Our coastline is constantly changing. Sand is often scattered offshore by large waves and high tides, leaving our beaches narrow and eroded. The sand is usually returned by calmer waves as well as with the changes in the seasonal sand cycles, building the beach back up again. 

The CoastSnap Project (www.coastsnap.com), is a global coastal science program that encourages beachgoers to take pictures of the coastline at the same location and orientation to capture a valuable record of beach changes over time. This allows changes to be observed and contributes to our understanding of coastal processes, such as coastal erosion, bluff movement, the beach recovery process, and sea level rise.

The City of Encinitas has installed a number of CoastSnap stations along our coastline. They are located at Grandview, Stonesteps, D-Street and Swamis stairways.

The best part is our community members can help capture this valuable record by taking the photos at the stations and uploading their photos to the network, which are automatically timestamped.

Markers along the beach are used to analyze the images and precisely measure the shoreline location on any given day. These photos are then put together to create a time-lapse video, or still record, showing the shoreline’s position and beach width as it evolves over time.

You can track Grandview Beach’s shoreline changes yourself by following the project’s Instagram page @Encinitas_GrandviewCoastSnap.

Stainless steel cradles with camera access windows are attached to key vantage points at selected beach access stairways along the Encinitas coast. The cradle is positioned at a specific angle to capture the same photo profile of the specific beach coastline we are studying. Using the QR Code on the cradle or on the signage directly below the cradle, you can access the Survey123 application that will allow you to send a photo directly to us.

Stonesteps South	Stonesteps North
D Street South	D Street North
Grandview South	Grandview North
Swamis

Please try to replicate the above images as much as possible when taking pictures at these specific locations and avoid including visual obstructions (including people, large objects, etc.) when taking your photo to be used as part of our archive. 

Thank you for becoming a Community Scientist and submitting your snaps of the coast! 

Implications of Plastic for Our Beaches & Marine Environments

There are an estimated 51 trillion pieces of plastic pollution (2014), with approximately 12 million tones of plastic entering the ocean every year (2016). That is about 500 times the number of stars in our galaxy. Plastic that enters the ocean has severe consequences as marine animals can mistakenly ingest it, causing injury, suffocation, starvation, and death.

Both the creation and degradation of plastics involve the release of greenhouse gases that contribute to climate change. The degradation of large plastic debris into smaller pieces over time has led to the recent prominence of microplastics. Recent research has found that these microscopic-sized particles are becoming more prevalent, especially within marine species and the marine environment.

Both regular plastics and microplastics are easily consumed by marine organisms, where they then accumulate. When smaller organisms are consumed by larger organisms, the concentration of plastics within the tissues of the larger organism increases. This is a process called biomagnification, in which organisms higher up in the food chain (including humans) can be more impacted by its effects.

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