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Save the People and the Sea Turtles!!!
- Thread starter Smiling JOe
- Start date
beach nourishment will leave the biggest hole
It's great to try to educate and rein-in folks about the holes their digging all over the beach. But it's also important to remember that the biggest hole of all time will come if the County and TDC get beach nourishment for South Walton. Nourishment will suck the life out of a huge area offshore as sand is dredged, bottom-dwelling animals are crushed and buried, and a huge hole is left behind. These projects usually have trouble matching the native beach sand, wash away faster than the native beach, and often kill sea turtles in the process of dredging.
The Destin nourishment project killed four adult endangered/threatened sea turtles, which is like killing between 4000 and 40,000 turtle hatchlings. That's because scientists estimate that only between 1 in 1000 to 10,000 hatchlings make it to adulthood. If someone or something killed thousands of baby sea turtles people would go crazy, and that's essentially what beach nourishment does. So let's fill-in the holes, but remember that there are much bigger holes we need to work-on.
It's great to try to educate and rein-in folks about the holes their digging all over the beach. But it's also important to remember that the biggest hole of all time will come if the County and TDC get beach nourishment for South Walton. Nourishment will suck the life out of a huge area offshore as sand is dredged, bottom-dwelling animals are crushed and buried, and a huge hole is left behind. These projects usually have trouble matching the native beach sand, wash away faster than the native beach, and often kill sea turtles in the process of dredging.
The Destin nourishment project killed four adult endangered/threatened sea turtles, which is like killing between 4000 and 40,000 turtle hatchlings. That's because scientists estimate that only between 1 in 1000 to 10,000 hatchlings make it to adulthood. If someone or something killed thousands of baby sea turtles people would go crazy, and that's essentially what beach nourishment does. So let's fill-in the holes, but remember that there are much bigger holes we need to work-on.
Smiling JOe
SoWal Expert
Thanks for bringing that up Christian. I'm against beach nourishment (dredging type) for other reasons, but those your reasons just add to further my cause of being against it.
I'm not a turtle watch walker, but I think that would be fun. I do walk the beaches often and in the last few days, I can think of about about 12 turtle nests I've passed. Yesterday, I noticed that the nest at the Bramble Grove Access has a kayak tethered to a private walkover only a few feet away, and the beach service guy for that stretch is storing many of his chairs next to that same walkover, so they don't get taken by the TDC. I sure hope a turtle watch walker is on sight when that nest hatches, otherwise, any turtles going toward the lights of the houses, will likely get stuck in the chairs or under that kayak.
I also walked the beach at Deer Park, WaterSound, and beyond, and notice that a few of those nests are extremely high up on the dunes. I cannot help but think that the momma turtles are trying to avoid a big storm washing the eggs away, when they lay their eggs high on the dunes. Something else I think about is that if the rest of the beaches around here didn't have houses built on the dunes, we would actually have rolling dunes upon which the momma turtles could lay eggs, maybe giving more chance of survival to the baby turtles. Seawalls which are not covered with sand at a 2:1 slope, which is required, add to the problems with Sea Turtle survival.
I'm not a turtle watch walker, but I think that would be fun. I do walk the beaches often and in the last few days, I can think of about about 12 turtle nests I've passed. Yesterday, I noticed that the nest at the Bramble Grove Access has a kayak tethered to a private walkover only a few feet away, and the beach service guy for that stretch is storing many of his chairs next to that same walkover, so they don't get taken by the TDC. I sure hope a turtle watch walker is on sight when that nest hatches, otherwise, any turtles going toward the lights of the houses, will likely get stuck in the chairs or under that kayak.
I also walked the beach at Deer Park, WaterSound, and beyond, and notice that a few of those nests are extremely high up on the dunes. I cannot help but think that the momma turtles are trying to avoid a big storm washing the eggs away, when they lay their eggs high on the dunes. Something else I think about is that if the rest of the beaches around here didn't have houses built on the dunes, we would actually have rolling dunes upon which the momma turtles could lay eggs, maybe giving more chance of survival to the baby turtles. Seawalls which are not covered with sand at a 2:1 slope, which is required, add to the problems with Sea Turtle survival.