restricted to public; ABC Action News (03-30-2018)
Beaches across Florida are about to see a major change. Stretches of sand behind condos, hotels and homes, could soon be off limits to the public…

Who owns Florida’s beaches? Private landowner rights can clash with public beach access; Naples Daily News (11-16-2017)
In a State known for plenty of beautiful shores, the clash over who owns Florida’s beaches pits residents against tourist for access to the sand…

Shifting Sands, Shifted Rights: The Beach as Contested Space; UF Law (01-28-2016)
Determining rights to Florida’s sandy beaches has presented a thorny set of issues. But for many years, the public and private interests have co-existed. Now, along with population growth, sea level rise and relentless erosion have become an uncomfortable reality. The infinite variety of scenarios that sea level rise is presenting and will present along the coast will challenge our legal system in many ways…

Column: The future of Florida’s beaches and the public’s right to know; Op Ed. by Orrin Pilkey (12-07-2015)

‘Sand wars’: the battle to replenish Florida’s beaches amid climate crisis; Guardian UK (10-25-2019)

Disappearing beaches: a line in the sand; ABC News (06-07-2016)
The forces chewing away at the nation’s beaches are only getting worse as climate change fuels rising seas. Rob Young, a coastal geologist from the program for the study of developed shorelines at Western Carolina University, said “Coastal communities have to understand that any of the solutions that they’re thinking of to hold the beach in place for a little while are all temporary solutions…”

News

Dramatic Video Shows How Sneaky Sneaker Waves Can Be


Photograph: © SAF — Coastal Care
Sneaker Waves are deadly, larger-than-average swells that suddenly surge far up the beach following long periods of quiet surf and smaller waves. Along much of the West Coast, these waves can pull beachgoers into frigid, rushing currents, killing more people than all weather hazards combined. Before getting too close to the ocean, check for at least 15 minutes to see how far the waves reach. NOAA

Excerpts;

The destructive power of sneaker waves was on full display this past weekend, with a near miss at Moonstone Beach in Trinidad and a heartbreaking tragedy in Oregon, where two children — one of whom died while the other is missing — were swept off of a beach with their father, who survived…

Read Full Article; Northcoast Journal (01-13-2020)

Dangerous waves; NOAA (08-14-2018)

News

California is suing a Silicon Valley billionaire for blocking public access to a beach


Photograph: © SAF — Coastal Care

Excerpts;

For nearly a century, people flocked to Martin’s Beach, a picturesque stretch of sand just south of Half Moon Bay in the San Francisco Bay Area.

Then in 2008, Silicon Valley billionaire Vinod Khosla, through two limited liability companies, bought two large pieces of land next to the popular beach, which happened to contain the only viable public path to the shore.

For more than a decade, Khosla has fought numerous legal battles to keep the public off the beach

Read Full Article; CNN (01-08-2020)

Surfers Win Back California’s Martin’s Beach; Huffington Green (10-29-2014)