Last Updated: 4:47 p.m.
Backed by GPS data, photographs, and eyewitness accounts from the ground and from a fishing vessel, four people–two of them key advocates of the beach renourishment project ongoing in Flagler Beach, two of them fishing-vessel owners–are warning in dire terms that the dredging of over 1 million cubic yards of sand from the sea bottom several miles offshore is raking up live sea life and getting dangerously close to damaging or destroying a unique fishing ground.
“This is the live bottom we’re talking about,” Haley Stephens, co-owner of the charter fishing vessel Sea Spirit, told the Flagler Beach City Commission Thursday, referring to a designated zone about 11 miles offshore known as the Flagler Grounds and marked on all fishing maps for years–but not on any of the project’s environmental assessments. “We cannot recreate it. If it is destroyed, it is destroyed. This will not be able to be fixed.”
Stephens and Jimmy Hull of Hull’s Seafood in Ormond Beach, who fishes the Flagler Grounds, gathered data and photographs of dredging’s effects on the grounds and of the proximity of the dredging vessel to the grounds, placing it at 1 mile earlier this week. Haley Stevens provided what appeared to be solid proof of a quarter-mile proximity of the dredging vessel from the live fishing grounds. Hull alerted Flagler Beach attorney Dennis Bayer, who alerted County Attorney Al Hadeed and got in contact with Jason Harrah, the Corps’ project manager. At the same time, Carla Cline witnessed live sea life landing on the beach from the dredge pipes, and getting devoured there this week.
These are not Greenpeace-minded environmentalists seeking to stop the project. Bayer and Cline were active supporters and enablers of the beach renourishment project–more so than most: they were especially instrumental in securing numerous easements from homeowners along the renourishment area. Cline raised some $40,000 to help convince some of the reluctant land owners. Bayer, an attorney, worked through the legalities, all in parallel (but not intersecting) efforts with the county’s own work to secure easements from 140 property owners. So Bayer’s and Cline’s concern should not be confused with opposition (nor should Stephens’s or Hull’s)–only with their other long-standing record of environmental advocacy.
“We’re not trying to shut anything down, we’re not trying to cast blame, we’re just trying to get them to address the situation,” Bayer said today. He’d had productive conversations today with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers’ counsel, and said he was “encouraged by the tone of the response and the conversations that we had.” The corps is receptive to getting more information, checking with its biologists and continuing the conversation to ensure that concerns are addressed.
Bayer–a marine biologist before he went to law school–brought the matter to the attention of the Flagler Beach City Commission Thursday with Cline and Stevens at his side, a day after alerting Commission Chair Scott Spradley.
“The critical thing about the Flagler fishing grounds is, it’s one of the most thriving red snapper breeding grounds off the coast,” Bayer said. “And when I say it’s live bottom, it’s not the type of coral that you see like in the Keys. It’s what we call soft corals. They’re soft corals, sponges, sea fans. Bayer himself has fished, dived there, caught lobsters there. “From what I can tell from latest information that we just received this afternoon, a lot of the dredge site is less than a mile from the reef,” Bayer said. From tat close proximity, and from Hull’s observations, it’s impacting the fishing grounds.
“Also this week, I’ve been getting calls about an extraordinary number of shells, live shells that are being pumped up on the beach and being buried under the sand,” Bayer continued. “When Carla and I initially got involved with the project, we asked the county: is this going to be clean sand, and I guess there’s a definition of clean sand.” The number of live shells getting dumped on the beach suggests otherwise. “We’re not here to shut down the dredge project or oppose the dredge project. We’re only trying to get some answers.”
The Army Corps of Engineers is overseeing the project. It issued a statement through Jason Harrah, the project manager, on Thursday that reiterated the history of environmental assessments conducted and reviewed by several state and federal agencies. “The dredging and beach placement for the Flagler County [Coastal Storm Risk Management] project is not impacting commercial fishing areas,” Harras said, placing the fishing “haven” Hull referred to as 9 miles distant from the borrow area. “One reason this borrow area was chosen is because it does not contain any hard bottoms. This is an important characteristic for a borrow area to have so that compatible beach quality material can be used for placement, as required by the Florida “Sand Rule”…. If hard bottoms exist in a project area, buffers are placed around them so the hard bottom area is not impacted and can be avoided by the contractor.”
The public, Harrah wrote, should not confuse the location of the dredge vessel with actual dredging, as the vessel is constantly moving. “The public may notice the dredge vessel appears in a location that is close to the shore during the occasions when the dredge is pumping the sand onto the beach,” Harrah said. “However, the nearshore is not being dredged during this operation. From an onlooker’s perspective looking out at the ocean from the beach, it may appear as though the dredge is located near the shore of the beach, and that dredging is occurring from a nearshore location. That is a misconception. The dredge is only located on the nearshore when it is pumping sand from the borrow area 10 miles offshore onto the beach.”
The statement acknowledges that “fish and other mobile wildlife may be temporarily displaced” by the dredging, but since “fish are mobile species, adverse impacts to the commercial fishing industry are negligible.” (See the full statement below.)
Bayer isn’t convinced. He has personal experience from his years in South Florida where, he said, a similar operation demolished a reef. “Once upon a time I was a marine biologist before going to law school and we had the similar issue happened down in Fort Lauderdale,” he said. “I used to dive all the time and they killed all the reef. They didn’t kill the reef by dredging and digging up the reef,” he said, but by layering it with sand. “That’s what will kill the soft corals. That’s what will kill the sponges and the sea fans. That’s what our concern is about. So the dredge doesn’t have to be right on top of the reef to cause the problem. It can be in close proximity to the reef. We’ve all seen the siltation out here on the beach. It’s the same type of thing that can cause adverse impacts on the reef.”
Bayer is seeking copies of the dredge log that indicates precisely where the sand is being dredged. If it is in close proximity to the habitat, he wants to know what can be done to protect it. “Everyone knows that this is an extremely critical fishing area,” he said.
Cline loves the renourishment project. She called it “amazing.” A few days ago she went to the project site to collect shells. She struck up a conversation with one of the workers, who described how the material would drop on the beach–with live sea life. “He goes yeah, they’re alive,” Cline recalled. “And at that moment my heart broke and I’m like, wait a minute. He said normally, they don’t like to have them be alive. But they’re alive. I can’t see the shells. But then the seagulls descended upon them, and so they were eating a live animal.”
The city commission was receptive, though its authority is limited. “I’m speaking for myself that I’m sure that all the board supports the idea that this needs to be done properly. And if there’s any kind of irregularities, if not illegality is going on, that needs to be corrected,” Spradley, the commission chair, said. He cautioned that the city is not a party to the contract, which involved the county, th Army Corps of Engineer and the contractor, Weeks Marine, of New Jersey. “What we can do, and I’m sure will do, is to be the voice of the residents here to make sure that message gets to the proper hands. I know through Mr. Bayer and others the county is already aware, because we’re already getting replies from the county attorney so we have their attention.”
The United Nations warned last September that “the marine dredging industry is extracting a staggering six billion tons of sand and sediment annually,” the equivalent of 1 million dump trucks every day, with irreversible damage to marine biodiversity and the well-being of coastal communities. “The scale of environmental impacts of shallow sea mining activities and dredging is alarming, including biodiversity, water turbidity, and noise impacts on marine mammals,” Pascal Peduzzi, director of a UN environmental program known as GRIG, was quoted as saying. “This data signals the urgent need for better management of marine sand resources and to reduce the impacts of shallow sea mining.”
Unlike strip-mining or coal-mining’s mountaintop removal in Appalachia, which was visible and drew sharp opposition, undersea dredging is invisible but for its obvious beach-regenerating effects. It is more difficult to determine if and when sensitive grounds are damaged, and that information generally rests with the same organizations doing the dredging, making it difficult to verify independently absent full transparency of documentation.
Joe D says
Question?
If the Flagler Grounds are “well known” on fishing maps, how can the area not be shown on EPA conservation maps? Is this a case of the “left hand not knowing what the right hand is doing?” Unfortunately it’s a side effect of government agencies not fully communicating with each other.
If the BURROW PIT is close enough to kick up sand/silt and permanently damage coral and other sea plants even miles away, then maybe we need to rethink WHERE the sand supply piping is located, and CONSIDER moving it ($$$ unfortunately).
Maybe it’s too early to predict long term effects, but we don’t want to complete beach replenishment, then realize we’ve destroyed a fishing habitat that could affect the sport fishing tourist and local seafood industry…
Hopefully the agencies involved in the process and the local groups voicing concerns can quickly meet and hammer out an adjusted plan…although with all the GOVERNMENT “box checking” requirements for a job this size, it won’t be a quick or easy fix.
FLF says
It takes 10 pounds of bycatch to catch 1 pound of shrimp, nobody is going to stop eating shrimp. Point is, the loss of sealife however unfortunate, is less important than saving the beach and A1A. It would be nice if they could move the intake snorkel further away from Flagler grounds. I have fished there myself. Think of all the virgin land being destroyed here by development. That was all part of the plan. Animals displaced, gopher tortoise buried alive, etc. to serve mankind’s needs. We’re all part of this and we accept the collateral damage.
USS Minnow says
The “fruit cakes” have come out of the woodwork. So much ocean out there and they’re complaining about a small area in the big ocean ruining the fishing grounds. Take your fishing vessels somewhere else.
Lance Carroll says
Humans vs Mother Nature.
We should be careful what we wish for.
Wish in one hand and……
beachbum says
what? shocking! you mean one of man’s hairbrained ideas is bad for the natural environment (that God made to function perfectly). this is unheard of!
Nephew Of Uncle Sam says
“These are not Greenpeace-minded environmentalists seeking to stop the project. Bayer and Cline were active supporters and enablers of the beach renourishment project–more so than most: they were especially instrumental in securing numerous easements from homeowners along the renourishment area.”
In case you missed it Minnow.
dave says
These fish and crustaceans crabs and shrimp will move to better waters its a fact, in fact both migrate. In Central Florida we have both a summer and a winter shrimping season. The summer season starts in Daytona Beach, Florida end of June and lasts until September. Northern Florida to include St. Augustine, Palatla, Walatka and Jacksonville chase the white shrimp from July/August – November/December. Brown shrimp live in shallow water, generally less than 180 feet deep, but can be found in water up to 360 feet deep. As they grow, they migrate seaward to deeper, saltier water.
They travel primarily at night, especially at or shortly after dusk, and bury themselves during the day.
Offshore, brown shrimp prefer soft bottoms of mud and sand.
People need to find something else to complain about.
Milo says
This has already been investigated by the federal government. Who exactly is attempting to raise the alarms?
Milo says
Looks to me like we need to pull all the bathers out of the water as well. What are all the lotions and oils on their bodies, the peeing, yes I said peeing, doing to our sea life? I propose an immediate ban to all human and canine bodies entering the waters anywhere.
The ocean must not be polluted in this manner.
Question, has it occurred to anyone that much of this sand came from our beaches in the first place? Suggest you all take a course on Florida sealift and sand restrictions, both state and federal.
Denali says
Please cite a source for you claim of “it takes 10 pounds of bycatch to catch 1 pound of shrimp”. I shrimped commercially for 20 years and never came close to anything this outlandish. What you are saying is that in order to land 25,000 pounds of shrimp my crew would have had to sort through 250,000 pounds of “non-targeted species”. My crew would have mutinied and I would most likely have gone to prison.
Even after the Magnuson-Stevens act when the candlefish tried to take over the shrimp grounds we never saw a by-catch over 0.5:1.0 pounds. I ran both mid-water and bottom trawlers, we took great pains to ensure that we minimized any by-catch. Not to mention the Federal observers we had on board to monitor our catch. Anything close to that 10 pounds and they would have shut us down in a heartbeat.
As for “saving the beach and A1A”; dream on. You certainly are entitled – thinking that your beach and a road are more important that a living creature. As for the replenishment, you can pile all the sand in the ocean on Flagler beach and it will be gone with the next storm or two.
And ‘virgin land’ in Flagler County – yep, those pine trees in their nice rows are a natural occurring phenomenon.
Denali says
And what is all the stink about an oil leak from a Deepwater Horizon or an Exxon Valdez? Just a little bit of oil in a huge ocean.
Skibum says
Well, it would seem to me that it is just common sense that any manufactured system that man could come up with that has the power to suck up tons of sand from the ocean floor would not be able to stop the inadvertent ingestion of other things into its vacuum cleaner like pipe inlet, and that includes some marine life. There is always a give and take and I’m sure the Army Corps of Engineers has weighed this minimal loss of sea life into and taken into consideration the consequences of the plan to renourish the beaches with this technology. I’m not saying it is a good thing, far from it. But does anyone think for a minute that there would NOT have been drawbacks to bringing in sand from the ocean floor to transport through piping onto the beaches? To me, I would have preferred that the powers that be used more common sense and told all of those people who build homes right at the ocean’s edge that they do so at their own risk and when Mother Nature comes for their property, you better be prepared to say “adios” and move somewhere else because you won’t be allowed to build there again. Mother Nature will ALWAYS win in the long run, no doubt about that, and in my view, spending millions and millions of dollars to try to stop the inevitable is a horrible waste of public resources and tax dollars.
JW says
Ignorance is the hallmark of America. Why? It is a lack of education, starting at K-12 . We don’t teach the skills of THINKING and the consequences of that: this is just one more example (others are the Boeing, and CrowdStrike disasters and the handling of the COVID pandemic). We take things for granted (don’t remind us about history) and then we focus on enjoying sports and entertainment. So, as long as we get our sand back on the beach we are fine. We already forgot the many comments telling it will happen again, and it will, unless we invest in our future, i.e. EDUCATION.!
Cranky in FB says
I agree… just love the selective outrage.
FlaglerLive says
It has not been investigated by the federal government. Those raising alarms are listed by name and function in the article.
Montecristo says
Oh please, just pump that sand up. Get it done. The sea will replenish itself.
If you think the sea life is anywhere near that dredge out there you is crazy. Just like a human they know to get out out of the way.
Stop complaining and go shrimp somewhere else.
Concerned says
The small photo sample of the types of shells is in truth mounds and mounds of shells being spit onto the beach and covered with sand. Those shells are critical to the survival of mollusks and crabs. They are necessary in order for them to grow and survive. Stripping the area of a multitude of habitats directly impacts the ecosystem.
Bob J says
https://usa.oceana.org/blog/ask-dr-pauly-what-are-bycatch-and-discards/#:~:text=Shrimp%20trawls%20usually%20catch%20five,for%20every%20pound%20of%20shrimp.&text=Get%20rid%20of%20it%20by,generate%20huge%20amount%20of%20discards.
Plato says
Wouldn’t this have already been investigated by the government when the environmental impact statements were submitted as part of the refurbishment plan? What do those records show? Maybe they were not adequate. Maybe some 60 minutes journalism is needed here?
Celia Pugliese says
You are wrong get straight data. My friend and experienced fisherman in our coastal waters and the gulf since borne in Florida says: “Dredging for beaches has always created death for near shore reefs. The soft powdery sand gets sucked back into the ocean covering the live coral reefs and smothering them. It has been going on since I was a child in Delray Beach Florida. It’s all about tourism in Flagler beach and protection of A1A and homes on A1A”.
My son an avid scuba diver of our coastal waters Caribbean and Gulf of Mexico says sadly our former pristine waters are becoming deserts of bleached dead coral reefs! Very sad. Individuals like you opposing the real experts data in favor of special interest are the real cause why our reefs are dying! Would be nice to know why you hide behind an alias, just easier to punch and hide. At least we battle for our earth without hoods on. https://www.sun-sentinel.com/2016/11/25/beach-renourishment-sand-could-affect-coral-reefs-off-broward/
Celia Pugliese says
You are wrong get straight data. My friend and experienced fisherman in our coastal waters and the gulf since borne in Florida says: “Dredging for beaches has always created death for near shore reefs. The soft powdery sand gets sucked back into the ocean covering the live coral reefs and smothering them. It has been going on since I was a child in Delray Beach Florida. It’s all about tourism in Flagler beach and protection of A1A and homes on A1A”.
My son an avid scuba diver of our coastal waters Caribbean and Gulf of Mexico says sadly our former pristine waters are becoming deserts of bleached dead coral reefs! Very sad. Individuals like you opposing the real experts data in favor of special interest are the real cause why our reefs are dying! Would be nice to know why you hide behind an alias, just easier to punch and hide. At least we battle for our earth without hoods on. https://www.sun-sentinel.com/2016/11/25/beach-renourishment-sand-could-affect-coral-reefs-off-broward/
Celia Pugliese says
Montecristo. Where in the ocean front your mansion located? Or which local government seat do you occupy or maybe a contractor benefitting from the dredging? All good reasons to hide your identity while opposing the concerned and real views of those of us that car to not destroy our coastal wildlife. The Hulls and other commercial fishermen at least try and preserve our reefs that generate the fish they catch for our consumption. That preservation could be achieved by just choosing the proper dredging areas away from soft corals reefs instead of give inn to greed.
Denali says
Corals and sponges cannot move. Quoting the Florida Museum; “Coral reefs are among the most diverse communities on this planet, often described as “rainforests of the sea” . . . “Coral reefs are important habitat and nursery grounds for fishes and invertebrates, including those of commercial and recreational value.” If you destroy the nursery, gone are the future generations.
As you apparently know nothing about ecology or marine life, please take a seat and allow those who make the decisions.
Al Hadeed, County Attorney says
Before people jump to conclusions, they should know that the fishing grounds and the sand borrow site are 9.5 miles apart. Not on top of each other as initially communicated to the County and the Army Corps and likely to the leadership of the Flagler Beach government.
Later after being furnished with this 9.5-mile separation mapping data, a new GPS coordinate was provided and was claimed to be only one-quarter mile from the fishing grounds. There is actually a 3.3-mile separation. Anyone who wants to see the mapping data, email me at [email protected]
The live mollusks issue, yes, that needs to be examined but requests for further information to enable an assessment have not been furnished despite requests.
Montecristo says
With your suggestions northing would get done here. Sales won’t get repaired because you complain about an increase, roads won’t get repaired because you don’t want taxes raising.
You don’t make suggestions you make statements. Like this one where you attack my wealth. That says much about you.
The storms stir the ocean all the time. Flagler can no longer survive without some help.
Mischa Gee says
Although it might be lovely to live so close to the ocean, it certainly isn’t a good idea. Islands are created and destroyed by storms, coral reefs, tsunamis, and now climate change.
Moving the sand is only a temporary fix, and everyone knows it. Another major hurricane will come and change the coastline again. All that sand will wash back out to sea, and where it winds up will be the reason that may bury soft coral, sponge beds, and cost us the lives of shrimp and fish that use that habitat to survive.
Once those habitats are destroyed and much of the edible sea life is gone, it could take decades for those numbers to recover. In the meantime, another source of food will be gone or so limited that the vast majority of us humans, will not be able to afford to eat it.
On top of that, when you kill the sea life, you are effectively killing the ocean. Kill the ocean and you are surely ringing your own death bell.
Maybe all those wealthy homeowners with houses too close to the ocean, should think about removing their homes from such vulnerable spaces and building in a safer place. Mother Nature does not give a lick about your money or your home. If it’s in the way, she’ll remove it.
So why destroy our ocean, just so these people, who actually built in the wrong place, can stay there longer than they should?
Dennis Bayer says
The dredge is much closer than nine miles, contrary to the county’s claims. The COE admitted that the one dredge area is 3 miles from the live bottom. We have photos that appear to show it less than that.
The concern is to allow the beach to get replenished while not wiping out a piece of living reef.
Denali says
Nice try. You are quoting a privately funded ‘do-good’, ‘feel-good’ agency who makes a statement with no scientific documentation or records to present as evidence. Their statement is akin to saying that the new hotel in Flagler Beach will displace hundreds of Key Deer. Neither is based on fact.
Think about the situation; why would I take a chance of ripping my $50K net to shreds by dragging it over a rocky bottom where the shrimp are so scarce when I can move a few miles to a soft mud type bottom where the shrimp live and I will not tear up my net?
Laurel says
Make no mistake, this is not about a few wealthy homes, this is about tourism and the money it brings for businesses. I’m not on the beach, but I get tired of the same old jealous responses.
Now, my concern is, has any of these experts researched whether keystone species are involved and how they are really being effected? There should be an answer to that before any work has started. There are keystone species in every ecosystem, and yet, I hardly ever hear about how these creatures are effected by development.
Money vs wildlife. Who wins, who loses?
Celia Pugliese says
Flagler land as well as any other ocean front location can stand the storms, no problem if homes or businesses, golf courses, will be required to be built NOT at the waters edge. Too late now and that is why we all have to pay to save whatever is built at the waters edge? I do not attack your wealth I point to the nonsense taking place. Use your wealth to pay for damage done by storms as is part of your paradisiac home style cost. No one is supposed to pay to repair my seawall, but I do not expect it either! If sand is to be dredged should be done with minimal effect in marine life too! By the way, why using alias, also because your wealth?
Yo says
It’s called a barrier island for a reason.
Daryl Harris says
Save what beach first storm and half will be gone.