Sea Turtle Recovery Action Plan for Barbados - WIDECAST

Barbados Sea Turtles …
and stabilize beach sands) be considered favorable alternatives to armouring the beach. It is
presently illegal to construct any building within 100 ft (30 m) of the high water mark (section
4.21).
4.134 Beach cleaning equipment and vehicular use of beaches
Mechanized beach cleaning equipment can puncture or crush incubating sea turtle eggs
and its use should be avoided. Rakes which reach deep into the sand and compaction resulting
from tractors and trucks all diminish the hatching success of eggs incubating on the affected
beach. Fortunately, mechanical cleaning of beaches in Barbados is rare, although it does occur
adjacent to Sandy Lane Hotel and on the main Barbados Hilton beach, among others. The
positions of any nests made on these beaches are reported to Bellairs Research Institute and nests
are marked so that beach cleaning machinery does not run over them. The sandy beaches in
front of most hotels are hand-raked by hotel personnel in the early morning. On some other
beaches, cleaning is done by employees of the National Conservation Commission. All beaches
in Barbados are public.
In recent years there has been increasing use of cars and jeeps on beaches. Driving
vehicles on the beach compacts the sand, damages beach vegetation, and can cause or exacerbate
coastal erosion. Erosion exposes eggs in situ to wave action and reduces the amount of beach
available for sea turtles to nest on. Compaction adversely affects sea turtles by crushing eggs
and killing hatchlings. After breaking free from their eggs, full-term hatchlings work together
with their siblings to reach the surface of the beach and then remain just below the sand until
nightfall. When the sun sets and the beach cools, they are cued by the change in temperature to
emerge fully and crawl to the sea. If vehicles run over the unseen hatchlings waiting below the
surface, they can be fatally crushed. In addition, tyre ruts left in the sand can trap hatchlings and
prevent them from reaching the sea (Hosier et al., 1981). Vehicles can also strike and kill
hatchlings crawling to the sea, or frighten females away from nesting.
4.135 Beach rebuilding projects
Beach rebuilding projects are generally closely related to beach stabilization efforts in
Barbados (see section 4.133). Beach rebuilding projects typically involve the redistribution and
trapping of sand from existing beaches, and herein lies the problem. The existence of hotels
more or less continuously along the south coast means that trying to rebuild beaches at one hotel
may affect adjacent beaches and hotels. Solving such beach erosion problems has been the
responsibility of the Coastal Conservation Project Unit (CCPU). For instance, the CCPU
advised that the length of an already existing groyne at Sandhurst on the south coast be reduced
after complaints had been made that the groyne was starving a beach on its down drift side. The
CCPU also advised that a second breakwater be constructed off the Barbados Beach Village on
the west coast, after the hotel became concerned about erosion. This caused considerable
reaction from local residents who were worried about the erosion that had been caused in
1982-1983 by a poorly designed groyne that had been erected privately by the same hotel. The
same beach that was affected in 1982-1983 is well known for hawksbill nesting activity. So far,
there have been no adverse effects on this beach from the new breakwater.
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