Anglers from Texas to Long Island grow increasingly incensed by “beach nourishment” and related projects, because these massive dredge-and-fill projects bury nearshore reefs, can cause chronic turbidity and eliminate vital beach invertebrates, such as mole crabs ( Emerita talpoidea) and coquina clams ( Donax spp.) Meanwhile, the dredge lobby, mainly representatives of the Florida and the American Shore & Beach Preservation Association (FSBPA/ASBPA) tout such projects as sea turtle nesting habitat restorations, despite the fact that they are most often detrimental to sea turtles.
But a botched project completed May 1 in St. Lucie County, Florida will forever cast a skeptical light on Shore and Beach claims that these projects are environmental restorations.
In April, Dickerson Florida Inc. began trucking in what appears to be roadbed material and steamrolled it onto four miles of St. Lucie County beachface. Nearshore reefs supporting more than 530 marine organisms run parallel to the beaches, which are famous snook and pompano fishing grounds, and the state’s second-most productive sea turtle nesting sites. The sediment appeared to be a mix of clay, rock and fine sediments, but St. Lucie County coastal engineer Richard Bouchard, also a FSBPA director, maintained that the sediments “met Florida Department of Environmental Protection standards.”
But a May letter from FLDEP to St. Lucie County said permit violations could result in a first-degree misdemeanor, which would give the state authority to “order removal of violating structures.”
After paying the site a visit, Dr. Hal Wanless, Chair of Geological Sciences at the University of Miami, strongly doubted Bouchard’s defensive statement.
“The sediment they put down here is absolutely unsuitable. There are clods of clay and such a high proportion of fine material that it’s ridiculous. It has nothing to do with the beach sand on any of Florida’s beaches. This is going to be a permanent time release of mud into the system, and it will end up on the reefs,” he told Shallow Water Angler’s sister publication, Florida Sportsman. (Go to www.shallowwaterangler.com to read the three-part investigative series on so-called beach nourishment.)
Turtle experts confirm that in most places there was sufficient beach width to guarantee a successful nesting season, and that the “road bed” will impair turtle nesting.
