The Bald Head Island Conservancy supports studies of beach evolution
in reponse to beach nourishment expected to begin in fall 2000. West
and East Beaches at Bald Head will be nourished with sands dredged as part
of the Wilmington Harbor Project. The Project will deepen and realign
the Cape Fear River from Wilmington Harbor south to the Atlantic Ocean;
one significant element of the Project will move the present shipping channel
much nearer to Bald Head Island. Channel realignment will cut through existing
shoals immediately adjacent to West and South Beaches on Bald Head Island.
Several studies have suggested such realignment will cause increased potential
for erosion on these beaches, which have a history of dramatic shoreline
change. Our monitoring of beach and nearshore morphology and sand size distribution will complement the Conservancy's
extensive and on-going studies of several species of turtles that deposit
their eggs on the Island's beaches.
Grad students Dave Bernstein, Periann Russell and Anne McElroy use Global Positioning System (GPS) to locate rapidly positions almost anywhere on Earth with accuracies of an inch or better -- from which we generate detailed maps of the beaches of Bald Head Island. A GPS receiver is attached to the frame of one of the Conservancy's All-Terrain Vehicles (ATV). An hour-long down-and-back tour of the beach yields an accurate estimate of the shoreline location from the Village Marina on West Beach to the Reserve boundary a few miles north of the gazebo on East Beach.
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© Copyright 2000 Tom Drake