Thanks, Rob, for your insight. I did dig up that paper on Academia this morning ( https://www.academia.edu/1829845/Sho...estern_Jamaica ) and re-reviewed its contents. I appreciate the photos, but they still represent just two waypoints in time. Great pics, by the way; they truly depict the way we hope the beach will be on arrival, and I do hope that its like that when we arrive in April!

I still find the evidence shown in the paper (particularly the photo in Figure 7) disturbing. I will agree that the timing of the article (and the publication of the paper) coincides with the controversy surrounding the efficacy of the proposed barrier; I suspect that the paper may come from a commission that eventually recommended the darn thing. But it still presents a compelling argument that the distance between the waterline and NMB, particularly in the hot spot they seem to want to focus on along the front of the Issa property, has changed significantly since 1971, and not for the better. The recession in the vegetation line is also significant, which goes hand in hand with development and loss of erosion barriers. The photo of Mr. Douglas is a great example of how pristine the beach area depicted there looked before development cut back the veg line.

Granted, the development between the Issa property and Barry's, along with the expansion of the Sandals property toward Cosmos, was a major change to that stretch of beach, and one should expect a change in the dynamics! But the trend, I still maintain, is disturbing.

Look... I'm not looking for conversions to my interpretation of what's going on... I've given up on that quite a few years ago. I'm only hoping that people come to understand that something IS going on, that there is evidence to support that there is something going on. And the last thing I'm trying to do with this post is to espouse support (or not) of the proposed barrier (for the record, I personally do not).

I AM trying to say that there are costs to the system for our enjoyment of that amazing beach. And I personally believe that there are forces that we (humanity) have unleashed that will have (and probably ARE having) adverse effects on beach and reef areas around the world. Feel free to kick the soap box out from under me at any time.... ;-)