1/10/18 Report - The Future Starts Now. Great Article On How Sand Moves. A Few Finds.

Written by the TreasureGuide for the exclusive use of treasurebeachesreport.blogspot.com

Finds and photo by Steve in Sebastian

I received the following email Saturday along with the above photo from Steve.

Found these items yesterday near the power plant. Coins are modern, items on top appear to be copper or brass. Don’t know yet what large chunk in lower right is, need to investigate.


Steve.


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In my January 5 post, I included a great email from Steve about "another kind of treasure." He thought about the past and the immediate aftermath of the wrecking of the 1715 Fleet.

We know a bit about the past, so when we imagine what it must have been like for those involved, we have some history and facts to start with.  If, on the other hand, we think about the future, it seems more open-ended and more difficult.  I have a hard time imagining what it might be like three hundred years from now, but I decided to think about that a little anyhow.

If we start with current trends, it might be reasonable to expect increased development of our coastline.  With that there might be more restricted beach access.  Certainly there will be no place that you will be able to hunt in the dunes, as you could do in the not too distant past.  I'd also expect the beaches to become more unnatural.  Beach renourishment has already become a yearly thing for some beaches.  Man shapes the beaches more and more and the beaches become less natural.

The sea is rising.  The study I will refer to in more detail below talked about a rise of at least one foot per hundred years.

It seems the beaches are becoming more junky.  You see a lot of plastic and other garbage on the beach that will not deteriorate in a thousand years.  I'd expect that trend to continue.

There are a lot of questions.  Will the archaeological or homeowner communities control more and perhaps make detecting on the beaches illegal?  You might not know this but one of the homeowner groups already took legal action against salvage efforts taking place in front of their community.

Metal detectors will undoubtedly improve, but how and where will you be able to use them?

Robot metal detectors?  Years ago I thought about how I could use a remote control vehicle to carry a coil.  One big problem would be marking a hit.  I thought about using spray paint.   You get the idea.  Lots of engineering problems to solve.  Not that difficult though.

I wouldn't be surprised if there was a new type of artificial sand or additive that will be used to replace or prevent the natural sand from being washed away.

Just some wild guesses.  

The future starts now.  Maybe you can help shape it in some way.

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I found a great article describing the changes that occur to a barrier island system - both short term and long term.

Here are a few excerpts.

Barrier beaches and spits are constantly raised up, shifted, and torn down by the natural ebb and flow of waves, currents, winds, and tides. Storms can reshape them abruptly and dramatically. Hooks form, inlets open and close, and beaches slowly march across their back bays and lagoons toward the mainland, as if seeking shelter from the full force of the ocean. This process allows them to naturally march upwards as sea levels rise.

On the southeastern elbow of Cape Cod, where the New England coast reaches out into the cold and choppy North Atlantic, this natural progression has been taking place in full view of satellites for more than 30 years. The images above were collected by three generations of Landsat instruments: the Thematic Mapper on Landsat 5, the Enhanced Thematic Mapper Plus on Landsat 7, and the Operational Land Imager on Landsat 8. Each scene shows the shape of the coast off of Chatham, Massachusetts, from June 12, 1984, through September 11, 2017. (Click on the dots to scroll through the images, or hit the play arrow for a slideshow.)

The entire article is worth reading. It will help you understand the flow of sand and there fore where to find the areas where things are likely to be uncovered. This article is a must-read for any serious beach or shallow water hunter.

Here is another excerpt from the same article.

The changes to the Nauset-Monomoy barrier system are sometimes subtle and sometimes dramatic. In 1984, when the image series begins, an unbroken barrier spit shields the Atlantic-facing coast of Chatham and its harbor. South of the mainland, North and South Monomoy Islands stand apart from each other and from the coast. Over the span of 30 years and 15 images, three major breaches open in the system and the barrier islands connect to the coastline and to each other at various times. All the while, sandbars and shoals—which appear as light tan waters just offshore—hint at the underwater movement of sand up and down the coast.

The first major change appears in September 1987. A nor’easter in January 1987 cut a new inlet through North Beach, forming what the locals called South Beach Island. In the 1990 image, the north end of South Beach Island nearly connects to the mainland; by 1993, the connection is complete and the south end of the spit starts to grow longer and wider. For most of the 1990s and early 2000s, South Beach keeps reaching southward toward South Monomoy. Meanwhile, the waters around North Monomoy grow shallower as sandbars and shoals rise up toward the water line.

Here is the link.

https://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Features/WorldOfChange/cape_cod.php



One thing they found was a major cycle that repeated about every 150 years.  There are both long-term ad short-term beach cycles.  Short term and long term cycles can interact.  I can't get into all of that now.

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On the Treasure Coast we'll have a couple days of three to five foot surf.  The tides are moderate.  The wind isn't favorable.

Happy hunting,
TreasureGuide@comcast.net

12/1/13 Report - Submersible Robot, Comparing and Contrasting Sandy and This November & Warners Safe Bottles

Written by the TreasureGuide for the exclusive use of treasurebeachesreport.blogspot.com.

Turtle-Like Shipwreck Robot
Photo from article linked below.

The recently concluded blog poll was very informative.  It gave us a very good idea of how many people found cobs or treasure coins and allowed comparison with other periods when cobs or treasure coins were found.

I just added a new poll to the blog to find out what types of things were found.  Thanks for your participation, which will significantly add to the overall body of knowledge of beach detecting.

I've thought a little more about the comparisons between Sandy and Nov. 2013.   They were very similar in some ways and very different in others.

One striking similarity was that exactly the same number of people reported finding cobs or treasure coins for both Sandy and this November - 15 for each.  The number of respondents for the Sandy poll was only 90, while the sample size for November was 100.   That could make a little difference, but still about the same number of people reportedly found cobs or treasure coins.  (I had a three beach conditions rating on both as the highest predominant rating.)

The water during Sandy came up very high on the beach - back up over most of the flat beach and near or to the foot of the dunes.  This November, in contrast, the water never got near that far back.

During Sandy the erosion was farther back on the beach but the producing cuts were not as big.  I believe the cobs found during Sandy came from a greater number of beaches.

The number of cobs found during Sandy was pretty high considering the relative lack of erosion.

This November I believe fewer beaches produced, but those that did produce, produced greater concentrations.  And the cobs were more closely associated with cuts than during Sandy.

I've learned some things from that.   The beaches don't always show outstanding cuts when they are producing.  High water can do the job even when the beaches are not nicely cut.

It appears to me that high water conditions without big cutting produces cobs that are more spread over a larger area than the clusters that are produced near cuts when the cuts are bigger and closer to the front of the beach.  I'll be sure to observe and test those theories in the future.



Here is an article about a nice little submersible robot for studying shipwrecks.  (See photo above.)

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-2515099/Meet-U-CAT-robotic-turtle-help-archaeologists-investigate-shipwrecks.html



If you dig bottles, here is one more little tip that will help determine how old your bottle is.  The tip comes from Kovels Komments.

A very rare Warner's Safe Diabetes Cure bottle from Pressburg (Bratislava, Slovakia) has sold on eBay for $8,735. It was made for only a few years, 1888 to 1890. (See Bottles and Extras magazine, November-December 2013). Warner's Safe Cure medicine bottles are popular with collectors, and there are dozens of variations. I have a few Warner's bottles and a large, very odd poster that shows a Warner's Safe Kidney and Liver Cure box and a mermaid on a buoy near a sinking ship. The words on the poster say, "We guarantee safety by taking the right channel." A common Warner's Safe Cure bottle sells for as little as $35 to $200. The Pure Food and Drug Act of 1906 required truth in labeling, and the word "cure" on bottles was replaced by "remedy." So "cure" bottles are over 100 years old.


I hope your Thanksgiving went well.  Only one more month to go this year.  Can you believe it?   It seems like just a few days ago I had to get used to writing 2013.


The wind has been blowing pretty good.  I'll have to get out to the beach soon to see what if anything is going on.


Today on the Treasure Coast we're supposed to have something like a 3 - 5 foot surf.  Yesterday it was a touch higher.  The surf is supposed to decrease steadily until next weekend until it is down around two feet.


Happy hunting,
TreasureGuide@comcast.net

3/6/12 Report - Metal Detecting Robot, Safe Holes, & Increasing Seas

Written by the Treasureguide for the exclusive use of Treaurebeachesreport.blogspot.com.

Metal Detecting Robot.

That image is from the following YouTube video.

This is hilarious. You won't want to miss it.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3PMx5taMWeE

I can't help but laugh when I watch that.

If you put a blade on it instead of a coil, it could cut the weeds.

Here is another, but not as funny.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=endscreen&NR=1&v=0puqCa_IQMI

I would redesign both of those.

Michael K. said there is now an ordinance (1545) that bans digging of "unsafe" holes on Cocoa beach. It isn't aimed at detectorists but could be if you did dig what is considered to be an unsafe hole.

As I pointed out yesterday, the big holes on the beach are usually dug by children or youth that spend their day playing games. Fill your holes anyhow.

One thing I always thought was more dangerous than holes is those fishing lines with hooks attached that get partially buried in the sand or tied up in sea weed. I once got a hook from a fishing lure stuck in my foot. Instead of banning fishing though, or fining people for leaving fishing hooks on the beach, I'd say just wear footwear and be careful.

Detectorists pick up thousands of fishing hooks and lead sinkers. I know I've picked up hundreds of each.

If I didn't know better (let's say I'm an archaeologists that discovers all of these sinkers on the beach and in the water sometime in the distant future) there are so many I might think they were thrown at the fish to knock them out or give them lead poisoning.

Talking about trash, it looks like they dredged up a lot of trash at Fort Pierce. I have some photos and video of that, but didn't upload it. Just take a look at the garbage piled up near the water line near the jetty. Disgusting.

Bathtub Beach has reopened once again.

I've mentioned the Florida Public Archaeology Network (FPAN) a few times lately. The FPAN site for the Treasure Coast is in the East Central FPAN region. And the contacts for that region are located in Cocoa where they maintain a nice Florida History library.

Here is a link to a web site that will tell you more about that.

http://myfloridahistory.org/

You might want to volunteer to work with FPAN or support the Florida Historical Society. It might help them learn the difference between a grave robber or looter and a detectorist who shares their interests in history and archaeology.

Treasure Coast Beach Detecting Conditions.

Conditions are poor right now, but the seas will be increasing through the day, reaching up to seven feet or more Wednesday and Thursday. That could do quite a bit to improve conditions.

I'll have more on how that actually turns out tomorrow.


Happy hunting,
TreasureGuide@comcast.net