Sometimes clumps of compressed turf are exposed on our beaches after severe storms. These are made up of the same sort of vegetation that now grows on the island in Barnegat Bay, which leads to the conclusion that the island one time existed where our beaches are now. Since this vegetation could not flourish without the shelter of a barrier island protecting it from the open sea, the inference is that what was then Long Beach Island must have been located to the east of its present position and has since migrated to the west. All of this leaves us with the picture of a low, sandy, unstable strip of land that seems to be in constant motion. To some degree, we sometimes unwittingly contribute to this situation when we seek to stabilize the coast by building fixed, protective structures such as groins, seawalls or bulkheads.
Groins have often the unhappy effect of building up sand on one side but cutting away on the other.
Bulkheads and sea walls can protect property and buildings, but at the price of reducing or eliminating the beach in front of them. Bulkheads are eventually subject to undermining, and there is often a disposition for tides or currents to curl around their ends and scour, thus cracking neighboring properties. What one needs, to cope with ocean waves and currents, is the combination of wide, gently sloping beaches and well-stabilized sand dunes for protection. Good, sturdy dunes are an obvious bulwark against flooding and erosion, but people do not always realize that wide beaches are needed to absorb the energy of the oncoming waves before they even reach the dunes. Unless this energy is absorbed, the waves will simply batter against anything in their way, usually with destructive results.