The Disappearing Sand

The news that Muro and Can Picafort beaches have been losing approximately a thousand square metres of area every year sounds alarming to say the least. Or is it? I confess that being able to conceive of one thousand square metres is something of a challenge. Were it all in one place, then it would be pretty straightforward and far, far more alarming. One assumes, one knows, therefore, that the thousand square metres per annum have been rather more widely distributed or un-distributed, as the case may be.

The loss of this beach area has been going on for some time. Over fifty years, up to 2008, the beaches were divested of 51,000 square metres, which really is very much more alarming. One wonders, though, how it is that there still are beaches, and beaches, moreover, which look in a pretty reasonably sandy state.

One imagines that if one goes further back in time, i.e. longer than the 50-year period that they appear to have been measuring the loss of beach, there was also some loss. Or perhaps there wasn't.

The erosion is down to two things: the wind and a lack of sediment being washed up to replace the dispersed beach. It isn't, or isn't yet, the consequence of rising sea levels, but these are probably only a matter of time.

The wind has always been there and there isn't a great deal that can be done about it. Or rather, this was the case before the Costas Authority, now making a big deal about how it is saving the beaches, hit upon the idea of putting up sand traps. These, for the most part (and they are to be found on beaches elsewhere), are sort of bamboo/wicker affairs. Others are altogether more solid constructions, i.e. of wood, normally right at the back of beaches where the beaches meet roads. The theory behind the traps is simple enough. The sand is buffeted up against them rather than blown by the wind all over cars that have been parked on the adjoining roads.

I went and had a look at some of these sand traps. I could remember when they were originally being put up. The solid ones are still solid enough, but the others most certainly aren't. There does seem to be a major design flaw, as in they are too flimsy to withstand not the sand but the force of nature which drives the sand in the first place, namely the wind. Most of them are bent or broken or simply are no longer there. The Costas do a good job in saying what a good job they are doing in saving the beaches but do a less good job when it comes to maintenance.

The lack of sediment is potentially all the more troubling. Over the fifty years, the Costas reckon that only some 250 square metres have been deposited, which is negligible when compared with the overall erosion. Why would this be though? One answer may well lie with the posidonia sea grass.

It has been proved that posidonia traps sediment and prevents it suffering its own erosion. This, in turn, facilitates its being brought to shore, a naturally occurring phenomenon as the sea grass is broken down and then deposited onto beaches by wave motion. But if the posidonia is being lost (and it is argued that it is), then a replenishment with sediment is affected. At least I think this is how it's all meant to work. Perhaps there is a marine biologist out there who can offer a rather better explanation.

The drive to prevent a loss of beach started earlier than the installation of the sand traps. Five years ago, the dunes began to be roped off and at the same time somewhat peculiar notices began to appear asking beach users to brush sand off themselves as the sand was needed. It seemed a rather odd request, but now it seems rather less odd.

The roping-off of the dunes has gone way further. There is now one designated route through the dunes and forest where Playa de Muro and Can Picafort beaches meet. It is a real shame, as it used to be possible to just ramble wherever you wanted. Nature is now fenced off and has to be admired by looking on rather than being a part of.

Wind, sediment, beach users taking sand home on their towels. One can, I suppose, understand all this. But there is one further factor, and it applies especially to Can Picafort. Construction. Dunes were levelled and were built on. And when did this start? About fifty years ago.

Any comments to andrew@thealcudiaguide.com please.

Alternate Title

The Pollensa "alternative". It's not some sort of promotional slogan, though it wouldn't be a bad one, if I could actually think what it might apply to. No, the Pollensa alternative is a political thing; it is the alternative of the United Left (Esquerra Unida) and Els Verds (The Greens). From what I can make out, it is an alternative of one, namely Pepe García, whose name crops up as regularly, if not more so in matters to do with Pollensa, than arch publicity seekers, the environmental group GOB. One-man alternative or not, García does certainly seem bent on getting everyone to know who he is. When you have a target like Pollensa's poor old mayor, who everyone seems to want to have a pop at, it seems that you can't really go wrong. I imagine Sr. García gets up in the morning, and thinks, now what can I do to make the mayor's life a misery today? Ah yes, I know. And so it follows. Whatever it is. And the thought he had the other day was to do with Cala San Vicente. Poor old Cala San Vicente. Lovely little place, but dying on its feet, not that it has feet as such, more a disabled carriage slowly sinking into the sand of oblivion.

Anything with the hint of the new or cutting out a bit of nature, and GOB are onto it like a lion hunting its prey, closely followed - in Pollensa - by the alternative; the alternative Sr. García, that is. Or maybe GOB follow him. Who knows? Anyway, things have not been all sweetness and light down CSV way for some while, owing to a new development of apartments by the Cala Molins (which is the lower part of Cala San Vicente, for those of you who know the place). Some pines have been eliminated to make way for the development, but the real beef at present is the presence of a bloody great crane, about which - apparently - the alternative has received complaints from neighbours. The alternative goes on to suggest that perhaps the appropriate licence that allows the use of the crane is not in effect. Oh God no, here we go, more bloody licence stuff. And accordingly, the alternative will probably issue a "denuncia". Of course they're going to use a crane. I can point to a crane near to me that has been there for months - during the stalled summer works on a new development and now beyond. Cranes are fairly useful things to have around when doing some building. But down in the Cala, such things should not be allowed. Ridiculous. And one comes back to all this equally ridiculous nonsense about licences and ever more ridiculous nonsense of a denuncia being filed, which means that the police have to get involved, go investigate, hold things up in all likelihood. It is just so silly, but that is how it is here. Ridiculous and silly. Just build the damn apartments, and have done with it. They might even be to the benefit of Cala San Vicente, because I doubt that constantly moaning politicians are.


Bamboo on the beach
Remember my talking about the bamboo barriers for sand and the fact that there weren't any (17 December: Raising Sand)? Well, in Playa de Muro, at any rate, they've erected them again. Must have happened over the past couple of days. So, with a bit of luck, the sand will stay put - on the beach - which is the point of them. But why, if keeping the sand where it belongs, is so important, do they not put them up in November? Indeed, why not just keep them there all year? It's not as if there isn't wind in winter. Don't understand this. There again, all the detritus that has piled up on the beaches - and there seems to be much more than normal this winter - will have to be shifted at some point. That means a bulldozer or several. And that also means a whole load of sand being scooped up.


QUIZ
Yesterday's title - "Belfast Child", Simple Minds (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oFIMJxV2tjI). Today's title - who, and what was alternate? (Alternate, especially in the US, is widely used to mean alternative; in case you were wondering.)

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Raising Sand

With the wind in a particularly foul mood and the possibility of a sudden deluge of biblical proportions, you do feel as though you are taking your life into your hands by going for a brisk stroll to the beach. A sudden switch from a Llevant to a Tramuntana wind and a small gale-pressed tidal wave comes hurtling towards you, a mixture of grey and mucky brown. When the sea gets as bad-tempered as it is at present, it loses all semblance of that azure and turquoise brochure talk. To cut across to the other side of England from yesterday, it's rather more like what you might witness taking the train by the side of the Humber. Unpleasant, to say the least. Still, a walk is invigorating, one might argue. There is another way of describing it - cold and miserable. Let me get back for a hot cup of tea, thanks very much. However, there was time to become aware of something down on Playa de Muro beach. Or rather, to become aware of something that wasn't there. There was a hint of this as one trod through the sand, turned mud, on the road leading to the beach. And that was it of course - sand - and those barriers that were erected to stop the sand being blown onto the roads. I'd completely forgotten about them. So, I checked. It was 28 January (Stranger On The Shore) that I wrote about them. And what they were, were V-shaped constructions, made from bamboo, which were designed to act as obstacles to the sand. It hadn't actually occurred to me, until yesterday, that they weren't of course there during the summer. So, let's just get this right. At the end of January, they put them up, and, in all likelihood, had taken them down again two or three months later. And they haven't put them back up again. What was the point of all that?

The point behind them was two-fold - one to stop the roads and streets getting blasted with sand, and two to keep the sand where it belongs, i.e. on the beach. This is, after all, a stretch of beach with serious concerns for its sand, if one accepts the command, that is, of the sign further along to brush sand off before leaving the beach - as it is needed! Now, these bamboo things were not concrete - quite obviously they weren't - but what I mean to say is that they were not without gaps; gaps through which and indeed over which sand could be blown. It is in the nature of sand that it gets blown about. It doesn't, on an individual grain basis, weigh a great deal; hence it is blown. Yet, the environmental concern for its well-being and its remaining on the beach stretches merely to a stupid sign and a few pikes of bamboo. Build a ruddy great wall if it's that important. But I suspect it isn't. Rather, the vain attempts at holding back the sand have been done so that someone can say that they're doing something, albeit that they're not doing very much, right down to not very much putting the stakes back in situ for the winter - yet. There again, maybe the very appearance of these bamboo jobbies was some sort of job-creation scheme. Here you are lads, go and hammer these stakes into the beach, and when you've done all of them, you can go back and take them out again. All rather like the rubbish cleaning of beaches of a couple of winters ago. I don't know if they're bothering with that still. It was all made to sound very tourist-friendly, despite the lack of tourists, and pleasant on the eye, but when the money gets tight, they probably take the view that the seaweed and sea-grass kiwi-fruit baubles that accumulate - as they have accumulated for, well, for ever - can take care of themselves. Along with the sand.

And just to put all this weather in context - November had the most rain for 50 years, and December will probably break all records. In Lluc, up in the mountains, there were some 276 litres per square metre. Yesterday, a fifth of main roads were closed because of floods, fallen trees or subsidence. These included those between Sa Pobla and Alcúdia and Sa Pobla and Pollensa. Albufera has reached its capacity, and that means it will flood. Batten down the hatches, boys!


QUIZ
Yesterday's title - "Everything's Just Wonderful", Lily Allen (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1-vWCUvOPXM). Today's title - well, it was this blog's album of the year in 2007.

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Stranger On The Shore

They do some strange things on the beach.

Another beautiful afternoon for a yomp by the water’s edge in Playa de Muro, a beautiful afternoon for engaging workmen in somewhat fruitless conversation. Too busy working perhaps, or maybe they are not used to someone who so obviously is not a “local” asking them what they’re doing. “Arena”, that much I discerned. I had presumed this was the case. “Arena” is sand by the way.

What they have been doing is this: by access points to the beach, they have been building fences in a V-shape made from bamboo. Where one road leads to the beach, there is already a fence – a straight one. Now, just onto the beach, there is another one. There is still just sufficient room to get past it, but only just. By a “balneario” (beach bar), both the paths that have been formed in the sand and dunes have had these fences erected at the beach end.

Uncommunicative the workmen may have been, but their explanation was clear enough. The fences are to stop sand, to stop sand blowing onto the road and up paths and other access points. Well maybe they are, though if fences are built with bamboo sticks (with gaps between them) will sand not find a way through? And if there are gaps to either side of the fence, which correspond with the access gaps of the first fence, will sand not find its way through to the road when the wind blows in a convenient direction?

If the intention is to stop sand, might some other form of structure not have made more sense? It all seems rather half-hearted, and I can’t help but wonder if there isn’t another half-hearted reason for these fences – to try and deter the bringing of all the paraphernalia that finds its way onto the beach. They won’t stop that, not that they necessarily should. Nor, I suspect, will the fences stop the sand. It’s like when they roped off a fair old portion of the beach and dunes in the “rustic” part of the beach. It was, said the sign, to allow some birds to nest. Maybe it was, but was it just coincidence that the same portion of beach and dunes was popular with the kit-off sunbather? No, I’m sure it was just coincidence. Forget it. Strange things on the beach, let’s not go there.


QUIZ
Yesterday – Jack Good. Today’s title – well it could be, as in getting stranger, couldn’t it? Anyway, which clarinettist?

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