In 10 years, we will lose the beach and it will be the end of the industry as we know

[kbisiar]

http://jamaica-gleaner.com/gleaner/2...ead/lead5.html

[NEGRILJAIL]

find a place ...call it paradise ..then watch it disappear .. we silly sumtimes us "humans" ..

[Markospoon]

Thanks Kbisiar.

[suzengrace]

I also Thank you- This is one thing that happens when you mess with mother nature..I find the comments on the article interesting as well..

[Nick]

This is going to take a lot more than sand to fix.

[Rambo]

we were there when Grand Bahama Island started to lose its "industry".............its sad to hear the people talk about the days when the people use to come............

seems like a great place for some old ships to be sank off shore.......



the Jamaican people are of a "tough cut" though....hope it will see them through the rough future.........



I am very proud to know the ones I do.........

[Rob]

This topic is one of those that seem to come up every few months - it has been discussed here on Negril.com for well over a decade. For a bit more perspective about this article, the article was in the Gleaner back in August of 2011. The Smith Warner report that is being discussed was done in 2008 and is 4 year old. Lee Issa, who is being quoted, is the owner of Couples. He was promoting his beach proposal at the time and was trying to have the Sandals beach proposal rejected and his plan implemented instead. The Sandals proposal was discussed at length here last year:

http://negril.com/forum/showthread.p...ighlight=jetty

While this article is not directly storm related, here is a blast from the past that I wrote for the Negril.com Negril Today page back on November 10th, 1998:

http://www.realnegril.com/beingees/nn101198.htm

[Kritter]

It WILL take a lot more than sand to fix. The problem with the eroding/disappearing beach is much more systemic in origin than what the article explains. There used to be fringing coral reef in Negril bay along the seven mile beach. This reef acted as a natural breakwater that absorbed the power of the ocean before it hit the shoreline. The problem started decades ago after a chain of compounding circumstances. First of all, the long-spine black sea urchins which used to be very abundant in JA largely disappeared in 1983 ... caused by a pathogen that swept through the Caribbean ... These urchins are important for healthy coral reefs because they are herbivores and eat the algae that grow on hard surfaces ... which allows a nice clean spot for new coral larvae to attach and grow. Then, in 1988 Hurricane Gilbert destroyed many of JA's coral reefs .... simply mashed 'em. Usually, corals can recover if they still produce larvae .... but not if there's a lot of algae covering the hard surfaces, since there's no place for the coral larvae to attach. So, between the disappearing urchins and the overfished parrotfish ... there aren't enough herbivores to keep the reefs clean of algae and thriving anymore. Add to that all the influx of nutrients by increased septic/sewage from development ... and you've got a recipe for algae city, but not for healthy corals. The black sea urchin has begun to recover in recent years ... which is good for corals .... but is probably too late to save the reefs. A manmade breakwater strategically positioned in the middle of the bay would help, but will never replace the beautiful elkhorn and staghorn corals that used to be there.

[Rob]

Gilbert was one nasty storm. I was staying on the beach when Gilbert ripped through in 1988. The amount of damage caused by that hurricane was incredible to witness...

[Kritter]

WOW Rob, that must have been amazing to experience! Yeah, Gilbert went down in the history books .... and in the biology books......