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Study says two-thirds of state beaches eroding; Scientists say protection structures reversed long-term trend

Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on July 5, 2009 at 6:25 am

From the North County Times:

Decades ago, about 40 percent of California’s beaches were eroding while the rest were actually growing a little bit over time.

But in the past 25 years, the number of beaches along the state’s 1,100-mile coastline that have been losing ground has swelled to two-thirds of the total, according to a new study. And many of those eroding beaches are in San Diego County.

That’s largely because much of the region’s shore is armored with man-made structures designed to block damaging waves, said Cheryl Hapke, a coastal geologist with the U.S. Geological Survey’s Woods Hole Coastal and Marine Science Center in Massachusetts, in a telephone interview Friday. The man-made structures are slowing the retreat of cliffs and bluffs by shielding them from powerful waves, Hapke said. But the devices are accelerating the erosion of beaches by deflecting waves back onto the sand —- in many cases, beaches that had been gradually expanding.

Read more from the North County Times by clicking here.

July 5, 2009 · Filed Under Uncategorized

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