Posted on August 6, 2025
By 2025, any serious conversation about coastal futures begins with two inescapable truths:
- Nature’s sand supply to beaches has been severed by centuries of damming, river engineering, urbanization, and hardened shorelines.
- Because we broke that supply chain, we’ve inherited the job of becoming nature’s supplier. Self-sustaining beaches won’t return on their own.
This is hard for surfers and environmentalists to accept. We still picture the coast as wild and self-healing. But that cycle was interrupted long ago — and it won’t fix itself. What’s at stake now isn’t untouched wilderness, but the survival of the ecosystems and communities that remain.
Modern conservation means defending and repairing systems like beaches and dunes. Let nature work — but give it the help it needs in a world we’ve already reshaped. Anything less isn’t environmentalism. It’s surrender.
Where We Stand
More than 75% of Southern California’s coastline is engineered and/or affected by engineering. Sand is either being artificially nourished or held in place. On the East Coast, that percentage is even higher — nearly all of New Jersey, New York, and Florida are fronted by hardened inlets, groins, jetties, and artificial dunes.
Yet beach maintenance is still treated as an afterthought. Despite this, even limited investments continue to deliver massive returns.
Beaches are more than cultural landmarks — they’re the largest sector of the U.S. recreational economy, generating over $36 billion in annual tax revenue. Meanwhile, the federal government has spent just $10 billion total on beach nourishment over the past century.
The idea of pristine, self-sustaining beaches lingers. But preserving them — ecologically, economically, culturally — makes sense. Around the world, smart governments are waking up to that fact. The question is: where will the sand come from?
Sand Isn’t Just Sand
When properly sourced, beach sand sustains ecosystems, filters water, stores carbon, and supports recreation, tourism, and real estate. But the supply of good sand is dwindling.
“Why not use desert sand?” It’s a fair question — but desert grains are too smooth and rounded. They don’t interlock like angular coastal grains. Drop Sahara sand on a beach and it’ll blow away or behave like powdered coffee creamer in the surf.
Even coastal sand isn’t interchangeable. Each beach has its own fingerprint — grain size, color, mineral composition — that affects how it compacts, holds shape, and resists wave energy.
In the 1920s, Waikiki started importing sand from Manhattan Beach, California, which continued through the ’60s. But it turned the South Shore water cloudy, drove out nearshore fish, and didn’t hold. Hawaii now sources sand locally — but those reserves are limited and increasingly contested.
In Newport Beach, the dammed and channelized Santa Ana River delivers just 8% usable sand. The rest is too fine to build beaches — a problem playing out across coastlines worldwide.
Waikiki, circa 1954, with sand from Manhattan Beach.
The Global Sand Race
The construction industry is the other major player in the global sand crunch. Between 40 and 50 billion tons of sand and gravel are extracted annually — second only to water — to make concrete, asphalt, and mortar. Demand is soaring.
This has triggered global shortages, black markets, and environmental crises. In parts of Asia and Africa, rivers, beaches, and seabeds are stripped illegally. In some places, sand mafias control supply chains. And here’s the kicker: once sand becomes concrete or pavement, it’s gone from the coastal system forever.
Finding good sand is just the start. Extracting it requires access, permits, ships, and infrastructure. The U.S. offshore dredging fleet is small and outdated. Laws like the Jones Act prevent the country from using more modern foreign equipment. U.S.-constructed dredgers can only reach 100 feet deep — compared to 400 feet in the Netherlands. Which matters. Shallow, nearshore borrow sites are drying up. The future of beach resilience may depend as much on technology and access as on funding.
Puerto Escondido, Mexico loves sand.
The Dutch Model
No country has done more to master sand management than the Netherlands. With 26% of their land below sea level — including their three biggest economic hubs — they’ve had no choice.
In 1990, the Dutch set a national shoreline policy: the coastline must not retreat inland of its 1990 position. If erosion passes that point, the sand is replaced — usually within one to three years. It’s written into water law and backed by long-term funding. Since then, they’ve completed more than 300 nourishment projects.
With better access and unmatched dredging capacity, the Dutch now place more than 15 million cubic yards of sand annually — leading the world in sustainable coastal defense.
Sand Motor Project, Netherlands. Note both the width of the beach and the folks enjoying the sand.
The Sand Motor
In 2011, they tried something radically different: the Sand Motor. Instead of spreading sand along miles of coastline, they dumped 20 million cubic yards into one crescent-shaped peninsula within a 10-mile stretch near The Hague.
Then they let nature take over.
Within a year, a lagoon formed. Kitesurfers, birders, dog walkers, and families showed up. As waves spread the sand, dunes thickened, biodiversity rose — except in high-traffic festival zones.
Fourteen years later, the Sand Motor is still thriving. Offshore bars now form during storms, diffusing wave energy. Afterward, smaller waves push that sand back to shore, rebuilding the beach naturally.
Originally expected to last 20 years, the Sand Motor may now hold for 40. The takeaway: the best way to protect sand… is with more sand.
A Wake-Up Call
The Netherlands shows what’s possible: science-driven, pragmatic, culturally rooted coastal stewardship.
Meanwhile, in the U.S., federal beach nourishment funding was cut entirely in 2025 — the first time in over three decades — despite beaches generating $36 billion annually.
As quality sand grows scarce, local and federal leaders will decide whether beaches are essential infrastructure — or expendable luxuries. In this series, we’ve shown how they serve as defense systems, economic drivers, ecological habitats, and cultural icons. But healthy beaches don’t just appear. They require vision, investment, and commitment.
The Gold Coast’s points wouldn’t be possible without a steady supply of sand. Samuel Toti, Greenmount.
What Can You Do?
Start with awareness — with local politics, even within your surf community. This issue can split hardcore environmentalists and pragmatic conservationists. Before supporting a group or party or person just because they share your identity, make sure they share your values — and recognize that how we manage sand today will shape the coastlines we pass on tomorrow.
***
Bring Back Our Beaches, a San Clemente-based conservation organization, is dedicated to protecting coastal ecosystems by emphasizing the vital role sand plays in preserving surf spots, beaches, and coastlines worldwide. In partnership with Surfline, this new series of features, posts, and videos will showcase global case studies highlighting the importance of sustainable beach nourishment programs.
