Sandals to build a JETTY on the 7 mile beach?
"The primary attraction of Negril is the unbroken beach-line. Allowing the development of jetties or any other structures that protrude above the water will have a dramatically negative impact on this natural treasure."
There is a petition on FB seeking to stop this from being built. Any thoughts?
http://www.ipetitions.com/petition/savethenegrilbeach/
The future is so bright I need my sunglasses
Money talks, expansion will not stop on the island.
First a jetty, then a breakwater, then a cruise ship dock, then maybe a casino boat too.
The future might be closer than most think. Just imagine a wind farm off the beachor maybe a nuke plant in the morass !
You could also look forward to this possibility
This could be the future, depressing for some, exciting for others -->
Bigger-Better-More-More is what most of society wants. Personally, I would love to turn off the lights and regress to the '70's.
Respect
I like the wind farm idea, much better than burning oil for light.
Back to the 70's? Maybe, but no disco, okay?
As to building a jetty - The biggest problem will be sand shifting. Small groin constructions have already caused major shifts in sand build up and erosion along the beach in some areas. I'd be concerned about the type of construction they propose and how that will impact the beach area around it. Many examples can be seen along the northern part of long bay beach where compounds have already messed things up with groins and small boat docks. The erosion issues they face after each storm should be reason enough to leave it alone.
Sandals has been steadily losing its beach front over the years...a jetty may or may not help that.
Ever hear of the term http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Longshore_drift "littoral drift". It is the effect that tide, waves and prevailing winds have on the direction of water moving against a beach and the movement of the sand. Pot a jetty in and the up current side will rretain sand while the down current side will form a cresent shaped like beach.
Where I live, on the south shore of New York's Long Island, our 100 some odd miles of south facing beaches from Montauk Point to NYC, are known for having an east to west current sweep causing rip currents and cresent shaped beaches where ever the current sweep meets a jetty.
All beaches are effected the same way
When I was first sent the petition via email I thought about posting it here but didn't know if it would be "kosher". Thank you Sweet Sue for taking the chance.
I've written extensively about this, its exhausting. Long story short - the proposed jetty PROJECT will cause more harm than good. It will negatively impact the marine life, the reef and the health of Long Bay beach in general. It will no doubt be "ugly", all the jetties I've ever seen are. I grew up around them on the beaches of Long Island. In addition to the environmental disaster they can create, they disturb natural sea/wave action causing cross currents and making it dangerous to swim in during certain conditions.
The link below will bring you to the proposal. Its 86 pages long and as you read you'll see that what they are proposing is MUCH more than a simple "jetty". It involves for example ripping out lots of seagrass which means basically anihilating an entire ecosystem. They cop to the fact that this construction will adversely affect their own guests. Its expensive (their money, but still) and it will take a long time - I wouldn't want to be a guest at Sandals or any neighboring resort while this was going on.
The ersoion of Long Bay started long ago with the first "entrepreneur" building too close to the sea, overbuilding the property and ripping out the bush. In the process of overdevelopment and exploitation of the beach that is supposed to draw tourists to Negril all these businesses, Sandals included of course, have created a monster and are now in damage of losing the one thing that they were exploiting to begin with.
Read the proposal, make up your own mind. Keep in mind that this proposal was paid for by Sandals...and even still some of it is horrifying.
http://www.yousendit.com/transfer.ph...a41833b61ebe00
Dicky: I grew up in Cedarhurst and spent my summers on Atlantic Beach. It wasn't until I first went to Long Beach that I even knew what a beautiful coastline the Long Island beaches offered. For me, at the clubs on Atlantic Beach is was miles of jetty after jetty - separating each of those private clubs (you can own beach privately in New York). I don't remember there being jetties or groynes like that in the Hamptons but I haven't been to any beach in New York in over 25 years.
When I was a kid one of the things we'd do at the beach was climb "the rocks". Our thrills came from not getting knocked off by an incoming wave and not slipping and breaking our heads open on the slick rock and concrete. There were dead marine animals everywhere - crabs, starfish - as a matter of fact my then 12 year old brother and his friends would play "Starfish Wars" - they would chuck those poor lifeless things at each other (boys like to handle gross stuff). Up until now it never occurred to me that those jetties very possibly could have been the cause of the hundreds of dead jelly fish that would line the shoreline in mid to late August every year.
Here on the Sonoma Coast as well as on the Mendocino Coast the way erosion is controlled is by planting. They have been doing this for decades, that and development of dunes and natrual grasses.
Its never too late to save a beach, but not this way. Negril is in DESPERATE need of a full evaluation, working with marine biologists and sand ecologists to try to if not reverse the damage, contain it and prevent more from happening.
Last edited by rastagirl777; 06-14-2011 at 08:49 AM.
This is unacceptable. PERIOD! AND as Dickylobster emplied. a jetty will alter the natural migration of sand, causing more damage further down the coast.
The new emphasis should be the return of the coast to as natural a condition as possible. Some how, a re connection of the beach to the morass, in combination with efforts to restore the reef and the replanting of vegetation along the coast is needed.
"They paved Paradise and put up a parking lot"
rastagirl777 ---- thanks for posting that! I have shared it with other owners in our strata. It will take a while to fully digest. What they propose is reasonable at first glance. I am glad to see that a lot of thought went into beach modeling. They do suffer a lot of erosion and there is always chopped up grass along their part of the beach (or so it seems when I'm walking there).
Rasta Crab - I'm not sure I know what a "strata" is...a buidling? Unit? Cluster of buildings? No matter, do spread the word. Are you at Point Village? If so, your property, where you just made an investment, will definitely be affected. I'm sure there are other condo owners who have signed that petition, folks that live there full time.
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