Beach erosion at Shelly Bay 'no cause for alarm', says Wingate

WEDNESDAY, JAN. 18: The recent bad spell of weather has seen noticeable erosion at Shelly Bay Beach.

But environmentalist David Wingate said its no cause for alarm as the beach should return to its normal state over the passage of time.

Government is looking into the erosion.

A spokesperson said: “The Department of Parks is aware of sand erosion at Shelly Bay Beach and is assessing different options to remediate the situation. The erosion is a result of severe winter gales as well as a build up of Sargasso sea weed.”

Mr Wingate, who lives in the Crawl area, was at Shelly Bay on Saturday.

“I will often stop at the beach to look at the birds, the gulls and other, so I am very conscious of the state of the beach most of the time.

“It’s been largely hidden by the Sargasso weed most recently. Because of the strong westerly gales it’s in a slightly erosion state at the moment, but that sand is just pulled back into the bay into the sand bar.

“With calmer weather that will pull back onto the beach quite quickly. That beach is not threatened by sea level fast enough to be of concern yet. It’s all part of the natural cycle.

His one warning was if sea levels continue to rise because of global warming, the beach would encroach on the playground area.

“It is just common sense that as the sea level rises, the further back the beach level will be against the land.

“If we don’t provide the space for the beach to prograde backwards then we are sort of fighting it.

“This is happening in a lot urban centres in Florida and other cities that are built right on the beach front. As sea level rises it is threatening buildings close to the beach, so then they build sea walls and that causes the waves to bounce off them, then that prevents the sand from building up.

“A lot of those cities — at huge expense — have hired contractors to bring dredged sand from somewhere else after spending millions of dollars to try to preserve to the beach.

“As long as sea level is rising, it is going to prograde backwards.

“You can’t save the beach with sea walls, it just doesn’t work.”

He said there are “no dramatic examples” of that in Bermuda but some of the South Shore beaches have cliffs behind.