Posted on August 14, 2024
BAY COUNTY, Fla. (WJHG/WECP) -The relationship between rip currents and beach renourishment has been a hot topic.
Bay County Tourist Development Council Executive Director Dan Rowe said beach renourishment plays a key role in maintaining the health of the beach.
“Panama City Beach has had an active beach renourishment program going back to the 90s,” Rowe said. “It’s very important for us to make sure that we have a wide beach for upland protection during storm events.”
Within the last three months, about five people died after swimming in local gulf waters. Officials say many of the swimmers got caught in a rip current. The increase in water deaths has raised concerns.
Thomas Pierro is the principal engineer with Coastal Protection Engineering, a firm that has worked with the Bay County Tourist Development Council since the 90s.
“We did a fairly detailed review of the available monitoring data which is beach profile data that we collect year over year we did a review of sediment grain sizes of the sand placed on the beach and we did a review of the available scientific literature that deals with the topic of rip currents dating all the way back from the 1930s until very recent research,” Pierro said.
The results of the month-long study were revealed Tuesday at the TDC meeting.
The executive director of the TDC said all beach renourishment does is move the shoreline further into the gulf.
