Alarming’ scale of marine sand dredging laid bare by new data platform – the Guardian
![A sand dredger actively working close to an oyster’s nest in Nigeria, 2019 (by Ei'eke CC BY-SA 4.0 via Wikimedia).](https://coastalcare.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/09/Eiseke_Bolaji_-The_Old_Woman_and_the_Sea_005_Oysters_Bed_and_Dredging-798x532.jpeg)
One million lorries of sand a day are being extracted from the world’s oceans, posing a “significant” threat to marine life and coastal communities facing rising sea levels and storms, according to the first-ever global data platform to monitor the industry….
6 billion tonnes of sand taken annually from oceans, causing irreparable damage to benthic life – Down to Earth
![Dredging activities on the Langwarder Wheels, Netherlands (by Dominicus Johannes Bergsma CC BY-SA 4.0 via Wikimedia).](https://coastalcare.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/09/Baggerwerkzaamheden_op_de_Langwarder_Wielen_in_2018_21-798x285.jpeg)
Some six billion tonnes of sand is being extracted annually from the floor of the world’s oceans, causing irreparable damage to benthic life, according to a new global data platform on sand and other sediment extraction in the marine environment.
The new data platform, Marine Sand Watch, has been developed by GRID-Geneva, a Centre for Analytics within the UN Environment Programme (UNEP). It is available at: https://unepgrid.ch/en/marinesandwatch…
Sand mining is a huge problem, a new global map shows – the Verge
![Part of the Virginia Beach Hurricane Protection Beach Re-nourishment Project, a hopper dredges sits off the Virginia Beach oceanfront pumping sand from the ocean floor to a pump-out landing station where the material is piped onshore (by Pamela Spaugy, Army Corps of Engineers CC BY 2.0 via Flickr).](https://coastalcare.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/09/130201-A-ON889-011_8451373293-798x532.jpeg)
People are dredging an alarming amount of sand from the seafloor, the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) warned today. An average of 6 billion tons of sand are taken from marine environments every year, according to a new global data platform from UNEP….