Beach Renourishment(?)

An "emergency" beach renourishment project was begun last week, as reported in an article in the St. Lucie News Tribune (4/7/2011), and as witnessed by this blogger this morning during a beach walk. Apparently, the only government to step up to the plate was St. Lucie County. Kudos to Jim David and the St. Lucie County Erosion District for honoring the county's committment to our beach renourishment! Unfortunately, both the federal and state governments decided to pass on their responsibility, citing "budget issues". Once the federal government declined to honor it's obligation, the state decided to withhold the "matching funds" that it was to contribute to the project. As per a previous agreement (reported in the article) between the county, state and federal governments to fund beach renourishment south of the inlet every two years, 2011 was the year that money was to be expended to once again renourish the beach. Since the federal and state governments bailed out on the project, the county was left as the only government entity of the three to fund the project. As the newspaper article went on to explain, "without the federal and state money ... the project had to be scaled back dramatically". Instead of pumping more than a half million yards of sand onto the beach, running about a mile south from the jetty if the federal and state monies were included, the county can only afford to haul and dump enough sand to cover about 1/3 mile of the shoreline immediately south of the jetty. That may be enough to salvage the city property and some of the dune grasses (planted several years ago) near the jetty, but it will do little to provide an acceptable beach for property owners, tourists and sea turtles beyond that point. As mentioned in a previous blog, this will not be a good year for sea turtle nesting on our section of beach!

The included photos show the area of the beach renourishment and some of the progress to date. Note that the ocean has already eroded the sand up to, and including, the dune grasses. Most of the dune and grasses in the stretch of beach beyond that first 1/3 mile south of the jetty will be eroded away by the end of the season, and most of those areas of the beach will be inaccessible by the sea turtles throughout the entire egg laying season. We don't even have to blame "climate" this time, since this is a man-made "disaster".

GREEN TURTLE'S DEMISE

This is not how we wanted to find the first sea turtle of the season on our stretch of beach. The unfortunate Green Sea Turtle, apparently about 6 or 7 years old according to an expert, was washed up dead on shore near the Jetty. The young lady from EAI (Environmental Associates, Inc.) guessed its age and reason for it's demise. She thought that it might be diseased with some possible internal problems, since there were no shark teeth marks or other evidence of damage to the body or shell. It seemed very "thin" on the neck and upper shoulder area, possibly indicating that it was starving - either from lack of food or because of some stomach and/or intestinal problems that kept it from eating and digesting its food. Some sea turtles die because they ingest plastic bags or ballons and that keeps them from being able to ingest and pass food through the stomach and intestines, thereby killing them. It behooves all of us to be sure that our garbage, including all types of plastic, gets in the appropriate garbage bins or dumpsters and not in the ocean and on our beaches! The EAI worker was going to take the turtle back to their facility to research the reason for its death.

We very rarely find a Green Turtle Sea Turtle nest on our stretch of beach. In any case, this turtle was probably too young to nest, and would have been unable to climb up to a safe location on the beach to nest because of the severe erosion near the Jetty and the 6-7 foot escarpments blocking its way. We'll hope for better conditions and results as the season progresses - and that people will place their garbage in the appropriate receptacle.

Governor Scott "Deep Sixes" Beach Renourishment

Florida Gov. Rick Scott, according to a March 13, 2011 article in the "St. Lucie News Tribune", cut out new state funding for beach renourishment in his budget. By doing so, his actions will ensure that many millions of dollars in federal funds (matching funds) will be cut, as well. So much for jobs, tourism and sea turtle nesting along our beaches this year! Bad decision! But that is not the first bad decision for this new governor. Remember his refusal of $2.5 billion in federal funds for the high speed rail project? The above referenced article also indicates that even though 35 of 67 counties have used these combined monies in the past to renourish their beaches, and even though communities have requested $101 million in renourishment money this year, the governor's proposed budget for next year "includes no money for repairing any of Florida's 825 miles of sandy beaches". Doesn't that strike a serious blow to tourism in this state, let alone signing the "death warrant" for many public and private property owners - some being our own city and county? A study in 2003 by FAU, according to the article, "found that each state dollar spent protecting Florida's beaches that have public access prevents the loss of $8 in state taxes paid by out-of-state tourists and resident users of those beaches". Some things (actually many things) just don't "add up" in this governor's proposed budget, and this one (lack of beach renourishment funding) will prove to be a very damaging bad decision for this area - and for the state!

SEA TURTLE NESTING A "WASH" THIS SEASON

The sea turtle nesting season will most likely be a "wash" this season, mainly because the severe erosion along our section of beach is a critical factor in impeding turtles from crawling up on the beach to lay their eggs. Note the approximately 6 foot "escarpment" in the photo below. By my estimate, approximately 30 yards of beach has been eroded by several years of storms and storm waves since the last "beach renourishment". Thats probably hundreds of cubic yards in and area measuring just one yard wide times 30 yards from the sea grass line out to where the coast used to be before all of the erosion. There is very little chance of any nesting taking place here, or even for about 1 mile south of our Jetty. That's why I'm guessing that the sea turtle nesting is a "wash" this season! The beach has literally been washed out! Unless the Army Corps of Engineers, state, county and city leaders start the process to get the monies needed to replenish this stretch of beach, not only will we not see any turtle nesting along our shores but, just as critically, much of the recently replenished sea grasses (see on top of the escarpment) will be washed away as well. That's not even considering the tremendous property damage that will be done to private (and city) properties along the beach. They may think that they have waited too long to get it done this year, but it should start immediately since, if nothing is done, there won't be any need to worry about any sea turtle nests with eggs along our section of beach this year anyway! The only critters along the beach this morning were hundreds of stinging jellyfish, sometimes called "Man-of-War", I believe. The strong easterly and north-easterly winds these past few weeks have not only added to our beach erosion, but have driven these jellyfish up on our shores. The winds were so strong and the wave action so heavy that the jellyfish were being blown up and over the escarpments. There were so many of them, and it continued to be so windy, that I didn't even try to get them back in the water. Besides, the little blue tentacle that you see at one end of the jellyfish in the photo below can inflict a very severe sting on those swimming in the ocean, or even if you come into skin contact with them while on the beach. I believe that their stingers are used to sting and capture food while they are floating in the ocean.

It's becoming very discouraging on my morning beach walks to realize what has happened to our beach and what will inevitably happen to all of the sea turtles who try to come back to the beaches of their birth to lay their eggs for a new generation of sea turtles.

Escarpments as Impediments

Here are the "escarpments" that this writer mentioned in a previous blog entry. This particular area probably had 5' - 6' escarpment heights - more than enough to discourage any sea turtle nesting and egg-laying in this stretch of the beach. The escarpments further north toward the Jetty were even more severe.
In addition, the beach erosion was now all the way up to the sea oats along the dune line from the spot shown in the photo at the top of this entry all the way to the Jetty - probably 1/2 of a mile. Unless some major "beach renourishment" takes place soon, there will be no sea turtle nesting this season from the Jetty on down for about one mile south of the Jetty! Obviously, this writer hasn't found any sea turtle nests yet, but there may be some hope for finding a few nests further south where the escarpments are only 1' - 2' in height. Usually, we find Leatherback nests first, with the Loggerhead nests arriving a month or so later.

THEY'RE BACK!

If you didn't recognize this photo of a female Loggerhead coming up on the beach to lay her eggs, it's because you haven't been a reader of this blog in past years. Yes, it's the same photo that I used in a couple of blogs in past years (it really was on our beach!), but that's because it was one of the best photos of an adult female Loggerhead that we have been fortunate enough to get locally. It can be credited to a visitor from the north who was out on the beach at the right time a couple of years ago. While it's not advisable to take photos of turtles on the beach at night - it distracts them and disorients them when the are attempting to get up on the beach to lay their eggs, it must be remembered that it is illegal to interfere with them (touch or disturb them, the nest or the eggs they are laying) anytime that they are on the beach. In addition, if you see anyone doing that, please contact 911 and ask that they connect you with some agency (marine patrol, etc.) that can help deter the criminal activity.

Once again this year, we are encountering "escarpments" along our section of the beach that are sure to deter, to some degree, any sea turtles from gaining easy access to the beach in order to lay their eggs. Our local governments and the Army Corps of Engineers have yet to find the funds to "renourish" these beaches and the quantity of sea turtles that will be able to dig nests and lay eggs will be severely curtailed, in this writer's estimation. Speaking of estimations, I estimated as of the last entry in this blog as of October, 2010, that the season ending in October of that year produced only 16 hatched nests, while 20 were destroyed by wave/storm action. As you may remember, I could only "document" about 40 nests, mainly because the organization (Environmental Associates, Inc. - EAI) that was charged with locating and identifying sea turtle nests up and down our portion of the coast, only "staked-out" (encircled the new nests with stakes and bright colored plastic ribbon) approximately one out of every 24, or some such fraction of the nests, thereof. While their statistics published in the newspaper (Scripps Treasure Coast Newspaper, 11/29/10) at the end of last season indicated that they recorded an increase of sea turtle nests during that season, I would dispute their actual numbers as any reflection of the total nests laid along our stretch of beach. As had been indicated in this blog site last season, the combination of severe 6' & 7' escarpments along our beach, and the severe wave erosion along this section of beach, made for a "poor" year of nesting, as far as I could determine. We'll hope for a better year, even though we are starting out the season with escarpments stretching from the Jetty down almost a couple of miles south on the beach. Keep your fingers crossed for good weather and the eventual "renourishment" of the beach for the benefit of our sea turtles. Welcome back to the turtles and welcome back to those of you reading this blog!

THAT'S ALL FOLKS!

That's all folks! It appears that, as of the beginning of October, almost all of the sea turtle nests along our section of beach have either hatched or have been destroyed by storm waves. The totals, as the chart included in this posting shows, indicate that it was a rather poor year along our stretch of beach for sea turtle nests and hatchlings. By our count, there were only 16 nests that hatched, while there were 20 nests that were destroyed by storm wave damage, and four other remaining nests that were designated as "probable nests" and have yet to hatch. Why the poor showing this year? Our unscientific guess would be that it was because of a number of factors, as listed below:

1) There was severe escarpment development (5 to 7 feet high) early in the sea turtle nesting season (March - May) along the first quarter of a mile of beach south of the jetty, making it almost impossible for turtles to get up on the beach to lay their eggs.

2) There was severe beach erosion due to several storms that passed parallel to our beach toward the end of the season. Those storms generated large waves far out to sea that eventually reached our shore and destroyed many of the nests that had not yet hatched.

3) There was a generally poor beach environment with large amounts of debris and 3 foot high packs of dead sea weed that obstructed a wide swath of beach near the jetty and severely inhibited nesting.

Also during the summer, Environmental Associates, Inc. (EAI, Inc.) apparently conducted a "research study" that was attempting to compare the number of nests laid in a section of "re-nourished beach" covering several hundred yards immediately south of the jetty with a "natural beach" section of beach about 1 mile south of the jetty. The "re-nourished beach" was composed mostly of sand that had been previously brought in from several sand bars off shore that, ironically, were created by the continual erosion of our beach caused by the unique and strong currents moving south from the shipping channel (jetty) and washing along our beach. The Army Corps of Engineers are apparently charged with maintaining that channel and repairing the damage that the shipping channel has caused to the beach immediately south of the jetty. As such, the beach just south of the jetty is considered "re-nourished beach" in contrast to the beaches further south that are considered "natural sand beaches". The problem, as this writer sees the situation, is that there were too many conflicting factors, i.e., escarpments on the "re-nourished" section of beach, while there were few, if any, escarpments on the "natural sand beach" section further to the south. Also, the fact that EAI. Inc. was only "marking" one out of every 24 nests for most of our stretch of beach, possibly led to more "human destruction" with beach-goers unaware that they were inadvertently disturbing many of the nests that were underfoot (and body). Since we had relied on EAI for the "official markings" of nests for several months until we discovered in early July that they were only marking one in 24 nests, we had some initial "confusion" as to where all of the nests might be. As such, many of our own recordings were "tentative" at best, since we tried to "catch up" after about three months of being unaware of the procedure being followed by EAI in marking nests this season. We'll be better prepared next year, but I suspect that our calculations are very close to the actual numbers since we only counted it as a nest if we could find evidence that hatchlings had come from a nest (seeing "flipper trails" or the actual hatchlings themselves).




The included map and chart show what we believe to be the "final results" for our stretch of beach for the 2010 sea turtle nesting season. It's very disappointing to see that so few nests hatched, but the combination of "Mother Nature" and yes, the rest of us "creatures", obviously took a negative toll on the sea turtle nests this season.
Best wishes to my "many" friends and "followers" of my "Turtle Dads" blog this spring and summer. Have a good fall and winter and we'll pick up our search for more sea turtle nests in the spring!