Introduction

For my paper, I will attempt to answer the question of whether or not beach nourishment helps or harms sea turtle nesting. I hope to prove that the effects of beach nourishment help sea turtle nesting more than it harms it.

What I know as of now pertaining to sea turtle nesting and beach nourishment, is that beach nourishment is a risky process that is used to preserve the nesting grounds of sea turtles. This process is required because after years of waves crashing on our shores, the sandy beaches alter their slope. Slope is an important factor in which sea turtles use to decide whether or not to nest on that beach. Beach renourishment is an attempt to preserve a suitable slope that sea turtles will continue to come back and nest on the beaches. However, at the same time, the sand used to renourish the beaches might be a little bit different from the sand already on the beach. If it has a different color, texture, size, shape, or any of various characteristics, the sea turtle may choose not to nest on the beach even though the slope is fine. One reason that explains this is the fact that sea turtles develop differently from many other animals. They are all the same gender when the egg is laid, but teh temperature at which the egg is incubated determines the gender of the sea turtle that hatches from the egg. A darker colored sand will incubate eggs at much higher temperatures than a light colored sand, and therefore the sea turtles will try to find a beach with sand more suitable to their needs.

Of the things I have yet to find, I am still trying to find statistics as to how many renourished beaches are no longer suitable to be nesting grounds, compared to how many successfully preserved a nesting ground. I am also trying to find out how the people in charge of a beach renourishment project goes about determining which type of sand to use. I hope to find a more descriptive summary as to the process of beach nourishment. For example, how does anyone actually move the sand, or how do we know the sand we are using will be accepted by the sea turtles.

Of course there is the opposing argument to mine, there are people who will say that beach nourishment is harmful. Their arguments range from the quite obvious including the possibility that sea turtles will not accept the new sand we use, to the less obvious such as the fact that the process can be harmful to the environment as well. It can bury other animals alive, like a small bird hunting on the beach when all of a sudden a large amount of sand is dumped on top of it, or even a rare fish near the ocean's edge. It also has the possibility of introducing new preditors, depending on where the sand comes from. One fierce preditor of the unhatched sea turtle is a special type of fire ant. If they are already living in the sand you use to renourish beaches, you introduce a preditor to the species you are trying to preserve.

So far I have looked at a study on the effects of beach nourishment and the likelyhood of sea turtles to continue nesting. I have also looked at a source that focuses on the sea turtles preditors. In addition I have found a source that talks about a new type of sand that scientists are trying to create to use in the beach nourishment and sea turtles reactions. and finally, I have a source that talks about why we should continue to keep preserving sea turtles and why they are in need of protection. I am trying to find statistics at the current time, but so far I haven't been able to find what I am looking for.