Conspiracy Theory

[Major_Clanger]

I was chatting with a pal of mine recently who has a property at Happisburgh on the east Norfolk coast. I mentioned that there always seemed to be dredgers operating a few miles offshore and his answer rather surprised me... He reckons the dredgers are being operated by Dutch companies buying 'our' aggregate to shore-up their coastal defences. I wonder if there is any truth in this and, if so, whether it's having a detrimental effect on our own erosion problems. It seems unlikely but nothing would surprise me anymore...

 

[johnalison]

I'll go with that.

 

[LittleSister]

I was chatting with a pal of mine recently who has a property at Happisburgh on the east Norfolk coast. I mentioned that there always seemed to be dredgers operating a few miles offshore and his answer rather surprised me... He reckons the dredgers are being operated by Dutch companies buying 'our' aggregate to shore-up their coastal defences. I wonder if there is any truth in this and, if so, whether it's having a detrimental effect on our own erosion problems. It seems unlikely but nothing would surprise me anymore...

This is something that I have had a fleeting professional involvement with. The dredged aggregate is also used in defending/replenishing English beaches, so your Happisburgh property owner may have a direct interest in it continuing!

The dredging (UK companies involved, I believe) takes place some miles offshore, in water outside two shallow lines of sandbanks roughly parallel to the coast. The currents run to and fro along the coast inside and over those sandbanks.

The amount of material dredged is large if you put it in a pile onshore, but relative to the vast amount of aggregate material being transported around the the southern North Sea by tides, currents and wave action, it is almost negligibly tiny. The net drift of aggregate in the dredging area is northwards into the open North Sea, and any connection with the shore at Happisburgh (or elsewhere) is indirect, complex and minor. Scanning of the dredged areas shows they quickly fill in with further material from the south.

Several detailed studies have been undertaken to assess the risk of an effect on shoreline change, and have found no evidence of any such risk.

On the other hand, the shoreline which is now at Happisburgh has been receding for around 10,000 years, so it is unsurprising that it continues to do so!

 

[jon and michie]

Many years ago the sand off the Norfolk coast was used in the construction of schipol Airport's runway.
Jon

 

[AntarcticPilot]

The bottom line is that defending a retreating coastline is only ever a temporary expedient. In the long run, the sea will win. The same goes for an advancing coastline - in the long run, water that was once navigable will become unnavigable. Defense measure can often be self-defeating; they work for a while, but when they fail, a large area goes all at once. And they WILL fail, sooner or later. Human beings simply don't have a long enough attention span to beat natural processes.

If you think we've got problems, consider the problems faced by New Orleans. Sooner or later, the Mississippi will find a new route to the sea, and New Orleans will lose any reason for existing, and may well sink into the mud of the Mississippi delta!