THEY SKIPPED THE SEAWALL AND PUT 22 CONCRETE ARCHES IN THE LAGOON INSTEAD.
A 200-foot eroded bank at Sebastian Inlet State Park got 22 honeycomb reef arches and up to 90 red mangroves instead of a wall — finished September 10.
A WALL THAT BREATHES.
Crews finished a living shoreline at Coconut Point in Sebastian Inlet State Park on September 10, using 22 honeycomb reef arches and up to 90 red mangroves along 200 feet of eroded Indian River Lagoon bank.
WHAT HAPPENED
Coconut Point, a finger of land in Florida's Indian River Lagoon, was torn up by Hurricane Nicole in 2022 and kept eroding, helped along by wave action off a nearby boat ramp.
Instead of a seawall, the Sebastian Inlet District and Sebastian Inlet State Park built a living shoreline. Crews finished work on about 200 feet of bank on September 10, setting 22 honeycomb-shaped concrete reef modules and planting red mangroves — the district's materials list up to 90 seven-gallon plants. The modules are meant to absorb wave energy while giving fish and oysters somewhere to settle and letting the mangroves take hold.
A $95,000 cost-share grant from Florida DEP's Resilient Florida Program covered most of the billed work, with about $7,900 matched by the district and in-kind support from Reef Arches and the mangrove group MANG. The Ocean Research & Conservation Association paid for seven arches and about half the plants, and its volunteer citizen scientists will monitor the site for at least three years.
WHY THIS IS HOPESLOP
A seawall is a promise to fight the water forever. This is the opposite bet: build something lumpy and porous, plant mangroves in it, then hand a clipboard to volunteers for three years. It is coastal engineering with the ego removed, and the monitoring plan is longer than the construction schedule.
ORIGINAL SOURCESebastian DailyRead the original report
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