Cheryl Wilson holds a whale vertebra that she discovered on the beach
City officials pledged to work closely with federal contractors to ensure that shark teeth and other marine life artifacts are kept in the mix of sand that is dredged and relocated onto Fernandina Beach's shoreline.
Concerned beachcombers sent city commissioners more than 40 emails worried that a huge sand sifting machine called the extractor would filter out shark teeth, shells and other artifacts from the material being dredged from the ocean and river floors and placed on the shore from Ft. Clinch south to about Sadler Road. Fourteen people voiced opposition to the plan at Tuesday's city commission meeting.
The federally funded, two-phase U.S. Navy project is expected to begin in January and be completed by August. Oversight of the project is in the hands of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. The city has a consultant working with federal officials.
The consultant has said that the Corps of Engineers for the first time will be using the extractor on the Fernandina Beach renourishment. The extractor uses a series of vibrating, sliding screens to filter unwanted materials from three-quarters of an inch to four inches from sand being deposited from dredge materials onto the beach. The unwanted debris is collected and dumped in a collection area off-island.
Commissioner Joyce Tuten said that natural items that are screened will be returned to the materials applied to the beaches.
"No teeth or fossils will be lost on our beaches," she said. "All those screened out items will come back on the beach except for those things deemed dangerous."
Despite city assurances, speakers told city commissioners plans to use the extractor machine would result in diminished shark teeth and shells. A more sanitized beach would mean fewer tourists coming to the city, they claimed.
The most compelling argument was made by Cheryl Wilson, who recently opened a fossil information center on Ash Street, and said her new business could be impacted by the loss of shells and shark teeth on the beach.
Her business is housed in a former bed and breakfast home she operated with her husband.
"About half the people who stayed at the B&B came for shark teeth and shells," she told commissioners.
To demonstrate the potential negative impact of the extractor machine, Wilson displayed three box trays containing different sized marine items she had collected from the beach.
"A lot of people know we have shark teeth, it's common knowledge. But there are a lot of other things people don't know about. One of the things I got hooked on were these pecten shells. And people don't know about these," she said.
Wilson said she is currently working with the University of Florida to document Fernandina's rich and varied catalog of fossil finds.
"All of these fossils are four inches," Wilson said holding a tray full of artifacts. "So, we really need to assess the size of those (extractor) screens and work out how we can make sure we're not damaging the scientific record."
However, Interim City Manager Jeremiah Glisson said the city has no authority over what equipment is being used for the beach replenishment.
"Any two-to-four-inch material falls through the (extractor) screen for ejection onto the beach. Anything larger than that is pulled off to the side and inspected to make sure there's no hazardous materials. If not (hazardous), then that material goes out with the fill for ejection on the beach," Glisson explained.
Other speakers said the filtering of materials would also eliminate other valuable items such as debris from historic shipwrecks.
"According to the information in my research, unsuitable materials are wooded debris, glass, metallic objects and other things from the sea floor," said Marian Phillips. "We have shipwrecks offshore that have been moved by the currents on our seashore. Items such as gold coins, pieces of the ships, spikes in the ships have been found on our beaches. This machine will eliminate valuable items to some might seem like trash, but to others are treasures."
Kelly Morales shows a megalodon tooth she found that would be filtered out by the extractor
Kelly Morales who lives on North Fletcher said the filtering of beach materials, like mollusks, would also impact the wildlife on the shorelines.
"We in the city as well as tourists will suffer," she said, displaying a megalodon tooth. "This (tooth) will not be there. If you think this won't go into people's pockets, it will."
According to experts, megalodon teeth can be valued from $20 for a small tooth, to $5,000 for a tooth exceeding five inches.
"If you want a sugar beach, go to the south end (of Amelia Island)," she said. "If you want the rugged, authentic beauty come across to my house. Sanibel makes an entire tourist development (economy) all around seashells. We have 18,000 people on the shark tooth hunting alone."
Commissioner Darron Ayscue asked if plans to use the extractor were moving forward.
"It's not a city staff decision, it's a Corps decision. We will continue to reach out to them with additional information with some of the feedback from here tonight," Glisson said.
Tuten asked if the Corps could be asked to employ the largest screen filter when sifting the dredged materials.
"Absolutely, we can ask that," Glisson said.
Commissioner Tim Poynter emphasized that the Corps was not filtering materials from Fernandina's roughly six miles of beach.
"So, all the shark teeth that are already there, the sand that's there stays, so they're just adding (more sand)," he said.
Julie Ferreira was the lone proponent of using the filtering machine for the project.
"Sugar sand used to be what we had on our beaches, it was finer than sugar, we don't have that anymore," Ferreira said. "We have something akin to chopped up shells, which when you walk on it, lay on it is like a dirt road. What I would like to see is a sifter which goes down to a grain of sand so we can get back what we had at one point. Anything that is extracted and put back (in the ocean) is going to wash back up (on the beach) during a storm."
She also said that the city should not be in the business of making shark toothing an industry.
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