According to the Government announcements last year 2011. We can expect Caye Caulker will get the tourist beach refurbished with fresh sand during 2012. It cost about $250,000 last time it was done, if I remember rightly.

When you got a good beach, you got a tourist business. Without it, you got diddly squat.

Ray Auxillou, WesternBelizeHappenengs.blogspot.com

This is good news. There has certainly been significant beach erosion. Many of the land owners along the eastern shore have recently built sea walls. This has changed the look of the eastern sea front...and in my opinion has not improved it. Individuals should not be allowed to change the "Queens Land". Restoration and maintenance of a public resource (such as the seafront) needs to be controlled by all citizens, not just the lucky few who own land abutting the "Queens Land".

There are countless docks and some beach areas along that area as well that claim that use of these facilities are for their benefit ONLY. Since when do individuals control the "Queens Land"? Certainly they have spent their own funds to renovate that area, but is like building on someone else's land.

While they do not fit in with the resort image of standard beaches, sea walls actually prevent erosion. Without them the entire edge of the island would erode away and the seafront we all enjoy walking along (courtesy of the sea walls built by private individuals) would be gone. Still, the seawalls require constant maintenance.

If it costs $225, 000 to replace the beach at the split, imagine what it would cost to regularly replace the "beaches" around the entire island (except where mangroves are - they prevent erosion but have been removed for new construction and better views). If you need to sit on a sloping beach, Caye Caulker is not the ideal place to visit.

I agree with Noelle, and am thankful to the efforts to build sea walls. Some of these walls come at a high cost, others take hours of using all kinds of filler and scrap wood, conch shells. Whatever it takes to preserve the shoreline.

Noelle,

If I am not mistaken the $250,000 restoration was the cost to add beach to the eastern seafront, not the split which was refurbished in 2011.

We can all agree that maintaining the beachfront is critical to tourism on CC. The only way the shore can be naturally maintained is to replant the mangrove trees that were removed to create the artificial beach. The mangroves work to protect the shoreline of the south and northern parts of CC that have not been changed from their beautiful natural state yet remain intact. If we want palm tree lined beaches instead of mangroves it will come at a great price, whether that is via seawall or continuous replacement of beach sand.

Part of the erosion could be minimized by not raking the sea grass from the shore each day. Sand is removed with each raking and the seagrass helps to retain the sand.

For those interested in the technical side of beach preservation, I recommend the following articles. Note: Adding sand is not the answer!
Causes: http://www.coastalwiki.org/coastalwiki/Human_causes_of_coastal_erosion
Remedies: http://www.coastalwiki.org/coastalwiki/Groynes_as_shore_protection

I'd have to disagree with you AJ that "adding sand is not the answer". Only real options are replanting the mangrove (not in anyone's economic interest) or building a (properly engineered) beach. Of course simply adding sand does not a beach build but that is what will be done (again) and will last until the next hurricane (again). I would assume Al Chanona will get another fat contract to power dredge a bunch of sand and the local hand dredgers who aren't even allowed to put the simplest pumps in their boats (and must donate 20 percent of their sand to the village council) will get squat.

Hey Mike - your avitar makes me dizzy and therefore I make sure to scroll past your comments as fast as I can - perhaps there are others you'd like to reach that have similar problems. Just FYI.

Nate - I should have said that adding sand is a short-term and temporary solution.

The problem with beach erosion is that it is the result of a complex set of interacting factors and adding sand does not change the root cause(s). Dredging sand also causes its own environmental problems.

Each new dock also impacts the current dynamics and likely impacts the beach down current.