The Real Cost of Beach Erosion

Did you know that everyday the things you
do can have an effect on our oceans?

No matter where you live, be it California, Kansas or Connecticut, you are affecting the health of our oceans. The problem is our chemicals make their way into the oceans; our dams change the amount of river water and sediment reaching the deltas and wetlands, and shoreline construction changes natural current flows.

You’ve probably heard about the critical erosion affecting all of our beaches and coastlines. This is making an already bad environmental situation worse. You may think, “this is a rich homeowner’s problem”, but you would be wrong. Healthy beaches benefit everyone.

Beaches and dunes are a critical ecosystem, rich in bio-diversity. ‘Beaches that are growing’—known as accretion—provide a continuous supply of sand to build and maintain dunes. The plants and grasses that grow on these dunes have many important jobs.

Here are a few benefits to a healthy beach:

• The grasses trap more and more sand    helping to further grow the dunes

• Beaches and dunes are a natural storm    buffer zone, protecting the land, homes    and infrastructure

• Beaches and dunes are critical nesting    areas for turtles, horseshoe crabs, and a    wide variety of migratory birds

• Wide beaches, dunes and wetlands are    critical in slowing our fresh-water runoff

• Shore plants absorb CO2 and nitrogen    before it reaches the ocean. Chemicals,    such as lawn fertilizers that run into storm    sewers after a big rain, travel to the    shoreline and pollute the near-shore    causing algal blooms and contributing to    hypoxia (low oxygen levels in the water)    that kill animals that live there

• And probably the most important reason:    Wide beaches and healthy coastlines    provide a natural barrier that protects our    inland fresh water table (drinking and    irrigation water for our food) by preventing    salination, contamination, and depletion