What laws apply to coastal development and how does it hurt?
What happened in Rincon, Puerto Rico?
Why does coastal development happen?
The main reason that people build on beaches, is for building hotels or apartments
to attract tourists. When the beach becomes more populated, more houses and
buildings get built. But some people put building houses, hotels, and condos
before the beach and animals. Before the trestles cove project was stopped,
people argued that the toll road should be built because it would at least
get you past San Onofre faster. But we need to stop over building on our
favorite beaches. If we keep building on it or develop the beach land, in
years there could be nothing left of the beach and the oceans will become
dangerously polluted.
What does it look like?
Have you ever been down to the beach where the buildings were close
to the coastline? Was the water not as clean as it should have been?
A lot of beaches
are like that around the world. Some buildings are built right on the
cliffs and some are right on the sand. In other places, people want
to turn our warm
sandy beaches into a hard concrete highway
What happened in California?
For example: Trestles cove in San Onofre beach. Trestles has been a
famous surf spot of surfers for years. It is right by the San Mateo
park campgrounds
and it is home to many native plants, animals and endangered species.
The Transportation Corridor Agency wanted to extend the toll roads
through San Mateo park to try
and relieve traffic congestion. But if they did extend the toll roads,
60% of San Mateo campgrounds would have been destroyed to make room
for the 6 lane
toll roads, native plants and animals would have become endangered,
and already endangered species could have become extinct, the famous
waves
and shore break
would be ruined, and there would be too much water pollution. But lucky
for us, we got to decide if we wanted the toll roads build. So in early
February,
the city took a vote against the toll roads. And now trestles cove
is safe!!!!! this is a reminder that YOU can change the world!
What laws apply to coastal development and how
can it hurt?
Building close to the ocean requires a certain license and you cant
make the building a certain number of stories high. But some buildings
don't
follow
that rule,and when disaster strikes the person might lose their building
due to large waves or high tide. When the tide goes in, it takes
the debris and
pollution back into the ocean. The building process can sometimes
cause more pollution if the construction workers aren't careful enough.
Unused
pieces
that lay scattered around on the construction site are just more
things for the high tide to sweep into the ocean and hurt many underwater
species.
What happened in Rincon, Puerto Rico?
In Puerto Rico, There's a beach town village called Rincon. Rincon
is a natural habitat for Sea animals. It is one of the few places
you can
see rare animals
like sea turtles, and exotic fish that live in the coral reefs
If you venture far enough from the beach, you will get to tropical
forests
where even more
rare species live. But paradise is slowly fading away. The beaches
are in danger due to over development. The beaches already have
houses, townhouses,hotels,
and condos built or being built right on the beach. All of this
building could
destroy Rincon's famous beach Tres Palmas and its coral reefs.
If they
over develop the beaches, the water will become polluted and jeopardize
the coral
reefs and their unique fish species. Also the polluted water will
hurt the humpback whale cycle, and the sea turtles eggs that get
laid on
the beach will
get crushed by the development process. Sea turtles are already
an extremely endangered species, even on other protected beaches.
What happened in Florida?
Many people in Florida protested to open up Bal Harbor beach. The
beach was originally closed by government officials because they
were working
on building
a pathway on Haulover Inlet so there would be easier access to
the beach, but a lot of the area had to be closed off for a while,
including
the
beach, and
that made locals and surfers angry, When the locals protested,
they made history by holding Florida's largest protest and made
many people
aware
that the beach
was closed because of developers. The beach is scheduled to open
up in May, if the walk way is finished. But for now, the local
citizens will
have to go
to another beach.
Can it help, or hurt?
Other people argue that coastal development isn't very big of
a problem, and that it can be solved by building farther away
from
the coastline
or be neat
and careful when building. Other people argue that building
hotels and apartments to attract tourists is more needed. But either
way, we need
to protect our
oceans from further harm and stop coastal development and other
worldly issues.