Like Sands Through The Hourglass
By Wyatt Earp | August 1, 2009
So are the days in Cancun.
If there was ever any doubt in your mind that Mexico is one of those loser countries, this story will certainly convince you. The entire country is rife with drugs, violence, and tainted water, but at least the authorities have their priorities in order.
They are worrying about “stolen sand.”
MEXICO CITY — Surprised tourists found their little piece of Cancun beach paradise ringed by crime-scene tape and gun-toting sailors on Thursday.
Environmental enforcement officers backed by Mexican navy personnel closed off hundreds of feet of powder-white coastline in front of a hotel accused of illegally accumulating sand on its beach.
Mexico spent $19 million to replace Cancun beaches washed away by Hurricane Wilma in 2005. But much of the sand pumped from the sea floor has since washed away, leading some property owners to build breakwaters in a bid to retain sand. The practice often merely shifts sand loss to beaches below the breakwaters.
“Today we made the decision to close this stretch of ill-gotten, illegally accumulated sand,” said Patricio Patron, Mexico’s attorney general for environmental protection. “This hotel was telling its tourists: ‘Come here, I have sand … the other hotels don’t, because I stole it.”‘ (H/T – FOXNews)
Oh for Pedro’s sake! First you have to worry about the water, now you have to worry about the sand, too?
Topics: WTF? | 4 Comments »
August 1st, 2009 at 7:56 pm
Lesson learned by the resorts- the next time the Attorney General sends his policia judicial to visit, pay la mordida.
I guess its a better deal than what the narcotraficantes offer the local police- la ploma o la plata (the silver or the lead).
August 2nd, 2009 at 7:30 am
I saw this story and thought “WTF? Didn’t any of these jerks visit the NJ Shore and see all those stone jetties?” (Officially called “groins”, BTW.)
Why do they think there are so many? It’s well known that if you put up just one, there is a scouring of the beach downstream from the groin about three or four times the length of the groin where the long-shore current that was running parallel to the beach and that your groin shoved out to sea has come sweeping back to the shore. So you build another to collect/hold the sand. And another…and another…. It’s not perfect, but it’s better than having all the sand washed away to collect at the mouths of large bays somewhere down the beach. (Can you say “Sandy Hook” or “Cape May” boys and girls?)
August 2nd, 2009 at 3:01 pm
All you ever wanted to know (and a whole lot more …) about transport of beach sand …
http://www.llanellisand.co.uk/porteynonhistorypart2.htm
The bottom line is 80% of beach erosion problems are man-made and the solutions are usually as bad as the problems.
Be grateful you are a few miles away from the problem areas.
(I live near the centre of Great Britain with beaches 90 or so miles away in all directions. I suspect you may have a little further to go …)
August 7th, 2009 at 9:05 am
#2 joated said: Officially called “groins”, BTW.
Not over here they ain’t, mate. GROYNES.
http://www.askoxford.com/concise_oed/groyne?view=uk