All nesting shorebirds and sea
turtles that would be directly
impacted by the beach
renourishment project were
relocated while the dredging
took place. According to
USACE and local sea turtle
patrollers nesting numbers
didn’t appear to be terribly
affected.
By June 20 the project was
just about wrapped up, and the
first heavy machinery started to
be moved off of the island. The
Historic District beaches were
noticeably larger, but it was the
sand at the south end of the
island that really made some
jaws drop.The landmark that
locals commonly call “Bocahenge”
is half covered with sand
now (shown on page 27). It
used to be completely exposed
and far out in open water.
The sand coming out of the
pipe onto the beach was
blasted in at very high
pressure, as you can see
in the photo above.
A whole team of heavy
equipment moved in to push
the new sand in, and to
flatten and smooth it.
24 GASPARILLA ISLAND September/October 2019