Beaches: Are we Taking Advantage of One of Earths Natural Beauties?

For 4.5 billion years, the Earth has been around and has been thriving giving a home

to billions of species of life. Of the many beautiful and luxurious amenities that the

Earth offers, beaches are one of the most spectacular. Beaches are very important to

the structure of the Earth and how it functions. However, people sometimes tend to

forget about that and abuse these sandy habitats by leaving beaches full of litter and

other types of waste and garbage.

Beaches riddled with litter and waste is becoming an everyday thing and it does not

just affect the people that attend those beaches, but it affects just about everything

that comes in contact with those beaches. According to an article from

Beachapedia.org, Beaches are alive. They are home to birds, grasses, crabs, clams,

fish, tiny invertebrates, and more. Unfortunately, these habitats are experiencing an

unprecedented level of human impact, encroached on the landward side by coastal

development and on the ocean side by sea level rise and coastal erosion. Beach

ecosystems are affected by many different types of human pressures, from

recreation to pollution to coastal armoring (Cartwright and Wilson).

University of Rhode Island Graduate School of Oceanography Professor Rebecca

Robinson was able to offer a lot of insight as to exactly how important beaches are

to the environment. Maintaining beaches are very important for the environment

because humans have such a huge impact on what happens in the world today, said
Robinson. Humans play such an important role in what happens to beaches because

of things like coastal development and recreational use of the sandy habitats.

As for the beaches in Rhode Island, keeping them maintained is very important for

the state and for recreation purposes if you ever want to have a beach to enjoy your

free time on. Marine biology major at the University of Rhode Island, Chandler

Fisher, was able to offer some of the things that she learned in some of her classes

about the beaches in Rhode Island. I personally think that beaches can be better

maintained in Rhode Island, especially in Narragansett with the beach erosion that

the sea wall is causing, explained Fisher. However, I think that all beaches can be

maintained better, especially with the problem of trash amongst other pollutants

littering the beaches.

State budgets have a lot to do with how well beaches are taken care of and kept

pollutant and litter free. In the federal government's Fiscal Year 2012 budget, the

state was provided with $212,000 to run its beach monitoring program. Thanks to

federal sequestration, that figure came down to $201,000 for FY 2013 (Judith

Swift). This number dwindles down every year making it harder and harder each

year to maintain the upkeep on beaches so that they are safe for tourist use and

balance in the environment.

After conversing with several students that attend the University of Rhode Island,

Many of them said that they take full advantage of going to the beach since the

beaches are only a 15-minute drive away. Some students said that trash and other

litter on the beach does not bother them at all and dont think it is a problem and

does not get in the way of them having fun. However, there were some other

students that said that they are bothered by trash riddled and dirty beaches. These

students said that they were always scared of stepping on broken glass or getting

caught on something that could harm them. Students said that it just takes away

from some of the fun when you go to the beach because one should not have to be

wary at the beach.

Olivia Norman who is an avid beach goer and a student at the University of Rhode

Island, said that beaches are very calming places for her to go to and enjoy but when

she sees litter and other garbage on the beach it gives her some seconds thoughts.

I'm drawn to the beach by the smell. It's a place for me to relax and I can get some
of my work done there as well. I like to drink coffee on the beach and I would be

drawn away from that because I don't want to step on trash or accidentally sit on

something that could potentially harm me and other things like that, said Norman.

The truth is that states like Rhode Island as well as any other state that has

coastlines should be doing more to maintain beaches and protect them from being

damaging to the environment. According to Testing the Waters, polluted beaches as

well as polluted waters can cause illnesses that can include stomach flu, skin rashes,

pink eye, respiratory infections, meningitis and hepatitis. Polluted water and

beaches can also create pathogens that are very harmful to humans. An estimated

900 million Americans take coastal trips every year around North America and if a

beach is not cleaned or maintained all of these people are susceptible to harmful

diseases and bacteria.

As for beaches all across the country, there is more that can be done to protect the

coastline because sea level rises every year due to global warming, said Robinson.

And we as humans dont make it any better by destroying beaches due to coastal

development so there is not much more coastline left for us to be neglecting. One

way that we can maintain beaches and keep them clean not just in Rhode Island but

all throughout the United States is by promoting beach clean ups and getting the

community to participate in them.

The Valpo Surf Project (VSP) is an organization in Valparaiso, Chile and has given

back to the community by cleaning up beaches and making the environment safe for

everyone. The VSP believes beach clean-ups directly contribute to creating a

healthier beach environment as well as demonstrate the value of protecting and

preserving the regions coastline. The VSP really puts a stress on the importance of

beach cleanups and removing all the trash from beaches because it can easily get

entangles in marine plant life like seaweed and then find its way into the ocean,

which can affect marine life and decrease oxygen levels in the ocean.

If places like Rhode Island and other coastline states in the U.S. could initiate more

programs like the Valpo Surf Project then the environment would be a lot safer

place for people and wild life to roam and enjoy. Both Fisher and Norman said they

both have participated with beach cleanups in the past and will continue to do so

because they both want to make a positive impact on the environment. The Rhode
Island rowing team participates in beach cleanups twice a year so it is a good

opportunity for us to get out and give back and do something good for the

environment, said Norman.

The environment is something that should not be taken for granted especially with

everyday news of things like global warming and deforestation and many others

events like those. With global events like those happening, people should be more

inclined to help out the environment and make sure that landscapes like beaches

dont go by the wayside. Littering on beaches and promoting things like coastal

development will destroy habitats for wildlife and people wont have beaches to

travel to in their free time. Beaches have such a strong influence on the Earth and

the life that inhabits it and steps must be taken in order to assure that beaches will

be clean and safe for everyone that uses them for many years to come.
 Works Cited

Cartwright, Clara, and Rick Wilson. "The State of Beach Ecology."

www.beachapedia.org, www.beachapedia.org/Beach_Ecology. Accessed 12

Nov. 2017.

Costa, Lauren. "Scrubbed Budgets Mean Dirty Beaches." patch.com, 2 Aug. 2013,

patch.com/rhode-island/narragansett/scrubbed-budgets-mean-dirty-

beaches. Accessed 22 Oct. 2017.

"Saving the Shore: The Importance of Beach Clean-Ups." valposurfproject.com, 7

Aug. 2015, valposurfproject.com/saving-the-shore-the-importance-of-beach-

clean- ups/. Accessed 22 Oct. 2017.

"The Impacts of Beach Pollution." www.nrdc.org, www.nrdc.org/sites/default/files/

ttw2014_Impacts_of_Beach_Pollution.pdf. Accessed 22 Oct. 2017.