I don't believe I have never seen so many positive responses and suggestions on a topic of this importance. Dredging does have it's pros and cons but the bottom line is that it has it pros as well as it's cons.

I noticed a place some years ago just south of Caribbean Villas that was reclaiming the beach in a very simple, cheap and unique way. The property had lost so much beach frontage from tropical storms that the fence on the property actually came down. There was a jetty extending out about 100 feet perpenducular to the shore on the property line of Caribbean Villas and the one joining it on the south. A private residence but with about 200 ft of frontage.

There was a pier that had been concreted totally so it was in essence a jetty too extending about 75 feet or more out from the shore line. They filled some flour sacks with with a dry mixture of beach sand and cement and placed them from one jetty to the other about 30' or so from the beach. They stacked them until they were a foot above the water kind of like a sea wall.

The next small blow that came like they do every few months it was amazing to see how much sand gathered between the "sea wall" and the beach. Another blow or so and so much sand had gathered that it covered up the "sea wall" and it was no longer visible. Then they raised the "sea wall" about another foot and the next few blows covered that one.

They repeated this over a 6 or 12 month period and actually built or reclaimed over 30 foot of beach and it was up to 2 and a half feet deep. Amazing. Someone involved in that was taking pictures and sent them around to different people including Juan Allamillia on the town councel. Juan had some sort of supervision of the beach front and was going to follow up on that and see about building more beach front in a similar fashion. It seemed like a grand idea because it cost next to nothing and the sand that was reclaimed was that that was simply suspended in the water that the blow had picked up between the reef and the shoreline. No harm, no fowl.

Maybe Juan would have some information on that. It seems it would work all up and down the island restoring beaches cheaply and with no harm or dredging. Seems worth a try.