Beach bound: according to Dr. Beach, our coastlines are in jeopardy.

"Looking out on the aquamarine water of the Gulf of Mexico, it is easy to forget who I am and how I got here. The waves lapping onto the shore mesmerize me with their repeated questions. 'Why would you want to live anywhere else? Why would you want to do anything else but what you are doing right now?' I am caught off guard by the interrogation. Indeed, at the moment, aspiring to do anything else with my life seems silly."

--"Wasting Away in Boca Grande" by Daniel L. Dustin

We go to the beach to unwind. The waves wash away our worries, the sand tickles our toes and the salt air fills our lungs. The beach is for relaxation and restoration. It relieves us from the burdens of everyday life and provides a sanctuary within which we can heal body and soul. It is an ideal place for re-creating ourselves.

According to Dr. Stephen Leatherman, director of the Laboratory for Coastal Research at Florida International University, beaches help fulfill our primordial desire to return to nature. They reconnect us with the salt in our veins. The sea, with its rhythmic, rocking motion hypnotizes us. We lose ourselves in the ebb and flow of the waves breaking onto the shore. Beaches appeal to the child in us as well. They are adult versions of sandboxes.

Since 1991, Leatherman, known affectionately as "Dr. Beach" by his colleagues, has assessed the environmental quality of hundreds of beaches throughout the United States. Employing a self-developed "Beach Rating Questionnaire" that measures beach quality based on 50 criteria composed of physical, biological and human impact and use factors, Leatherman announces his "Top 10 Beaches in America" each Memorial Day weekend to coincide with the beginning of sum mer. He has achieved celebrity status, having been featured on the Oprah Winfrey Show as someone who has one of the best jobs in America.

Leatherman's increasing media presence reflects the growing popularity of America's beaches. Beaches are our primary vacation destinations. Indeed, 85 percent of our vacations are organized around lake, gulf and ocean visits. Consequently, when it comes to beaches, there is significant demand for Leatherman's expertise. He counsels private citizens, business owners, community leaders and governmental officials alike about how to manage beaches to enhance their quality. This gives him a unique kind of power and significant clout when talking to others about how best to look after America's beaches.

Leatherman's power is dual-edged. Implementing his recommendations for safeguarding a particular beach's environmental quality, and then sometimes having that very beach end up on his best beaches list can result in a flood of new visitors. While this may be good for business, more visitors may also lead to beach deterioration.

Like so many other preservation versus use conundrums, what is ultimately called for is a delicate balance of competing interests. Leatherman understands this perfectly well. Indeed, the biggest threat to America's beaches, he contends, is this very conundrum written large.

As more and more Americans are drawn to beaches, not only to visit them, but also to live by them, beaches are increasingly jeopardized by the infrastructure that accompanies a burgeoning residential population. Expanding highway systems, high-rise condominiums, stores and office buildings, all take their toll on the beaches and sand dunes that buffer land and water. This is a vexing problem, because sand dunes, in particular, are indispensable to a coast's ecologic integrity.

Sand dunes not only lessen the impact of hurricanes on inland areas, they also contribute to the dissipation of wave energy, act as a storehouse for sand that is carried away during storms (beach erosion), and provide habitat for shoreline wildlife. Sand dunes also serve as a high water barrier. As they are worn away, the environmental consequences extend beyond the loss of beaches; the structural integrity of homes and businesses built along beaches are compromised as well.

The end result is paradoxical. Left unchecked, the crush of an advancing civilization may well destroy the resource that provides the very appeal of coastal living. As Leatherman puts it, "we may soon have to decide between beaches and bedrooms."

What are the prospects for America's beaches? Leatherman is cautiously optimistic. Plastics, he says, are the number one pollutant in the ocean today, because of the adverse effect they have on the marine food web. Sea turtles, for example, commonly confuse plastic sandwich bags for one of their primary food sources, jellyfish. When the turtles ingest the bags, it is often fatal.

Styrofoam "peanuts," commonly used for packing purposes, and the plastic that holds six-packs of soft drinks and beer together are equally menacing as they, too, are commonly mistaken for food by birds and fish.

Litter is also the primary threat to beach quality. Cigarette butts, in particular, provide unsightly trace evidence of increasing numbers of beachgoers. In his research, Leatherman has found as many as 8 to 10 cigarette butts per meter of sandy beach. Additionally, storm drain runoff carries pollutants from lawn fertilizers, pesticides and animal droppings to beaches and into the surf, resulting in significant numbers of beach closings. Illegal dumping into lakes and oceans also compromises water quality. Still, these problems are not insurmountable, and despite them America's beaches are among the best kept on earth.

To safeguard the quality of our beaches, Leatherman recommends banning smoking on them and prohibiting dogs. He would also toughen sanctions against littering. He recommends expanding environmental education, and recruiting more people to participate in coastal cleanup campaigns.

He reminds us that all beaches up to the high water mark are publicly owned, and he advocates an ethic of care that better reflects our common ownership of the coastline. This means reaching into elementary and secondary schools and instilling a code of beach conduct in all of our future beachgoers.

In the final analysis, beaches are refuges within which we find relief from the hustle and bustle of modernity. We can escape to them, and we can lose ourselves in them. The onus, however, is on us to take care of beaches so they can take care of us. Leatherman fears that we are on a classic "collision course" when it comes to beaches. "We're rushing to the sea," he says, "and the sea is rushing toward us." As a consequence, beaches are being squeezed to death in the middle.

We want it all--the beach as a travel destination, beachfront businesses to cater to our every vacation and residential need, and high-rise hotels and condominiums from which to enjoy the view (and pack in more people). The question we are left to ponder is whether we can really have it all, and if so, at what cost? The decision may not really be ours to make if we don't do a better job of reconciling our aspirations for growth and development with the coastal environment's limited ability to sustain those aspirations.

AMERICA'S TOP 10 BEACHES IN 2005

1. Fort Desoto Park--North Beach, St, Petersburg, Florida

2. Ocracoke Island, Outer Banks, North Carolina 

3. Hanatei Bay, Kauai, Hawaii

4. Caladesi Island State Park, Clearwater, Florida

5. Fleming Beach, Maui, Hawaii

6. Coast Guard Beach, Cape Cod, Massachusetts

7. Coronado Beach, San Diego, California 

8. Cape Florida State Park, Key Biscayne, Florida 

9. Main Beach, East Hampton, New York 

10. Hamoa Beach, Maui, Hawaii

* www.drbeach.org

WHAT WE CAN DO TO PRESERVE BEACH QUALITY

1. Refrain from smoking at the beach (Discarded cigarette butts are the number one littering problem at beaches).

2. Make sure any plastic containers we bring to the beach return home with us.

3. Keep a respectful distance from fragile sand dunes.

4. Consider leaving our dogs at home.

5. Pick up other people's litter and dispose of it properly

6. Leave only footprints at the beach.

7. Take care of the beach as if it were our own property, which, of course, it is.

Photos by Daniel Dustin

Laura Vogel, Abra Langer, Daniel Dustin and Alexis McKenney