Beach Expands, Beach Erodes, Beach Expands


October 25th 2005, Aruba.



EAGLE BEACH-The rough surf of the last 2 weeks that battered the
beaches particularly in the western section of the island caused severe
erosion in certain sections of Eagle Beach. Employees at Costa Linda
Beach Resort had to relocate a few cabanas in so to avoid them from
being taking away by the high surf.

The beach grows and erodes again says marine biologist Byron
Boekhoudt. According to Boekhoudt it will take one to two years for the
beach to recover and expand naturally. The sea current of Ealge Beach
and Druif Beach merge together bringing new beach sand naturally.


The widest expanse of white sand at Eagle Beach has become narrower
recently, 15 years ago it was twice as wide. The large number of
hurricanes that ventured out in the Caribbean Sea basin since 1999 have
increased the process of beach erosion rapidly giving it little time to
recover says Boekhoudt. We are also in the middle of the 20 year cycle of
relatively busy hurricane seasons.

The management of Costa Linda has not decided yet on having the beach
expanded artificially, Tamarijn has recently expanded its beach. It has
done so by using the white sand deposits at Barcadera that is often used
for construction purposes. The white sand deposits at Barcadera were
pumped from beneath the seafloor off the coast of Aruba.







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