Offshore berms by encouraged sand accumulation
The fronded mat concept is a brilliant idea, sort of like under water permaculture where you design nature to work with you.
What I don't like is the plastic fronds and the possible harm to sea life.
A better idea would be to use hemp or better still real sea grass.
The grout mat concept is also applicable to creating surf reefs.
At the moment on the north coast there is a sand bank formation creating excellent long peeling rights, but who knows how long the banks will last.
Imagine if surf reef builders could cover that sand shape with grout mats or something similar and preserve that sand formation forever.
An easy way to build a surf reef.
In the future when Australian Surfing has a reef building team organized, part of the reef building strategy on our coastline will be to cover good wave producing sand formations.
Here is a link
checkitout
Phil,
you too can be a surf reef builder - just go to surfingramps.com.au by clicking HEREfor a full set of instructions.
Yes we need a reef building team organised.
Plenty of the right Homework is the first stage to any certain success.
If you look at Andrew Pitts web site here i have done a little desktop study on Newcastle Point Break. It shows how nature sets up good sand banks.
thats a good article on newcastle. I think it would be great if slide #13 was a video instead because a picture of a breaking wave doesnt tell the whole story!
but does the sand bank change on a NE swell because of longshore drift?
Steve mentioning anti-scour mats had me then looking for the alternatives.
I did a bit of a search and the results are HERE.
In particularCLICK HERE was interesting.
The words
"Erosion control mats are designed to work with nature in the building of fiber-reinforced underwater berms. Such berms reduce the impact of wave energy, thereby allowing a natural renourishment of beach sand from transported material. In coastal applications, the mats provide two actions:
The berm builds up and slows down wave action, diminishing erosion.
The slower wave action slows the sand in the waves and causes it to be deposited on the beach side of the berm - eventually rebuilding the beach."
attracted my attention as a way of building a "claytons reef". - which the sea builds for you?
The main threat might be the plastic as it looks like shredded plastic bags?
There could be ways of making sure the artificial kelp is robust and benign?
How low cost could this be?