El Nio winter takes a toll on Central Coast beaches

On a beautiful day across the Central Coast , Shane Swenson checks out the waves at Manresa State Beach . Surfing for the last 43 years, he knows the waves are always different day to day.

“The sandbars were actually better her a while ago,” said Swenson, “these last few storms changed them a little bit but there’s still some good waves.”

Growing up in Santa Cruz , Swenson said the beaches around the bay used to be a whole late bigger. And unfortunately, they’re continuing to shrink.

“I didn’t notice it 40 years ago but then again no one was really paying attention back then,” said Swenson.

A USGS study released on Tuesday looked at coastal erosion across the West Coast during the 2015-2016 El Nino winter. The study included information taken from 29 beaches from Washington to Southern California , showing the beaches eroded more than ever before.

The erosion rate was 76% above what is normally observed. To put that in perspective, the south side of the Monterey Bay is the most rapidly eroding section of coast in the entire state of California .

“We were surprised,” said Patrick Barnard, a Coastal Geologist with USGS. “We got these really big erosion numbers but we didn’t have rainfall to move sand to the coast at the same time which would then kind of refill the beaches.”

This winter has brought some big storms, no doubt, but Barnard explained it’s not necessarily stormy weather that beats up the coastline, it’s big waves. This year there hasn’t been as much wave energy as last year.

Regardless, this is just another sign that things are changing in the ocean, the climate is changing, and the coastline in California will forever be changing.

“We have to be really careful about how we manage our sand resources,” added Barnard, “and make sure that we can get enough sand to the coast to protect our communities.”