When beaches are trashed, who pays the price?

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.

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

The beach belongs, by law, to the people of Florida — the part that gets wet, that is. 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.

Dramatic Video Shows How Sneaky Sneaker Waves Can Be

The destructive power of sneaker waves was on full display this past weekend, with a heartbreaking tragedy in Oregon, where two children — one of whom died while the other is missing — were swept off of a beach.

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

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.