The beach renourishment project has officially begun on our beach (May 7. 2009)! The photos show some of barges and tugs that will be used to complete the process. A large ship (not shown) is used to go out a mile or two from shore to retrieve (suck up) the sand from offshore "sandbars" and store it in the holds of the ship. Then, this mixture of sand and water ("slurry") will be brought back to where the barges are anchored in the jetty and the slurry will be pumped through large 3' diameter pipes from the ship to the shoreline. The slurry can be pumped over a mile down our stretch of south beach.

It will probably be necessary for the EAI employees to now move some of the current nests that are in the way of this project, and watch out for any new nests that may be laid during the project. Currently, there are only the two nests on our stretch of beach (Leatherback nests) that may need to be moved if the renourishment process gets too close to them before they hatch in late May (if our guesstimate is accurate).