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The Current

How sand mining is threatening the world's beaches

From the deserts of Morocco to the beaches of the Caribbean, boatloads of sand are being spirited away, legally & Illegally to enhance shorelines from Spain to Florida to Singapore, or to be used in the cement for high-rises that tower over prime coastal properties. But sand is a major natural resource that is now running out....
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The Current23:25How sand mining is threatening the world's beaches - Nov 10, 2014
From the deserts of Morocco to the beaches of the Caribbean, boatloads of sand are being spirited away, legally & Illegally to enhance shorelines from Spain to Florida to Singapore, or to be used in the cement for high-rises that tower over prime coastal properties. But sand is a major natural resource that is now running out.


Anyone fortunate enough to stand on a Caribbean beach has likely admired the endless stretches of sand; warm, inviting and apparently infinite. Except it's not infinite. Sand mining, much of it illegal sand theft, is threatening beaches around the world.

They have operations as large as 200 dump trucks waiting in line to get sand from the dunes . Orrin Pilkey tracks sand mining

Orrin Pilkey is Professor Emeritus of Earth and Ocean Sciences at Duke University. He has been tracking the issue for decades, and he's witnessed it first hand.

Loading of large sand trucks at bottom of sand mine on the coast of Morocco


The type of operation he describes is happening on beaches around the world. Sand is a valuable commodity with many industries demanding more. And so many of the world's dunes and beaches are disappearing, often stolen and shipped thousands of kilometres.

Claire Le Guern is a lawyer and the General Director of the Santa Aguila Foundation - Coastal Care based in California.

While sand theft is one of the big reasons beaches are disappearing, it's not the only threat to coastlines.

Andrew Cooper is a professor of Coastal Studies in the School of Environmental Sciences at the University of Ulster. He is also the co-author, with Orrin Pilkey, of The Last Beach, which is being released this week. Andrew Cooper joined us from Coleraine in Northern Ireland.


This segment was produced by The Current's Ines Colabrese and Liz Hoath.



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