A wide sandbar sealing off Blind Pass between Sanibel and Captiva islands is growing longer every week.
And while winds, tides, and storms can change its progress on any given day, so much sand is flowing south from a recent beach renourishment on Captiva Island that the pass is expected to close up hard and not be reopened by Lee County until at least next year.
"Because of the recent beach projects, it is prudent to allow the coastal systems some time to reach equilibrium before engaging in further activity, so that any work done doesn’t immediately fill in,” a Lee County spokeswoman said in a statement. “Lee County policy is to have an open pass.”
Lee County is also completing updated surveys this month and preparing to hire a dredge contractor. The reopening must also wait until the county adopts a plan that promises if the pass is dredged, the sand must be placed on adjacent eroded beaches, but where it is less likely to wash back into the pass.
“Coastal systems are naturally very dynamic,” the county statement said. “And even more so now as projects on Sanibel and Captiva only recently have been completed to repair erosion caused by multiple storms since 2022.”
Beach rebuilding would barely be a thing if the most expensive real estate in Florida were not built on barrier islands, which at their core are glorified sandbars.
Think of an undeveloped barrier island as nature’s maritime shock absorbers designed to break down waves and tame tides to protect the mainland shoreline behind them.
Storms reshape barrier island in a dramatic fashion, often overtopping them and, in effect, rolling them somewhere else.
Tides, coupled with the natural flow of sand from north to south along the Gulf Coast, are gentler processes that, in time, accomplish the same thing— move the barrier island to where nature wants it to be.
What panicked homeowners, losing the sand under their Gulf-front properties, call rampant erosion, others call the natural process of barrier island migration.
Environmental reporting for WGCU is funded in part by VoLo Foundation, a nonprofit with a mission to accelerate change and global impact by supporting science-based climate solutions, enhancing education, and improving health.
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