Sea Island’s Beach Replenishment Program’s Impact on St. Simons Island’s East Beach and Gould’s Inlet.
John “Coach” Allen (left) and I have been friends for about forty-five years. We are both retired social studies teachers, widowers, have one son, and share common interests in geography and environmental issues.
Pictured in Granada, Spain, June 2019.
John has been an island property-owner since 1968 and has resided full-time for a quarter of a century. I’ve been visiting St. Simons since the late 1970’s and have usually stayed with John, or the King and Prince Hotel, or a rental condo unit.
John and I established a tradition of driving over to Gould’s Inlet at low tide. The inlet separates Sea Island from St. Simons Island and begins the East Beach. We always marvel at how the tides changed the sandy bottom – revealed new sand bars that had formed and altered tidal flows.
April 16, 2025, 2 PM
Our East Beach and Gould’s Inlet ritual made me want to see the latest changes each time I visited such as the emergence of new tidal pools and rivers, or the beach’s continuing expansion.
The East Beach of past decades was beloved but I never heard anyone compare it to Siesta Key Beach for example, almost annually voted best US beach. Ironically, having walked the East Beach, April 15 – 17, 2025, I believe it may now be wider and grander than Siesta Key, a special beach even after suffering direct hits from Hurricanes Helene and Milton.
I used to include in past St. Simons vacations a day visit to Sea Island, too. The wealthy enclave is a great place to ride a bike; meander throughout the pretty subdivisions, pedal across the attractive golf courses, and glide down the lovely beach. The Cloisters Hotel is a beautiful and accommodating resort and always a treat to experience.
President George Bush (43) held the G8 Conference on Sea Island; security required closing the island to the public. The global attention encouraged Sea Island to aim for world-class status and exclusivity therefore making it available to residents and hotel guests only. My many past rides left me with a permanent affection for Sea Island. Affordability is another question.
John and I like Sea Island and miss the place. It’s not our intention to villanize Sea Island which serves its residents and hotel visitors well and who expect and deserve a beautiful beach. Ocean currents, however, start taking the sand away almost as soon as it is deposited.
https://thebrunswicknews.com/news/local_news/sea-island-planning-to-renourish-beach/.
Please access the link for information and source of the following photo, an aerial view of Sea Island beaches.
According to Google, Sea Island and the Cloisters Hotel, due to erosion, have a long history of beach replenishment projects, starting with intial shoreline armoring in the early 1980’s. The Sea Island Corporation has utilized hydraulic dredging to bring the sand back to the island and beach, privately funded sand recycling programs to maintain and expand it, and constructed seawalls and revetments to protect the shoreline.
Sand recycling was implemented to shift sand from accumulation (groin fillet) to other areas of the island. A 2019 beach nourishment project created over 35 acres of dry sand beach and dune habitats. This included widening the beach and wildlife habitat provision.
Groins are structures perpendicular to the shoreline and are used to trap sand and prevent it from being carried away by the currents. Vegetation such as sea oats and other dune plants were installed to stabilize dunes and prevent further erosion. This offers recreational opportunities for residents and visitors.
In 2023, Sea Island proposed to add 1.3 million cubic yards of new sand dredged from borrow sites offshore and pumped through massive pipes onto the beaches. The Southern Environment Law Center / SELC and One Hundred Miles environmental groups challenged the Sea Island proposal to stop the 350-foot groin to combat further erosion. See www.selc.org/news/selc-plans-to-challenge-harmful-beach-hardening-project-approval-in-Georgia/html.
The East Breach / Coast Guard may be viewed as a St. Simons groin fillet. Look at the picture of the King and Prince circa 2000; the beach is at mid-tide and the groin is visible from a mile down the beach. Twenty-five years later, it’s not noticeable anymore.
The above photo shows the previously narrow beach and how far high tide reached. The below photo shows the King and Prince pool area and a glimpse of a much-expanded beach twenty-five years later. Apparently, drifting Sea Island sand has packed the East Beach from the groin to its western end.
The current King and Prince beach has expanded by perhaps three or more times the width of the same beach twenty-five years ago. Where did all that sand come from?
Turn left after stepping down the King and Prince wooden walkway and observe a tidal pool and a pontoon-like bridge to cross it. One wonders why a tidal river is dividing the beach – why is ocean water streaming into and across the middle of the beach?
The tidal pool to left of King and Prince is about a quarter of a mile long and quite wide.
Two bridges were provided for King and Prince guests to cross the tidal pool to reach the other side of the beach. Imagine crossing the pool with beach chairs, coolers, umbrellas.
I crossed the bridge and snapped a tranquil bird happily standing in the shallow water.
The photo shows how wide the tidal pool is as well as the need for a second bridge a bit further downstream.
The residents occupying the popular condominium complexes to the east of the King and Prince must cross a wide sea oats patch, then cross the bridge to reach the ocean-side. St. Simons residents are known for preserving the East Beach’s natural state. The scale of the latest pools, however, makes some locals to consider remedies such as trucking in sand to fill the tidal pools. The reality of the currents quickly taking the sand away tends to quell that idea.
John Allen recalls many other tidal pools and rivers over the years. “One day, you wake up and they are gone. Some people believe that these pools will disappear, too, and maybe sooner than you think.”
Regardless, there is a wide belief that most remedies are short term at best and fruitless in the end. Some people, including me, suspect that the sand building up in Gould’s Inlet may be directing ocean water into the beach from both its eastern and western ends.
The following two photos capture the beach’s natural beauty and residents’ current challenges. Is this configuration temporary or permanent? Are remedies necessary and what would one do?
Given the magnitude, might a remedy possibly worsen the situation? Is simple patience, like John Allen counsels, an answer? Should interested parties try to benefit by cultivating public interest in a true natural wonder?
Has forty-five years of sand replenishment programs resulted in creating a problem, or a unique natural formation? The young lady behind me dragging a suitcase through the sand did not seem to care.
The next photo is of the eastern end of the beach and where it meets Gould’s Inlet.
I walked from the hotel to the end of the Coast Guard / East Beach and decided to drive over to Gould’s Inlet instead to better capture its majestic beauty.
The next photo shows the beach entrance – look to the group of people sitting in the far left. Two years ago, that was the entire beach, just a tiny spit of sand. Today one enters a big new beach. The sand was not trucked in; it likely washed up from the inlet.
A new island appears in Gould’s Inlet at low tide – the incoming water is moving towards and around the western tip of the Sea Island peninsula.
A four-mile stretch of public beaches begins at Gould’s Inlet on the eastern end and spans the newly formed Fifteenth St. Beach, the Coast Guard / East Beach stretch that includes Massengale Beach, and ends at King Creek on the west near Third St.
The following photo captures the beauty of the far eastern edge of the Gould’s Inlet beach at low tide.
The next photo focuses on the space between Gould’s Inlet and the Coast Guard / East Beach.
This part concludes the first days’ focus on the stretch of beach from the King and Prince to Gould’s Inlet, about two miles distance. The next day, April 17, 2025, I walked the two-mile-long stretch of beach from the hotel to the beach’s western end.
I left the King and Prince pool area and headed to the beaches’ western end, about two miles. From past walks, I expected only white sand beach and no tidal pools. That illusion lasted about a hundred yards.
I was greatly surprised to discover the beginning of tidal pool / stream that stretched for nearly a mile.
The pool grew deeper and wider and divided the beach.
This is the end of the western tidal stream, about Sixth St. Is the source the ocean? Or Kings Creek?
People are adjusting to the tidal pools. Some sit on one side or the other. Small children appear to love playing in the shallow, warm pools.
In years past, the far western stretch of beach was a very narrow path to the rocks. This former spit of sand has apparently been greatly nourished and expanded.
The next photo shows how wide the western end of the East Beach has become in some places. I proudly snapped the four birds in flight who may also be questioning where all that sand came from over the years.
The following message is a sign posted at the entrance of Gould’s Inlet beach describing the many types of birds that live or visit there. Rules for viewing are listed.
The next sign informs the public that the Georgia barrier islands like St. Simons and Sea Island are landscapes of hemispheric importance and a critical link for shorebirds.
Sea Island and St. Simons are beloved barrier islands and treasures to their residents and legions of visitors. Their interests are so intertwined it behooves them to work together for their common good.
Sea Island has a right to restore an eroded beach. St. Simons, despite the current tidal pools / rivers, appears to have benefitted somewhat.
As good neighbors, Sea Island and St. Simons can work together to manage the sand replacement issue. John and I did not try to provide a solution, only shed some light. We are retired and content to leave the management to people with higher pay grades than us.
Two old social studies teachers tried to educate the public about two special places in Georgia’s Golden Isles. We did our job and now it’s up to y’all to keep these places special.