3609 Hwy 24 (Ocean) | Newport, North Carolina 28570

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
September 19, 2002

Cape Lookout COASTKEEPER^®, Frank Tursi
252-393-8185 office; 252-241-3505 cell
lookoutkeeper@nccoast.org

Bogue Banks' Beaches Almost Lifeless
After Renourishment: Emerald Isle Next

     Ocean, NC – Almost 10 months after the dredges started spewing their shelly hash onto almost seven miles of Bogue Banks oceanfront, the beaches have yet to recover. They remain almost lifeless. Shorebirds are down 75 percent compared to nearby natural beaches, according to a scientist monitoring the effects of the sand-pumping project, and the number of mole crabs, coquina clams and other invertebrates that form the basis of the marine food chain are also severely depressed.
     The same fate appears to await Emerald Isle's beaches when the dredges return this winter. They will cover 7.5 miles of the town's beaches with sand that will contain even more shell than was dumped on Pine Knoll Shores and Indian Beach during the first phase of the re-nourishment project. In places, Emerald Isle's new "beach" could be almost two-thirds shell fragments.
     That's the conclusion the US Fish and Wildlife Service reached after analyzing information that the project's sponsors sent to the US Army Corps of Engineers with a request to modify the project's original permit. To avoid killing sea turtles, the Emerald Isle Town Board wants to use a different type of dredge than was used during the first phase last winter.
     Those dredges sucked up five endangered or threatened turtles, killing four in one day. The project's contractor also wants to shift the offshore area where the dredges will work to avoid submerged tires. Dredges during the first phase sucked up more than 10,000 tires. Such changes, though, will require modifications to the project's federal and state permits, which were issued last year for both phases.
     Making those changes will mean more shell on Emerald Isle's beaches, scientists with the Fish and Wildlife Service concluded after analyzing information on the type of sand that will be pumped onto the beaches during the second phase. The average shell content will be 42 percent, compared to 38 percent during the first phase, the agency noted in a Sept. 6 letter to the Corps of Engineers. Average shell content of the native beaches on Bogue Banks is six to 10 percent.
     "A number of Emerald Isle residents attended the beach walks I had this summer on the re-nourished beach at Salter Path," noted Frank Tursi, the NC Coastal Federation's Cape Lookout COASTKEEPER^® who has been critical of the type of sand dumped on Bogue Banks. "Most went away afraid that their beaches will end up looking like that pitiful excuse for a beach they had just walked along. It seems they have something to fear after all."
     Fish and Wildlife scientists complained last year that the shelly hash being pumped onto Pine Knoll Shores and Indian Beach would alter the very nature of the beach itself. Their fears were also well founded. Charles "Pete" Peterson, a researcher at the University of North Carolina's Institute of Marine Sciences in Morehead City, has been monitoring the biological effects on the re-nourished beach. The mole crabs and coquina clams, which live at the water's edge and are food for a wide variety of birds and fish, are down 80 percent compared to natural beaches on Bogue Banks and at nearby Hammocks Beach State Park. Not surprisingly, then, the numbers of shorebirds and fish in the surf are also down substantially, Peterson reported.
     The populations of beach invertebrates should have recovered by now if the pumped sand closely matched what was already on the beach, the Fish and Wildlife Service scientists note in their letter to the Corps. They recommend that the second phase of the project be postponed until the numbers of mole crabs and coquinas reach 90 percent of what's found on nearby natural beaches. Going ahead with the second phase as planned, the scientists warn, could mean that there won't be enough crabs and clams on adjacent beaches to replace those buried on Emerald Isle's beaches.
     "Beach re-nourishment has always been considered an environmentally benign way to deal with erosion," Tursi said. "The monitoring data show, though, that these projects can have severe environmental effects if not done properly."
     Federal and state permits for the project contain no numerical standards for how much shell can be pumped onto Bogue Banks. They only require that the pumped sand be "compatible" with native sand. NCCF, though, called on the Army Corps of Engineers to enforce a standard it included in a letter to the project's sponsors in February when the Corps noted that sand that contained more than 35 percent shell would be incompatible and thus a violation of the federal permit.
     "This project should not be allowed to proceed without first finding good compatible sand," said Todd Miller, executive director of the Federation. "There should be no debate about enforcing existing environmental standards to protect the health and attractiveness of our beaches."

NOTE: The letter from the US Fish & Wildlife Service is available
by calling NCCF. We can fax it or email it.