Broad Beach Restoration Project

The residents of Broad Beach in Malibu, CA are implementing a sand nourishment project to protect their coastal property and reestablish a sandy beach.  The sand nourishment involves the placement of 300,000 cubic yards of sand every five years and interim nourishments of up to 75,000 cubic yards of sand per year.

Rincon was brought into this project to revise and finish the Marine Habitat Mitigation and Monitoring Plan (MHMMP) and to complete fine-scale habitat mapping and monitoring of the supratidal, intertidal, and subtidal marine habitats and communities at the project site and four reference sites.  The MHMMP was revised and accepted by the California Coastal Commission and other regulatory agencies and Rincon is now currently in the middle of a one-year habitat mapping and monitoring before the sand nourishment takes place.  After the baseline data has been collected and analyzed, sand nourishment is slated to occur next winter and fall habitat mapping and monitoring will take place for the next 5 years.

Rincon is collecting high-resolution maps of all study areas with the utilization of the Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) as well as vessel based multi-beam sonar completed by subcontractor eTrac Inc.  In conjunction with the habitat mapping, Rincon marine scientists conduct rocky intertidal, eelgrass, surfgrass, rocky subtidal (kelp forests) and sand beach monitoring at the project site, Lechuza Cove, and the four reference sites: Leo Carrillo, Sequit Point, El Pescador, and El Matador beach.