After Hurricane Sandy ravaged the northeast, many questions have appeared about how to cleanup and restore the beaches that were affected by the hurricane's blast. In many places, like Seaside Heights, NJ (shown bellow), the sand was carried off the beach, covering the streets and houses on shore. While in other communities, like Norwalk, CT, they actually saw their beaches grow as a result of the deposited sand from elsewhere. 

While the removal of sand from communities like Seaside Heights will be a massive undertaking for heavy machinery, the question of how to clean and replace the sand on the beach remains. Whether there is new sand on the beach or the old sand is being replaced, it will be full of debris and can not be simply put back on the beach, without creating a risk for future beach-goers. Since many beach community's economies depend on well-maintained beaches during the summer months, an aggressive cleanup campaign during the winter and spring seasons is essential.

Consequently, beach cleaning machines can play a substantive role in the hurricane beach cleanup effort. H Barber and Sons has put together a solid general plan for bringing the beaches back to their original safe, graded, and appealing condition. You can find the hurricane beach cleanup guide here. The guide also includes other helpful links and information.

Recently, the beaches of Galveston, TX have been flooded with thousands of dead fish. Once these fish stay on the beach for any period of time, the sun causes them to bloat and fill with harmful toxins, which can be released into the air. In addition to being harmful for asthmatics, a beach littered with dead fish is anything but helpful for a beach's popularity and attendance during peak beach seasons. 

One contractor who routinely cleans beaches in the Houston area, Hernan Botero, has been using his raking beach cleaner, the Barber Surf Rake, to scoop up the dead fish and restore the beaches to their normal state. As you can see from the before/after pictures in the news segment bellow, the beach cleaner gets the job done. Especially in such smelly, and potentially harmful, circumstances, using a beach cleaning machine to remove debris from the sand is the way to go.

Over the past several months, Michigan has been a center of beach grooming debate, as its legislature repealed the requirement for beach owners to have permits to clean the top parts of their beach to the tideline using mechanical means. Previously, beach owners needed to apply for a $100 permit and be approved to use any mechanical methods. On July 2, bill 2012 PA 247 was signed into law, allowing beach owners to maintain their beaches as they see fit down to the high-tide line.

With over 3,200 miles of coastline on the Great Lakes, this frees up a considerable amount of beach owners. Opponents of the legislation were concerned about protecting the coastline environment. However only 4 permits were denied since 2007, so the change in cleaning activity is likely not to change drastically, and the marginal profits the 500 issued permits are not likely to be missed by the state. This removal of red-tape, however, has caused quite a stir.

How is this recent tryst with policy and politics applicable to the beach cleaning community? Primarily, it highlights a common middle-ground in policy between beach owners and environmental groups. While many beaches would be unusable and unsafe without regular cleaning, ecosystems should be respected when cleaning, as well. Michigan granted additional freedom to clean the top part of the beach while respecting the environmental safety of the beaches by restricting them from cleaning bellow the tideline. 

Therefore, in addition to granting additional freedom to beach cleaners in Michigan, this bill also reminds the beach cleaning community that beach cleaning is not simply bad or good, but that its benefits can be balanced with the concerns it creates. 

Sources:
http://greatlakesecho.org/2012/06/27/beach-grooming-no-longer-regulated-by-the-state/
http://www.mlive.com/news/bay-city/index.ssf/2012/07/new_beach_grooming_law_changes.html

Apparently beach cleaning equipment now has a new unexpected use: sand skiing. This picture of a Barber SURF RAKE towing a ski-path-forming device surfaced recently, revealing that now you can "cross-cost" ski in a bathing suit!

The Caribbean offers some of the worlds most beautiful beaches and best vacation spots. However, seasonal seaweed and sea grass or a change in the tide can cause catastrophic amounts of seaweed to accumulate on popular resort beaches. On many islands, beach tourism is the backbone of the economy. Therefore, the ability to not only remove vast amounts of seaweed quickly, but also to make the beach look as pristine as it did before the seaweed's arrival, is critical.

Every year, tripadvisor.com announces the Travelers' Choice top ten beach destinations in the United States. For potential vacationers, this is helpful in narrowing the search, but as beach cleaner professionals, this offers a fun chance to lear about how customers like their beaches.  7/10 of the top beaches are cleaned by tine raking beach cleaners. Check out the list here!

A primary consideration for most beach cleaner purchasers is how much the machine will cost—not only in the initial purchase, but also over time. A beach cleaner’s ability to function optimally with minimal maintenance hours and costs is key to getting the job done for less. In order to help you know the right questions to ask to keep maintenance costs down over the long-haul, we’ve laid out the top five beach cleaner cost and maintenance questions to ask manufacturers. Feel free to comment and add other ones you feel are important! 

Back in June, 2007, many studies were released that showed E.Coli was not only present in lake water, but that strong concentrations also resided in beach sand. This proved especially problematic to fresh water lakes, which are the depositories of runoff and waste-treatment overflow. Beaches found on the Great Lakes—especially Lake Michigan, Superior, and Eerie—received negative PR and multiple beach closings, which resulted in lost money and reputation. However, beach cleaner machines were ready to help and currently can be used to fight bacteria in the sand.