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I'm working on a documentary of the eroding beach in Negril. If anyone has footage of the beach they would be willing to donate I would love to have it. From the late 90's to current. I will give you credit in the film and a copy of the documentary.
Much love, Dixiedreg
Feel free to put this in your documentary, although there is no scientific data to back this claim up, I firmly believe this contributed to the erosion.
http://www.ebay.com/itm/Negril-Long-...IAAOSw5ZBWIorP
Also when I get home- there is always sand in my suitcase- stuck to my snorkling gear, flops, etc. You multiply that small amount by all the millions of visitors... and its surprising there is still an island.
I am wondering what effect the sunscreen that tourist apply on their skin has on the reef off of Negril beach. I think there are brands of sunscreen that advertise that they are "reef frienly" but no one seems to talk about this much.
I hope you can discuss the declining health of the reef which protects the beach in your documentary.
http://scubagearcanada.ca/reef-safe-...oZIaAtAF8P8HAQ
I look forward to viewing your project ...
whatever happened to the breakwall plan ???
Sound like a great idea.
Dixiedreg,
Wouldn't it be better to say you are working on a documentary of Negril's Beach? Many factors have contributed to the ever changing appearance of this famous, well loved beach. Is it a foregone conclusion that the beach has eroded, or continues to erode, or is increasingly eroding? This may or may not be the case, but your research should quantify what has been happening over the last two or three decades. Good luck with your project! It will be of great interest to many.
What time frame and data sources are you planing to use?Quote:
Originally Posted by dixiedreg
Cap
increase in development , improper regulation , rising ocean levels , end of story .
This sand/beach issue has been discussed here for years. This particular link from June of last year discusses the beach accretion, which is the gaining of beach. On that single page of the thread, there are several pics of the exact same locations taken years apart, some showing more sand on the beach now than in the past.
http://negril.com/forum/showthread.p...ise#post161327
I agree with sunray that there are many factors to consider. Putting the word "erosion" in the title of the documentary may help with the number of people who end up watching it because as we all know, a house not burning down is not news - a burning house gets more attention. But to use erosion in the title may not paint an accurate picture of the situation. National Geographic uses the word "erosion" to describe how the Grand Canyon was formed. The Grand Canyon will never "un-erode". But beaches have an "erosion" that can reverse itself, essentially "un-eroding". Here is a quote from the link above for those who dont want to click on the link:
"Sand on any sea beach comes and goes depending on nature. As the article states, data used was collected between 2000 and 2007. It just so happens that from 2000 to 2005, the names of 18 devastating "named storms" were retired. That had never happened before in the history of weather keeping. And in 2005, there were so many named storms that the weather service ran out of names and started calling them Alpha, Beta, Gamma, Delta, Epsilon and Zeta. That again has never happened in the annals of weather keeping. With all that wave activity during those 6 consecutive years, it would be impossible for the Negril beach not to shrink in size.
But since then, the Atlantic storms have returned to their normal historical trends, allowing the beach to gain in size, which is called accretion. And as for the sea level rise, there has been one world wide - the first real satellite data collected from 1993 to 2010 shows a world wide gain of 3 millimeters. In the actual world map shown below, you can see for yourself where the sea level has risen the most. And please look very carefully around Negril, the sea level has either shown no increase at all or has actually decreased by a millimeter or two."
Back to the present, we were walking the beach the other day and as people went into the water, they got about shin deep but when they reached between 10 to 20 meters out, it became ankle deep. There was a sand bar forming, and that sand can be pushed by the wave action back to the beach, which is what beach accretion is all about. Beaches can and do "un-erode".
There is a lot to consider for this documentary and look forward to seeing it!
More beach this year than the last 4 times I was here
A better working title might be "Negrils Evolving beach". I'm not sure you should start a documentary with a conclusion and pictures are not conclusive. Talk to Gail of Treehouse. Treehouse is often cited as a benchmark of beach health. Two years ago waves were washing the bar tops at her restaurant. Last year we could have a football game between the bar and the sea. Last week the sea floor was undulated and only waist deep at the buoy line. The only constant, without measure, is change.
I agree with dash.
Last trip the beach was wider than ever. I've never seen it so wife in all of our trips.
You might want to rethink the beach erosion documentary.
????Quote:
Originally Posted by captaind & Linston
sea levels are rising at 3 mil per year and gaining . You are in denial to think not in NegrilQuote:
Originally Posted by Rob
Sea levels don't rise evenly everywhere. This is a fact that you can independently verify. I don't claim to know anything about sea levels in Negril, but you should probably do some research.Quote:
Originally Posted by pine tree john
Exactly! The global satellite data map in the link I posted independently demonstrates the worldwide sea level rise and lowering. This was the very first factual global satellite information available from space. Tectonic plate activity can easily explain that, as other of nature's powers. To blindly believe sound bites on the news is not research...Quote:
Originally Posted by TAH
Haha, you mean the world wide sea isn't like one big bath tub? I am enjoying the knowledge that is coming through in this thread and it makes me feel a lot better about our beloved Negril.
Today....
From Sunnyside
Attachment 44788
From Roots Bamboo
Attachment 44789
From the worlds biggest bath tub! ☺
no one is disputing the fact that sea level is dynamic as well as beaches . As you dated data states Rob , worldwide average sea level is rising +3mm per year . To say that this has not , or will not affect Jamaica (Negril) is just silly. Ask the people in Treasure Beach about rising sea level in the last five years . Ask around Hellshire .
PTJohn,Quote:
Originally Posted by pine tree john
If you take the time, you can see that the southern and eastern parts of the island are having sea level increases on the map posted. That is scientific data. But that does not prevent Negril from experiencing little to a negative "increase" in sea level. Hellshire and TB are not Negril. Please research this topic a bit more....
IMO, Beach looks better now than it did when we was there 1.5 years. I"ll take that seat on da beach mon!
I haven't been to Negril in 7 or 8 yrs and from the recent pictures I have seen there's a lot more beach than there was on my last visit. I am pretty sure the last time I was there you couldn't walk past the treehouse bar without walking in the water. I remember on one of my trips to Negril there was a big raft in the water out from shore a bit with a big pump on it that was pumping water and sand from the bottom and it was coming out of a pipe on the shore. Not sure how well it worked but they were trying. Can't wait to get back there and enjoy that sweet beach and water
Here's my 3 grains of sands worth.I started coming to Negril in the late 80's. The beach at that time was fairly wide. Fast forward to 2012,and I had to walk around a few buildings and a tree,very narrow. Just got back 3 days ago and the beach is much larger. As with anything in nature,the beach space will evolve back and forth. Like the beach,the ocean's will rise and fall, the arctic ice will melt and be reborn by the same forces that created them. Sorry for the rant...
What is 3 mil?Quote:
Originally Posted by pine tree john
Cap
I almost asked the same thing. Because a "mil" is actually 1/1000 of an inch, but I think he was going for mm, which would still not be correct because sea levels are not rising 3mm/year. If they were, we'd be in real trouble.Quote:
Originally Posted by captaind & Linston
3mm per year from 1993 to 2010 is what the satellite data provided. The range was from losing 10mm per year in some places to gaining 10mm in others. The global average turned out to be 3mm of sea level rise.Quote:
Originally Posted by TAH
My house is 8' above sea level on a stem wall. My boat sits at my dock 2 miles from an inlet to the Atlantic which by definition means the boat is at sea level.
We've lived there for over 20 years so the rise would be 2.3 inches. Which I can't see on the water line of my bulkhead.
Cap
Huh, I thought the average rise was a lot less than that annually. The more you know...Quote:
Originally Posted by Rob
PTJohn,
That is an interesting article from January 2015. It has been previously discussed here. The data was gleaned from "observations" as stated in the article:
"In a 2013 paper - co-written by Carlnenus Johnson and titled 'Shoreline Change in Jamaica: Observations for the period 1968 to 2010 and projections to 2060' - Burgess found: "Long-term shoreline retreat rates were observed to vary between 0.17 and 0.76 metres per annum, with an average of 0.26 metres per annum."
Of the nine beaches looked at in the research, the fastest eroding were "Negril (Westmoreland) at 0.76 metres per annum, Old Harbour Bay (St Catherine) at 0.74 metres per annum, and Long Bay (Portland) at 0.36 metres per annum"."
I was actually interviewed for the Carlnenus Johnson study, filling out a form of which I felt was skewed to obtain the desired numbers. Questions such as "Have you ever seen the beach erode?", I had to answer yes because during any storm the sand gets washed away temporarily. I did have a chance to mention the sea level map that had been recently released back then, and they were unaware of it and wanted more information. I provided it to them. It is interesting to note that while the study reports actual numbers for the beaches erosion, it does not mention any certain sea level rise numbers.
For the above study information to be accurate, from 1968 to 2010, the Negril beach would have lost some 32 meters of beach, which is over 100 feet. How can 100 feet disappear while many visitors have observed the beach grow with their own eyes in recent years? And does anyone really believe in depth measurements were taken of the beach width starting back in 1968, when sea level rise due to climate change was not on anyone's mind 47 years ago?
Perhaps this more recent article from June 2015 has a different take on the situation, using more recent, actual measurements:
http://www.jamaicaobserver.com/envir...owing_19085585
"BEACHES around the island grew by an average six per cent last year, according to government research which profiled 35 sites in six parishes and compared the figures to those recorded for 2013.
The sites included 15 beaches in Negril, the resort town on the western end of the island which is at the centre of the standoff between Government and stakeholder groups over plans to build a breakwater there. The beach grew by 19.1 per cent, moving from 27.1 metres in 2013 to 32.3 metres in 2014."
So from 2013 to 2014, the Negril beach grew by 5 meters, which is 17 feet in one year. This is an actual measurement, not an observation. This growth seems more inline with the more recent first hand observations posted here and from the pictures being posted in this thread than the observations from the study you posted in your link.
Global sea rise seems inevitable in the future, no one here is disputing that. But even as the co-author of the study in that link you posted says, "It is not that sea level rise is the only thing responsible for coastal erosion. There would be other factors, for example, changes in the intensity and frequency of hurricanes."
The number of hurricanes we had during the mid 2000's were off the charts and broke all kinds of records. And that did a number on the beach. Since we have had many fewer hurricanes since then, the beach has been given a chance to grow back naturally.
Well written and great information . Glad to hear so many beaches beside 7 mile are doing well . Hope and pray major storms continue to bypass our beloved JA .