So these images were taken this past Monday after the blow and before the full Wolf Moon arrived. What you see is the after effect of some big weather, big tides, and big moon on the newly "replenished beaches". These images came to me from Leif who got them from Tony who may or may not shot them himself. Tony is a regular on the Deal beat, nice guy, but he only spin fishes. Kidding about that.
So Frankie Pallone is a powerhouse in the Democratic scene, at least locally, well he is a U.S. Congressman from the 6th District, serving since 1988...that's right 1988...a career politician, the worst kind. Anyway, Frank needs and likes votes and loves to cater to the rich and wealthy that pay big taxes and donate big money to his campaigns. He loves money and people with money. He has always claimed to be on the side of fisherman, recreational and commercial, and the environment, and the surfers, who know, anyone who can cast a vote, more than a line. On his website it says, 'Congressman Pauline has been a longtime advocate for New Jersey's recreational and commercial fishing industry". Mmmmm, really?
Sand and beaches = beach front homes, real estate taxes, tourists, parking and beach tag fees. That's it, money, the root of most of the evil in the world, money, greed, and then sex. Can you imagine walking down the beach to have sex and hitting that beach scarp? Forget it, broken limbs or neck.
So here's a couple of things I found while writing. Check out this photo from Westerly, Rhode Island taken in 1954 after Hurricane Carol. Instead of towing the damaged cars away, they decided to dig a trough along the beach and bury them. The thinking was it would prevent erosion. It did until Superstorm Sandy in 2012, and then years from that. Cars pieces and entire cars would be unsanded and have to be recovered or removed. Below is a Studebaker hubcap found on the beach.
From 2012 to now towns along the East Coast have been learning about the archaic measures towns and the government would take to curb beach erosion, before they came up with the brilliant idea to pump sand, destroy the ecosystem, and then do it again, and again and again, to the tune of hundreds of millions, now probably over a billion dollars in total. Below is the same kinda old-car-control used in Southampton Long Island but discovered in 2013.
Now we can agree, playing Monday morning quarterback, that these efforts, using old cars, couldn't have done good for the environment, and maybe borderline good in controlling beach erosion. It's like a head shaker, like, "Hey, I have an idea, lets take barges of garbage from New York City and try to sell them to other states, if not we'll dump them in the ocean".....winning! Do you remember the bays and
beaches when hypodermic needles and tampon applicators were the things kids used to decorate their snd castles. I do. So that wasn't a good idea either. And that brings us to today, and how we will be judged in years to come. There is some hope and light in this. New Jersey isn't all bad. The idea to use ex-Christams trees seems to be a win-win, reduce the need, work and mass of getting rid of wasteful-used-once trees and helping curb beach erosion. They have done this on Long Beach Island, a place
where interference with Mother Nature hasn't occurred and along beaches north of there up into Monmouth County. Maybe we should do a better job with dune replenishment, natural of course.....but then what, what will Frankies beachfront cronies say? "Its not flat. I can't see the water.", and, "You know we vote for you".....
Above is s great video I found that really hits home the point of how beach replenishment destroys the underwater ecosystem, which is bad for marine life, but also destroys any kind of consistent, non-blitz, fishery along the coast. I'll get into that at a later date, but that is what our fishery along the Jersey Shore has become. Mostly luck. Luck in catching some passing fish. Luck in catching a blitz. But long gone are the days where predator fish would set up and hang around. They hang now, but mostly in the bays and reverser off the beach, way past the sand bars and off the flat barren sandy bottoms that have been created by donor sites taken from the channels and patches along the coast.