Holes on the beach can be dangerous.
So how about banning tools used to dig them?
Charlie Hunsicker, director of Manatee County’s Natural Resources Department, attended a May 20 Coalition of Barrier Island Elected Officials meeting to ask that question. The CBIEO includes representatives from the island cities and Longboat Key.
Attendees of the meeting included Mayor Mark Short, Bradenton Beach Mayor John Chappie, Holmes Beach Mayor Judy Titsworth, as well as Longboat Key Mayor Ken Schneier and town manager Howard Tipton.
Hunsicker said holes on the beaches constitute an “ongoing and continuous problem” that endangers beachgoers and nesting sea turtles.
Removing shovels and tools — other than kids’ toys — from beachgoing hands might help limit the number of deep holes on the shores, he said.
The county adopted an ordinance within the past year to prohibit metal shovels and holes deeper than a foot in beaches at county parks.
The county owns and manages Manatee Public Beach in Holmes Beach, Coquina Beach and Cortez Beach in Bradenton Beach, as well as manages the city-owned Bayfront Park in Anna Maria. Because the island municipalities lack the same regulations, county code only applies to those beaches.
Hunsicker asked officials to consider drafting municipal code to mirror those regulations so the entirety of the county’s shoreline could be covered.
Mark Taylor, longtime Cortez resident and the county’s primary beach tractor-rake operator, also spoke at the meeting. He said he has to avoid holes in the beach while raking it for seaweed, trash and marine debris.
He said he has found holes deep enough to swallow up the tractor he uses to tow the beach rake.
“It’s gotten out of hand, now,” Taylor said. “Every time I see the lifeguard take off very fast in their side-by-sides, I’m cringing because I’m concerned they might drop a wheel in a hole that I haven’t yet gotten to.”
He added that a consistent islandwide approach to beach holes and shovels would make it easier to address issues as they arise.
“It’s an environmental problem. It’s a people problem, and we need to get a handle on it,” Taylor said.
Short said he was not against adopting code mirroring the county’s but acknowledged doing so would require the municipalities to tackle enforcing them.
Hunsicker responded that, without such code, they could only address beach holes through conversation.
“None of us are expecting that we patrol the beach like you would an intersection at a school crossing,” he said. “But in this circumstance, just having the rule is the first step toward tamping down the abundance of these holes.”
Titsworth, who heard the same presentation at a May 13 commission meeting, said she directed city staff to draft an ordinance.
Chappie and Short said their municipalities would also consider an ordinance drafted to mirror the county’s code.