It has been years since my family packed up a day’s worth of food, drink, folding chairs, fishing rods, towels and colorful blankets and headed down to the beach for the whole day. After the surf completely tuckered us out, the fishing hit a lull and the food was mostly gone, we would settle into a lazy afternoon of sun-bathing and construction – construction of sand castles.
You never knew what you would create. Most of the time we started out by using drink cups to mold the towers. Dripping sand from a fist was always fun and gave the castle a shingled look that even passers-by couldn’t resist giving a try. But there was always a family member that was more creative than me who would sculpt something so fantastic that I couldn’t help but wish I had been more creative from the start.
For those of you who fancy being an architect of sand, researchers note that using enough water is one of the secrets of a good sand sculpture, apparently it serves as glue to bind the sand grains together. Similarly the water content in “rammed earth” also contributes significantly to its strength. Rammed earth is an ancient but eco-friendly building technique that is growing in popularity as a sustainable building method, so don’t necessarily pass off sand sculpture as just child’s play.
We are however now beginning to understand the affects of leaving sand sculptures standing even after we’ve left the beach, particularly during sea turtle nesting season in the southeast. Not only can hatchling sea turtles get trapped in the holes left in the sand but adult nesting females, not known for looking where they are going, can flop into them, hopelessly flailing to get out, sometimes fatally. Sea turtles use our beaches every night in the nesting season that runs from March 1st to October 31st and leaving the beach better than we find it is important for providing a clear path for nesting turtles and hatchlings.
The Florida Oceanographic Coastal Center has been home to non-releasable sea turtles for three years. Our educational programs emphasize the importance of our beaches to the sea turtle population and focus on removing man-made obstacles and hazardous debris, particularly non-degradable plastic. To draw attention to the need to level the beach after “constructive” play during sea turtle nesting season and to help celebrate Labor Day weekend, Florida Oceanographic is hosting its First Annual Sand Sculpting Contest – “Building Awareness While Leaving No Trace,” on the Saturday of Labor Day weekend, August 31st. The main event will be from 9 a.m. to noon, a fun morning of creativity with a three-hour window for teams to build a sand creation, forty-five minutes for judging and public viewing, followed by a “leveling of the field” when we will be enthusiastically leveling our creations for the sake of nesting sea turtles. Needless to say, half the fun will be in the leveling – leaving no trace.
We invite families, friends and co-workers to pre-register as a team for the Sand Sculpting Contest. Registration is available on our website for a $25 tax deductible donation. The theme of the contest is “Building Awareness While Leaving No Trace” and there will be three competitive categories: Best Themed, Most Creative, and Best Marine Animal. Go to www.floridaocean.org and click on “Events” for details including Rules and Registration. Special thanks to our sponsors, CaribSEA and the Sea Turtle License Plate program.