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

12/22 Report - Only two more shopping days.

Beach at John Brooks This Morning.

Most of the beach that I saw this morning was not eroded. Here is a rather typical beach at John Brooks park. I liked the little run-off ravine created by the water running from behind the pile of new sand.

Of course that means that the water was pretty high this morning. Unfortunately, it wasn't high enough to hit the back dunes at any of the places where I was.

More on other beach spots below.


I ran across a web site that shows a shipwreck that was discovered off of Cape Cod when it was spotted from an airplane. It appears to be a schooner.

The article talks about how the weather recently uncovered the wreck. It also mentioned a couple of other wrecks in the same area, including one that guarded Boston Harbor the night of Paul Revere's famed ride.

Here is that link.

http://www.boston.com/news/local/massachusetts/articles/2010/12/18/50_foot_long_shipwreck_discovered_off_chatham/

The British ship, the HMS Somerset, wrecked about three years after the night of Paul Revere's ride.

Here is a nice web site about the Somerset, which includes some photos of the wreck, or what remains of it, sticking out of the sand.

Here is that link.

http://www.hmssomerset.com/apps/photos/album?albumid=3811441

You can back up from that link and read more about the Somerset if you wish.


Now, back to beach conditions.


One Small Cut This Morning.

This cut was only about a foot high and ran for about fifty yards. It produced a few modern coins.

But there were better cuts to be found even though most spots were not cut.

The beach just south of Fort Pierce inlet was really eroding this morning. The drop-off was about six feet and ran for over a hundred yards.

Unfortunately we paid for all of that sand to be dumped there and now, just a few months later, it is gone again already. I suppose they can't wait to pay someone to bring in more sand that might last a few months.

Beach South of Fort Pierce Inlet This Morning.

In some places the newly planted sea oats were falling in.

Overall, I would say that conditions are mixed. A few spots show heavy erosion, some spots a little erosion, and many of the beaches no erosion.

In recent posts I've been mentioning how areas to the south of obstructions such as inlets, sea walls, and rocks are eroding while most places are not.

From the look of the area just south of Fort Pierce inlet, I would say that my best bet for finding cobs would be just south of Jupiter Inlet. I haven't personally been there to see it, but would guess that from how the beach south of the Fort Pierce inlet is acting, Jupiter could well be doing something similar. If I had the time, I would check it out.

You can use the link of the site that shows photos of the Jupiter beaches from my main page.

I've been finding good numbers of modern coins and jewelry on the Treasure Coast, but not much in the way of shipwreck cobs. My treasure beaches rating scale is based upon the probability of finding cobs. As I said, that in my opinion is not a high probability right now other than perhaps down at Jupiter, and, like I said, I haven't had the opportunity to check that out but recent reports say that shipwreck items were being found down there.

Another spot that I hear has been eroding is the area south of Rio Mar. It might be worth checking.

Some nice sized waves were really banging the front of the beach this morning. You could see it really churning things up.

I'm somewhere between a 1 and 2 on my Treasure Coast Treasure Beach Conditions Scale. (The scale is a five point scale with one being poor and five outstanding.) There is some improvement occurring. I don't know if it will be sustained and continue to a point that will produce cobs in numbers or not.

At times like this it is worth at least scouting around to see what different areas are doing.

Oh, I did find one little sparkly item that will serve as a Christmas present for someone today.

Happy hunting,
TreasureGuide@comcast.net