SFB Beach Working Groups Formed

The Beach Joint Action Committee, incorporating the St Francis Beach Trust, held a meeting on 6 February, for all volunteers who had offered to serve on the Working Groups to find a resolution to the restoration of the St Francis Bay Beach.

Mike Simms, an experienced and impartial facilitator, was approached to chair the meeting and to instigate the initial workings of the various committees, or task teams.

He explained that the purpose of the meeting was to allocate tasks to the teams. Each committee was to address the issues and concerns raised by the community.

Alan Tonkin, who had spearheaded the SFB Beach Trust research into the restoration project, presented each person with an explanatory letter and CD on which all the sources of the research, the findings and details of consultants were provided.

Joe Oosthuizen, who had raised the concerns regarding the funding of the project, read out a list of issues and concerns raised by the St Francis Bay community so that every committee member had an overall view of what had to be addressed. He distributed these to the relevant committees for perusal, discussion, and action.

After much general discussion with ideas and suggestions coming from the floor, the meeting broke up into the various committees to elect a task leader who would push for progress and drive the allotted tasks to completion. Each group was also tasked with compiling a list of key "deliverables" representing the common interests of the community, as well as working out a possible time frame.

It was suggested that each Working Group meet, possibly once per week, and then present their findings at a plenary session to take place on 6 March. Many of the actions would be dependant on the findings of the other groups, so there would have to be liaison between the committees. The task leaders would have to hold separate meetings for this purpose.

Simms provided some rules to facilitate the workings of the committees to work well, and bear repeating. Members should be committed, reliable, stick to time, be constructive, and work towards solutions. Differing opinions should be noted and conflicts listed separately, and no opinions should be given unless substantiated. Each member should declare his interests, as there must be transparency in the process.

The Working Groups are as follows with task leaders named first:

• Technical: John Davies, Denis Bean, Derek Fullerton, Dave Hall, Jim Patterson, Garth Perry.

• Finance and Legal: Phillipe Monier, Ernie Barber, Ian Fynn, Keith Anderson, Dean van Niekerk, Peter Collison (audit only).

• Environmental: Hilton Thorpe, Anton Boonzaier, Andre Jensen, Robin Simpson,

• Referendum: Eleanor Carides, Anthony Ball, Chimpie Cawood, Paddy Oosthuizen.

• Communications: Lew Slade, Joe Oosthuizen, George Stegmann, Elza van Lingen.

• Fundraising: Volunteers still required on this committee.

St Francis Bay

7 February, 2007

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9 October 2006

St Francis Bay Beach Trust

Re: St Francis Bay Beach Project –October 2006

Since my previous visit in May this year, a significant amount of erosion has occurred at St Francis Bay Beach. This winter has seen some different weather patterns than could be expected in a ‘normal’ season, with substantially more wave and wind events from the south and southeast. Indeed, these differences in the weather patterns were described by the surf forecaster for the annual WCT (World Competition Tour) professional surfing contest at Jeffrey’s Bay, and attributed for the poor surfing conditions at the break. In contrast, the world-famous surfing break in St Francis Bay, Bruce’s Beauties, has broken and been surfable more often than ‘normal’ (metocean norms are usually based on 30 years periods). While this may be seen as a positive in terms of attracting visitors to the area, the impact of local storm waves on the beach is the loss of sand offshore, which is particularly pronounced at St Francis Bay due to the fine grain size of the beach sand. In addition, the lack of a source of ‘new’ sand since the stabilization of the Santareme dune system means that the beach cannot recover very well – the beach sand is continually moved offshore and northwards with no new inputs from the southwest.

Early this month, the beach was surveyed between Hulett’s Reef and the Kromme Estuary Entrance – this included the 6 beach profiles that have been surveyed for the last 12-15 years, which are spaced at approximately 400 m intervals along the length of the beach. The general observations, which are supported by the recent beach profile data, indicated that the worst erosion has occurred between Hulett’s Reef and Umzumawethu Reef during this period, with the worst erosion adjacent to the terminal ends of rock revetments and lower erosion along the spit to the entrance of the Kromme. It is quite possible that the beach is trying to adopt a deeper curved alignment between Hulett’s Reef and Umzumawethu Reef, the ‘control points’ for this section of the beach, rather than the previously almost straight alignment that was accreting and in response to the continual input from the Santa Rene dune field (pre- 1975).

The few stretches of beach without revetments have also retreated substantially, as is to be expected. In a natural situation (i.e. when there are no rock revetments protecting properties, but rather a healthy dune system), the fore dunes are eroded and the sand is transported offshore to create offshore bars, which reduce further erosion by breaking the incoming waves on them and reducing the amount of energy that reaches the beach (submerged reefs mimic these bars to protect the coast). Indeed, at present there is a large volume of sand just offshore of much of the length of St Francis Bay Beach that is forming a subtle bar with a large broad sand platform and a trough located around low tide. During periods of calmer seas, this offshore sand is moved back onto the beach. Because of the presence of the rock revetments, the natural beach response for erosion of the dune and offshore movement of the sand to form bars is greatly restricted. This results in accelerated erosion of the sections of dune that do not have revetments, which is amplified at the terminal ends of the revetment sections, commonly known as ‘the end-effect’.

While it is likely that the beach will recover as we move out of the winter season, which will be welcomed along much of St Francis Bay Beach in front of the revetments where there is now very little dry beach even at mid-tide, interim measures are likely be required in some of the worst hit sections of beach without revetments (i.e. further rock armouring). Thus, it would be advisable for the erosion ‘hotspots’ to be addressed, while a wait and see approach to any marginal areas should be taken, with the expected return of the beach sand that is presently just offshore.

Without a source of sand, chronic erosion will continue at St Francis Bay. The current plan to pump sand from the Kromme Estuary will provide this source of sand, and at the same time deepen the estuary which will allow for better recreational use. The placement of offshore multi-purpose reefs will greatly increase the residence time of the sand renourishment from the Estuary (thereby reducing the volumes of renourishment required each year), with re-colonising the new beach fore dunes with appropriate plant species also aiding to maintain beach sand by reducing wind-blown sand transport. This will allow for a reduction in the height of the revetments along much of St Francis Bay Beach, which can remain buried in the new fore dunes as a ‘last line of defence’.

Yours truly,
Dr. Shaw Mead

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