Forget fossil hunting at Venice Beach

[simbrooks]

So will the beach actually be further out into the Gulf now, or are they just making it shallower for the 1st 100ft or so? How deep would this traditional dumping make the sand above the previously exposed clay beds?

Should we move our teeth finding missions down to Caspersons, get Brian's boat out or just prepare for a huge swim out to the boneyard to get anything?

 

[ReefGuy]

We'll see. What they are trying to do is restore the beach to it's prior location, and rebuild the sandbar (which, after the storm was totally gone in places).

I don't think that Casperson is quite as good as Alhambra has been to this point, but it may be the best option in the future.

I intend to go out there next weekend, if the red tide is gone.

 

[CBulla]

The Alhambra site is supposed to be the best for beach dive locations in so far as numbers and variety of teeth to be found. I know of a few who have bought inexpensive scooters to use in blowing the sand off the beds in search of larger things such as megs and mastadon teeth... and finding them! I gota find

Casperson's beds are a little farther out.

 

[JustJoe]

Sorry for the off topic post.

Colin, where did you get that awesome cross and chain?

Joe

 

[CBulla]

Weekend in Miami, buddy.. they grow on treez down there man.

 

[FredT]

The saddest part is beach restoration projects don't work.

Walter, you know that is a very relative statement.

They are very effective at getting a politician re-election funds from the condo commandos. Beyond that they are most effective at redistributing tax dollars to starving dredge companies.

Now if you are actually talking about "preserving" the beach, the reason the sand was out there in the first place was that the grain size and density of it is unsuitable for retention on the beach at the normal wave energy spectra. This simply gives Mother Ocean a chance to move it back out there, while allowing a few to "redistribute the wealth"

In my over 30 years of Ocean Engineering the one truism that has never varied is that the only thing we can do to a beach is to screw it up. This fact will never stop folks from trying to find a new way to screw it up though. IMNSHO the folks living in condos on the barrier islands shouldn't be there in the first place. They still haven't learned that a Hurricane is Mother Ocean's way of explaining to the uninitiated that they are living too close to the beach!

FT

 

[adurso]

The Alhambra site is supposed to be the best for beach dive locations in so far as numbers and variety of teeth to be found. I know of a few who have bought inexpensive scooters to use in blowing the sand off the beds in search of larger things such as megs and mastadon teeth... and finding them! I gota find

Casperson's beds are a little farther out.

I know where Casperson is, but where is Alhambra? Is that the beach at the end of Venice Blvd? Last summer we went off the city beach at the end of Venice Blvd, we did pretty well there with small teeth, then went out with Florida West, who may be going out of business now?! EEK! My summer plans are getting messed up!

 

[ReefGuy]

Alhambra is 5 blocks south of the public beach, at the end of Alhambra street. If you look south from the public beach, it's at the north end of the condos.

 

[adurso]

Thanks

 

[reefsavers.org]

http://www.heraldtribune.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20050316/NEWS/503160619/1060

The city of Venice, former "Sharks' Tooth Capital of the World" has decided, in their infinite wisdom to destroy an ecosystem so that the snowbirds have plenty of white beach. I guess nature just isn't up to task:

(exerpt):This month, the city is scheduled to begin its second beach restoration project, which involves dredging tons of sand from several miles offshore, bringing it in by barge and pumping it onto the beach and about 100 feet out into the Gulf. The first restoration occurred in 1996.

If we're lucky, this won't affect the reef that's about 300ft out. It's not much (the gulf isn't exactly known for its stunning reefs), but there is a large area of gargonians, an array of sponges, and some other hardy softies out there.

On my last dive at Venice beach, I found three megs in the first nice bed I was able to locate since the hurricanes. Care to guess how far out I was?

Ironically, the sharks tooth festival is next weekend. Guess it's the last hoorah.

We need to protest this. This site should be protected just for the fact of the reef and for the aspect, that its a historical site. Call me if you are interested in forming a task force and setting something up. This really angers me that they would do this to such a place. Write your senators immediatley. ill call the Ocean conservancy and surfrider foundation. how stupid can people be?