Sand Bar Dynamics

[GoFish]

Pretty good slide show from today's NYT:

http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2...ide/index.html

Is it spring yet?...

[Joe]

Cobble bars and shores, and cliff fishing, are much more predicatable -semi permanent structure. Block Island has a lot of different structure within a small area, that's why really knowing the island takes such a long time. I don't know much about fishing the open beach east and north sides.

The article says that understanding the movement of sand along the beach to be much more complicated than thought. I don't dispute that - but you have to consider that they are talking about a twelve-month cycle, prevailing winds change depending on the season. Things are less complicated for seasonal anglers during fair weather months with prevailing winds from mostly one direction. Still though, I always found reading the water along open beaches more difficult.

[DZ]

Interesting. RIrockhound could add to this discussion as the resident geologist. As Joe says Block really changes from year to year as areas "sand in". It is never the same especially on the south and west sides and to a lesser extent the SE corner. The bluffs out there have been eroding at an unbelievable pace the past few years. I received the DVD of Block aerial images from Sandman Calendars and was amazed at how much of Block is sand just beyond the boulder coast. This DVD has given me new ideas and locations to try in the future.

DZ

[RIROCKHOUND]

Originally Posted by DZ

Interesting. RIrockhound could add to this discussion as the resident geologist. As Joe says Block really changes from year to year as areas "sand in". It is never the same especially on the south and west sides and to a lesser extent the SE corner. The bluffs out there have been eroding at an unbelievable pace the past few years. I received the DVD of Block aerial images from Sandman Calendars and was amazed at how much of Block is sand just beyond the boulder coast. This DVD has given me new ideas and locations to try in the future.

DZ

Sorry; I just saw this thread. Been very busy lately...

Rob Holman and his time lapse video is one of the neatest applications of fairly simple technology I've seen; he started in the 80's at Duck, N.C., where it is ongoing, and they have videos that compress all the years down into a few minutes.. it's very cool. You can see up to date images:
http://www.frf.usace.army.mil/video_now.html
Also, the Crab is one of the more interesting pieces of equipment I've seen; they (Army Corps) also has some WWII era Lark's all instrumented up that travel from the beach to the offshore collecting data, giving them some of the most seamless data in the world. I have to settle for running our r/v just offshore of the beach and hope the sonar can see all the way to the shoreline

We don't really have significant offshore bars in RI, some limited ones in Misquamicut, but nothing like the outer cape or NC; we simply do not have enough sand!

As far as dynamics of the shoreline, the KEY point in New England, is that there is not a winter beach/summer beach profile. It is storm driven; years w/ no fall/winter storms and the 'winter' beach looks just like the 'summer' beach, but a couple of hurricanes in august and the 'summer' beach is awfully erosional... Then throw in an April Nor'Easter and it really complicates things...

[Mr. Sandman]

If you catch a bass off the CRAB...is it a shore fish?
That device looks like it would be also handy as a temporary bass stand.

[RIROCKHOUND]

I'd rather have access to the pier!
It's way out there...

These are from a visit in 2006 or 2007....

The view from the start of the pier and a view look back from the end...
That's the CRAB to the left (south) of the buildings.

[RIROCKHOUND]

The Crab, the LARC and the video tower, where they shoot the time-lapse video from...