Patent ID: 7632039

Claim:
A method for compensating for beach erosion, comprising the steps of: positioning an excavating machine on a beach; extending a boom of the excavating machine over ocean water, the boom coupled to an excavating apparatus; submerging the excavating apparatus into the ocean water in a region where waves of the ocean water are breaking; partially submerging the excavating apparatus in sand of an ocean floor below the breaking waves; skimming the partially submerged excavating apparatus along the ocean floor toward shore thereby forming a trench within the ocean floor below the breaking waves; moving, via the excavating apparatus, the sand from the trench to the shore; spreading the sand across the shore thereby compensating for beach erosion; analyzing ocean currents at the beach; and determining, based on the analyzing step, a depth to submerge the excavating apparatus during the submerging step, wherein the submerging step is based on the determining step and wherein wave action of the breaking waves is sufficient to fill the trench with sand such that a contour of the ocean floor is substantially unaffected by the skimming step.