MADEIRA BEACH â Shoreline protection has traditionally been accomplished through what Jack Cox calls âbrute force.â Miles-long steel breakwaters. Concrete barriers. The dredging of tons of sand or, in a Pinellas County ritual, depositing sand from the depths back onto the beach.
Coxâs company, Edgewater Resources, is among a new group of coastal engineering experts thinking differently.
âWe started exploring the idea of a really fundamental question: What is a breakwater?â he told a group of beach city mayors at a recent meeting of the Barrier Islands Governmental Council, or BIG-C. âWe all have visions of piles of rock or walls built high or concrete caissons. But we said no. A breakwater is something we can put out there to change the wave environment. However we choose to change the wave environment, we are free to work with. There is no constraint to say we canât make something that looks like an island, maybe change the shape of the bottom. We allow all the variables we can play with.â