JACKSONVILLE BEACH, Fla. — In just three days, Beaches Sea Turtle Patrol came out to recover the barrier that protects the sand dunes it stretches out to about 2 miles across Jacksonville beach.
“We really feel like it helped with the foot traffic and identifying that the dunes are real important," said Kevin Brown, marine beach expert.
Brown says after tropical storm Ian the ropes and pipes were found scattered all over the beaches, making it as far as 10 miles south of Ponte Vedra.
“They were floating listen these things were in knots they were overlapped we found them one block two blocks down. So we had to reorganize them and get them back into the ground," said Brown.
Brown says in the last two years these barriers helped the sand dunes build back up after damaged was done by Matthew and Irma.
A volunteer of the organization, Marc Dillion says the dunes are still fragile.
“Stay off the dunes, because when you walk on the dunes, you cause erosion, and these dunes are critically important for storm protection as we saw with Ian," said Brown.
Brown says these dunes defend the island everyday which is why protecting them are critical.
“The bottom line is when the storm came through they all held. These four dunes kept the water from breaching the beach and its just so important to our economic and community life out here," said Brown.
The city says they are very supportive of brown’s barrier project here at Jacksonville beach and they are glad that they are back up to protect their dunes.