Documentary of Negril's eroding beach

[Vince]

IMO, Beach looks better now than it did when we was there 1.5 years. I"ll take that seat on da beach mon!

[Irieonline]

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

[limeex2]

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...

[captaind & Linston]

sea levels are rising at 3 mil per year and gaining . You are in denial to think not in Negril

What is 3 mil?

Cap

[TAH]

What is 3 mil?

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.

[Rob]

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.

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.

[captaind & Linston]

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

[TAH]

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.

Huh, I thought the average rise was a lot less than that annually. The more you know...

[pine tree john]

http://jamaica-gleaner.com/gleaner/2...ead/lead8.html

[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.