Could this be a beach replenishment that will be in the favor of surfing

I don't know

I dunno...the common theme with sand movement seems to be complete uncertainty with the results. The ocean overpowers anything we try to do, and our actions might have effects that no one anticipates. Take the Superbank, for instance. Few people would have opposed the Tweed River project, had they known it would create one of the best spots in Queensland.I could see this going in lots of different directions. The Atlantic is so chaotic...everything in the mid-Atlantic seems to end with the same result: lots and lots of straight sand beaches with any variation soon wiped out by the longshore currents.

 

I dont really see the connection to surfing in this situation but the kind of stuff in this article is going on elsewhere as well....LOTS of public funding going into replenishing beachs that are for all intents and purposes private. Either filling beaches that are outright privately owned, or filling beaches where the beach is publicly owned, but public access is severely limited.

IMO the connection between beach nourishment and surfing, is using grain size. The medium-coarse grain sized sand that engineers like to use for these projects because it holds up well, tends to result in shorebreak. The lefts breaking off the groins (Grant, Broadway, etc) in Cape May is a good example of spots that i'm sure you are familiar with that have been really negatively affected by filling the beach with coarse sand in the area since the late 1980s. Tends to get steep and deep right off the beach, but didnt use to and wouldnt if they would just fill it with medium-fine grain sand.

 

Matt: This is just a poorly written article. trust me they arent going to be taking any sand OFF the beach at the Cove they are putting more sand ON the Cove beach.
"The local share of the upcoming project, which includes pumping 320,000 cubic yards of sand from The Cove Beach in Cape May to Saint Peter's Beach in Cape May Point, will only be 8.75 percent of overall costs expected to exceed $5 million."

The word 'from" means the stretch of beach that is GETTING sand. FROM the Cove to Saint Peters is GETTING sand.

Either way, i dont expect it to hurt things at the Cove. That place is beyond hope. Except today..my god with HH SE swell and N winds that place must have been at least working today.

 

sand

The grain size is the result of water movement over underwater topography. Large grain is a result of current and tide pulling away small, easy to move, tiny grains. This compounds itself in that the larger grains have bigger spaces between them and allows more current to erode the topography. Making steep drop-offs. Small grains are the result of water flowing over or with topography. When the current flow is in tune with the topography(natures balance) small grains settle and compact. Giving solid bottom features and a lesser grade. Theres a lot more to it but thats it in a nutshell, so says the Army corps of engineers beach erosion assessment study. Reguardless, the grain size is a result of water action not the replenishment.

 

I don't know about grain size from a hole in the wall but I know I moved to Monmouth Beach area in 1992 from NYC. The beaches were almost non-existent in Sea Bright/Monmouth/Long Branch but the surfing and Striper fishing was great. They then added the sand and to this day I hate going to Sea Bright to fish or surf. You walk into the water and your neck deep, no sand bars at all. Monmouth beach and Long Branch are not as bad as some sand bars come and go. Its funny to me, as the cry is that the sand is needed to protect the towns/and homes. Deal, which because they did not want to open the beaches for outsiders has not pumped any sand and yet it weathers every storm just fine.

 

Exactly. 5th street in Bethany Beach is never pumped and yet every year it's still there. I realize the wind helps to replinish it but maybe if we just back off and let things naturally return this wouldn't be an issue. I know of a few beaches that have never been pumped and they always seem to work it out on their own.

 

All i was saying is that grain size of material pumped onto the beach affects the way waves break on replenished beachs...

fine grained sand (like assateague) tends to form offshore sand bars.
Coarse grained sand (like currently pumped in Bethany) tends toward shorepound.

The Corps specifically looks for offshore borrow sites with a specific grain size because it has such a major effect on the beach.

My personal opinion is that they dont think enough about swimming/surfing and tend to pick coarser grained sand to pump because they are overly concerned with stability of the projects...like thats really working.

 

When they added sand to LB (over 15 years ago), they completely ruined the breaks. North End still isn't the same. I hope it works out better for you guys in South NJ.

 

sand

Army corps. try's to match the sand already on the beach. Except that the beach is already eroding leaving courser sand to match to. Really fine sand is hard to come by as well. There are only pockets offshore that they mine from. Thats mostly b/c really fine sand comes from the land, not the ocean. Winds are supposed to blow the tiniest grains into the water near shore. Winds and water current groom out the sediment into bars. Development on the coast has stopped this process. Beach erosion and the damage done by higher storm surge as a result, are a symptom of over development. No amount of sand is going to change that.

 

I agree these beaches have been here the way they are for hudreds of years before they started replenishing them. I dont know why they waist so much money trying to replenish them when they should be spending that money on finding ways to protect our oceans and beaches from pollution. I dont know if I'm rite about this but it seems like the beaches that get really steep from the replenishment have worse rips than the other beaches. Thats not very good when we have all these people coming to our beaches and drowning..

 

I agree completely. The major erosion we see so often now is our own fault. It used to just be high water lines, now it's massive sand loss and huge drop offs. Good point about the sand as well. The coarse stuff is def useless.

 

That's THE damning issue that has caused permanent damage to surf spots in NJ. Stop the natural migration of particles from land to water and you change the beach for ever. Development, particularly the damming of creeks to create artificial oceanfront lakes, changes the beach from an area of balanced erosion and deposition, to erosion only, resulting in the need to pump beaches. Development only goes one way... they never knock down homes and dig up roads to create beaches and natural beachfronts. Once the beachfront is developed it's gone forever. And the dominoes fall from there.

 

what they NEED to do is just make that artificial reef in long branch...