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Guest column: THE CASE FOR OUR BEACHES

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By Murray Hendel, Linda Penniman and Dave Trecker

For the Collier Citizens Council

The January forum on beaches covered all of the bases: maintenance, funding, regulations. Experts debated options for controlling erosion. Sand sources, shoreline plantings and rock jetties were discussed. All aspects of funding were reviewed.

The question is, where do we go from there?

The Collier Citizens Council feels there are a number of steps that can and should be taken, sensible and affordable steps.

Here is a summary of the recommendations.

(1) Pursue truck hauling of quarry sand as the first option for future renourishment. The recent project was successful and cost-effective. Fears of traffic jams and hazards on city streets were overblown. There were no mishaps. The project went well, stayed on budget and finished on time. Its not a bad model for the future.

(2) As a second option, investigate putting a dredging company on retainer to lock in availability and cost. In spite of remote access sand might have to come from as far as 32 miles offshore dredging shouldnt be completely discounted. The key is to ensure sand can be provided at a set price when needed. A retainer might accomplish that.

(3) Investigate non-traditional approaches for controlling erosion. Specifically, run a pilot on passive dewatering, widely used along the North Sea to reduce sand loss. The procedure involves embedding perforated tubes under the beach surface to catch and drain water from incoming waves, reducing scouring when the waves recede.

According to EcoShore, a Danish firm that participated in the forum, a pilot could be run on 300 feet of beachfront over a period of three months at a cost of under $200,000. It is recommended the trial be monitored and evaluated by a local engineering company to ensure an unbiased assessment. It may be possible to get a government grant to cover costs.

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Guest column: THE CASE FOR OUR BEACHES

Quiet beaches, trails make Honeymoon, Caladesi island perfect getaway

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o early in the morning to Honeymoon Island State Park and to her sister park on Caladesi Island. Thats when youll see fishermen launching colorful kayaks and great blue herons working the beaches off the Dunedin Causeway.

Youll see bikers and walkers heading out for morning adventures on an extension of the Pinellas Trail that runs along the causeway, and paddleboarders gracefully gliding across St. Joseph Sound, the sparkling blue waters connecting the parks.

One morning, we saw a couple in church clothes baptizing a woman out in the water. They dunked her backward, then hugged her when she rose soaking wet and smiling. It was like a scene from the movie, O Brother, Where Art Thou? but with rapt spectators in swimsuits.

In the morning, if youre lucky, you might see a pair of American bald eagles and a great horned owl while walking along the Osprey Trail in Honeymoon Island State Park, at the west end of the Dunedin Causeway. Youre sure to see dozens of osprey soaring overhead, nesting in tall pines and swooping into the Gulf waters for breakfast.

The slash pine stand that surrounds the trail is one of the few left in this part of Florida.

On the ferry ride to Caladesi Island via Hurricane Pass, youll likely see dolphins and pelicans, herons and egrets, as the captain tells about the hurricane of 1921 that split Hog Island in two, forming Caladesi and Honeymoon islands. When he sees dolphins, which he often does, the captain slowly glides the ferry their way, so passengers can snap photos with their smartphones.

The ride takes about 20 minutes and is well worth the $14 fee, especially if you spot dolphins. You also can walk to Caladesi from North Clearwater Beach. The stretch along the Gulf on baby powder-like sand takes about an hour. We like to park between Palm Pavilion Beachside Grill & Bar and Frenchys Rockaway Grill, walk to Caladesi, then head back for lunch in one of those restaurants. Along the way, look for a dead tree whimsically hung with dozens of seashells.

Beaches in both parks rank among the best in the country, and thats no surprise to those who visit year-round. Look around the parking lots at Honeymoon, and youll see cars from Kentucky, Ontario, Michigan and Maine, Massachusetts and North Carolina, where they have remarkable beaches of their own.

You can rent chairs and umbrellas on the beach at both parks, if you dont have your own. And you can stroll for hours, searching for seashells and sand dollars make sure they arent still alive or just enjoying the sea breezes. If you head to Caladesi on an early ferry on a weekday in the off-season, you may at times feel as though you practically have the beach to yourself.

When youre hungry, both beaches boast snack bars that sell everything from hot dogs, hamburgers and fish sandwiches to ice cream and beer. When Stephen Leatherman, better known as Dr. Beach, ranked Caladesi as the nations best beach in 2008, he joked that he picked it in part because the snack bar sold Haagen-Dazs ice cream, his favorite.

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Quiet beaches, trails make Honeymoon, Caladesi island perfect getaway

NJDEP-NJBEACHES.ORG-New Jersey Beach Water Quality Information

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The Department of Environmental Protection administers the New Jersey Cooperative Coastal Monitoring Program. From mid-May to mid-September, local health departments monitor recreational beach water quality. On this web site, you will find daily activity reports for closings, advisories and results of any test that exceeded the federal bacteria standard, regardless of whether the beach was closed or an advisory was issued. You will also find reports of DEP aerial monitoring flights, which look for any conditions that may affect bathing water quality such as trash and debris, algal blooms or sewer line problems.

Beach Closings: Local health departments routinely measure enterococcus bacteria to determine if beaches should be closed. Beaches are closed if an initial sample and a follow-up sample exceed the standard of 104 enterococci per 100 milliliters of water. Beaches may also be closed due to wash-ups of debris, trash or household medical products. A few beaches, most notably those flanking Monmouth Countys Wreck Pond, are subject to precautionary closures due to rainfall amounts that result in stormwater discharges that may contain excessive levels of bacteria.

Advisories: Monmouth and Ocean counties issue advisories when the first water sample exceeds the enterococci standard. An advisory is not a beach closing but is a notification to the public that a water sample collected at a particular beach did not meet the water quality standard. These beaches are only closed if the follow-up sample exceeds the standard again.

Current Beach Water Quality Conditions

Water quality monitoring and aerial surveillance of New Jersey's beaches will begin in May, 2014.

Please check back in May for daily water quality conditions.

For past results and more information on the coastal surveillance flight, see Beach Monitoring Results.

This information may also be accessed by calling: 1-800-648-SAND

For questions regarding any information on this website contact:

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NJDEP-NJBEACHES.ORG-New Jersey Beach Water Quality Information

Let’s Play: The Curse of Monkey Island (PC) part 6: Beaches, chickens and maggots – Video

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Let #39;s Play: The Curse of Monkey Island (PC) part 6: Beaches, chickens and maggots
This time we get some grub, talk about grub, look at plenty of grubs and wonder about... nothing. Follow me on Twitter and Twitch! http://twitter.com/SpiderM...

By: SpiderMwa

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Let's Play: The Curse of Monkey Island (PC) part 6: Beaches, chickens and maggots - Video

Spains beaches: open for business

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The center-right Popular Party (PP) has always made a point of defending chiringuitos beach bars that open during the summer season and it looks like the new coast law will bring yet more improvements to the sector.

Draft regulations to which EL PAS has had access talk about letting some chiringuitos take up twice as much surface area as they are currently allowed to do, and move closer to one another.

The document is part of a new law that purports to protect the coastline through sustainable activities, yet has been widely criticized for doing just the opposite: it allows all existing construction to remain standing, regardless of its legal status, and issues even more licenses to build.

The secretary of state for the environment, Federico Ramos, captured the essence of the law with the following sentence: Whatever impact has already been done, let us make the most of it.

Whatever impact has already been done, let us make the most of it

The new regulations developing the Coast Law make a distinction between urban beaches and natural beaches. In the latter, beach bars will have a maximum surface area of 70 square meters and be made entirely of collapsible elements. The minimum distance between chiringuitos will be 300 meters.

But urban chiringuitos will be allowed to take up 300 square meters, up from 150, and stand no more than 75 meters from one another if their activities are dissimilar.

Urban beaches will also be allowed to host public events with a tourism impact, including all kinds of sports and cultural events as long as they have national or international impact. Licenses will be granted by local authorities after securing a favorable report from the regional government. Visual or audio advertising, which used to be banned, will be allowed in exceptional cases for authorized leisure and sports activities.

Under the new regulations, two types of sand dune will remain outside the public domain the category that encompasses the beaches and affords the highest protection. This is because these dunes are not considered necessary to guarantee the stability of the coast. These criteria could open the door for building residential estates and hotel complexes in dune areas such as Valdevaqueros (Tarifa), several experts agreed.

The minimum distance between chiringuitos will be 300 meters

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Spains beaches: open for business

Ban on dogs from Bass Coast beaches angers locals

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Ban on dogs from Bass Coast beaches angers locals

A ban on dogs from Bass Coast beaches has left owners and locals furious.

There have been reports of holiday makers cancelling their house bookings, home buyers pulling out of deals and retirees looking to sell as a result of the ban, which applies to more than 50km of coastline from Inverloch to Grantville.

The ruling was introduced by the Bass Strait Shire Council last summer to protect children and elderly people using the beaches.

Dogs on a leash are allowed on the beaches between 7am and 10am and in the evening for three hours from 7pm.

The ban is in place everyday at all other times.

A trial for the ban will run until April 30 and it would be reviewed in May, according to reports.

Bass Coast mayor Neil Rankine is due to make a statement this afternoon.

Do you support the ban? Join the debate on 7News Melbourne Facebook page.

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Ban on dogs from Bass Coast beaches angers locals


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