SBPF terracing bags litter Great Point
BY PETER B. BRACE INDEPENDENT WRITER
Winter beachcombers working the shores of Great Point and the Galls are finding fragments of mesh bags from the Siasconset Beach Preservation Fund's bluff terracing project.

PETER A. SUTTERS JR./The Independent The mesh bags seen on Great Point this past weekend have been there since at least Feb. 2.

These giant bags, made of coconut fibers, are filled with sand and layered in ascending terraces to help hold a coastal bank or bluff in place, or at least to slow erosion.

Although they may pose little danger on land, these bags, when floating in the ocean like errant fish netting, can be a navigational hazard and fatal to marine life that can become entangled in them.

On the beach, Trustees of Reservations Property Superintendent Steve Nicolle said he worries that the bags could snare seals on shore.

"It does not seem to [be a problem], although I do have some concerns that the seals that are out there could get tan- gled up in it," he said. "It's very, very heavy stuff, especially when it gets filled with sand."

PETER A. SUTTERS JR./The Independent SBPF's mesh bags scattered at the base of the 'Sconset bluff on Jan. 28, the day after a powerful storm.

The Siasconset Beach Preservation Fund (SBPF) is using the sand-filled bags to protect the bluff along Baxter Road while it secures the necessary permits for its proposed rebuilding of the beach from Sankaty Head down to Codfish Park. During the powerful ocean storm on Jan. 27 - it packed winds of 56 mph - damage to SBPF's installations could have loosened and broken apart some of the bags, said SBPF Executive Director Cheryl Bartlett. Bartlett was unaware of the sections of coconut fiber bags that washed up on Great Point.

Last fall, SBPF switched to stronger jute fiber sandbags that were anchored into the beach and the bluff. Identification tags, in the form of colored threads of jute fiber, were attached to each bag to make them easier to track.

Bartlett said that the bags on Great Point are most likely pieces of the older coconut fiber bags used in the original terracing installation. Those bags were likely sitting on the bottom and were washed ashore by the recent storm.

Bartlett - who on Monday learned of the debris on Great Point from this reporter - later said that SBPF had been out on Great Point on Friday cleaning up the bag fragments. According to Bartlett, they did not go out on Monday because of sub-freezing temperatures and windy conditions. The bags were first seen strewn around Great Point on February 2, and were still out there this past weekend.

The new jute bags, said Bartlett, appeared to have survived the Jan. 27 storm. "The jute actually stayed anchored," she said. "We went down there and everybody agreed that the new design worked and they stayed anchored. I think we lost very few."

SBPF's order of conditions from the Conservation Commission for the terracing project specifies that the beach rebuilder must clean up whatever debris washes away.

"When this office is notified that there is debris, we call the agents of SBPF and they go out and collect it," said ConCom Technical Consultant Peggy Fantozzi. "They have accepted, through the order of conditions, the responsibility for cleaning up debris. Every time we have called them to notify their agents of debris, they have gone out and cleaned it up."

Nicolle said that SBPF always cleans up its wayward fiber bags after ocean storms and that Dave Leger of NETCO, SBPF's bag manufacturer, cleans any debris off the Trustees' beaches, including pieces of commercial fishing nets and other large flotsam and jetsam.

"They pick it up all the time," said Nicolle. "They're very, very good about doing that."

And, said Nicolle, from March 15 on, when nesting shorebirds begin arriving on the island; Leger calls Nicolle to coordinate clean-up missions so as to

avoid potential bird nesting areas. I