Saturday, February 22, 2025, 10:01AM |  26°
MENU
SECTIONS
OTHER
CLASSIFIEDS
CONTACT US / FAQ
Advertisement
Logs of coconut husk known as coir sit on the bank of the Shark River in Neptune, N.J., Jan. 31, 2023 where the American Littoral Society doing a shoreline restoration project incorporating coconut fibers. The material is being used in shoreline stabilization projects around the world.
8
MORE

How coconuts protect the Jersey Shore and other eroding coasts

Wayne Parry/Associated Press

How coconuts protect the Jersey Shore and other eroding coasts

NEPTUNE, N.J. — Coastal communities around the world are adding a tropical twist to shoreline protection, courtesy of the humble coconut.

From the sands of the Jersey Shore to the islands of Indonesia, strands of coconut husk, known as coir, are being incorporated into shoreline protection projects.

Often used in conjunction with other measures, the coconut material is seen as a cost-effective, readily available and sustainable option. This is particularly true in developing countries. But the material is also popular in wealthy nations, where it's seen as an important part of so-called “living shorelines” that use natural elements rather than hard barriers of wood, steel or concrete.

Advertisement

One such project is being installed along a section of eroded river bank in Neptune, N.J., about a mile from the ocean on the Shark River. Using a mix of a federal grant and local funds, the American Littoral Society, a coastal conservation group, is carrying out the $1.3 million project that has already added significantly to what was previously a severely eroded shoreline in an area that was pummeled by Superstorm Sandy in 2012.

“We’re always trying to reduce wave energy while shielding the shoreline, and whenever we can, we like to employ nature-based solutions,” said Tim Dillingham, the group’s executive director. “This material is readily available, particularly in developing countries and it’s relatively inexpensive compared with harder materials.”

Coir is made of the stringy fibers of coconut shells, and spun into mats or logs, often held together with netting. In developing areas, discarded or ripped fishing nets can be incorporated.

Its flexibility allows it to be molded and contoured as needed on uneven areas of shoreline, held in place by wooden stakes.

Advertisement

The coconut-based material biodegrades over time, by design. But before it does, it is sometimes pre-seeded with shoreline plants and grasses, or those plants are placed in holes that can be punched into the coir logs.

The logs hold the plants in place as they take root and grow, eventually breaking down and leaving the established plants and sediment around them in place to stabilize the shoreline.

Coconut-based materials are being used around the world for erosion control projects.

One of them is in Boston, where Julia Hopkins, an assistant professor at Northeastern University, is using coconut fibers, wood chips and other material to create floating mats to blunt the force of waves, and encourage growth of aquatic vegetation. A pilot project has four such mats in waterways around Boston. Ms. Hopkins envisions a network of hundreds or even thousands of mats linked together to protect wider areas.

She’s pleased with what she's seen so far.

“Coconut fiber is organic material, it’s relatively cheap and it’s a discard,” she said. “It's actually recycling something that was going to be discarded.”

Two projects in East Providence, R.I., used coconut logs in 2020, and 2,400 feet of shoreline in New York's Jamaica Bay that were eroded during Superstorm Sandy were stabilized in 2021 by a project that also included coconut coir logs.

Cape Cod, Mass., did a similar project last year, and the Delaware Department of Natural Resources and Environmental Control is offering funding to help landowners, homeowner associations and others install living shorelines made of materials that can include coconut fibers.

A project in Austin, Texas, stabilized part of the Lake Austin shoreline; monitoring from 2009 to 2014 showed decreased erosion and the healthy growth of native plants at the water's edge.

Indonesia is the world's largest coconut producer, with more than 17 million metric tons in 2021. Scientists from the Oceanography Program of Bandung Institute of Technology used coconut husk material to help build a sea wall in the Karangjaladri village of Pangandaran Regency in 2018.

Residents of Diogue Island in Senegal are using wooden structures and coconut fronds and sticks to reclaim eroded sections of beach.

It doesn’t always work, however.

In 2016, the Felix Neck Wildlife Refuge in Edgartown, Mass., on Martha’s Vineyard installed it at the Sengekontacket Pond, where a salt marsh had eroded by several feet in previous years. While it did help reduce erosion for a while, the husks did not last long due to strong wave action.

“It got blown out multiple times,” said Suzan Bellincampi, the sanctuary’s director. “We had it in place for a few years and we decided not to reinstall it.

“The project was really interesting in terms of what we wanted to do and how we adapted it,” she said. “It's not for every site; it has to be site-specific. It works in some places; it doesn't work in all places.”

Similarly, coconut fiber mats and logs were used recently on Chapel Island in Nova Scotia, Canada, but they were damaged by bad weather.

Another Canadian site, Lac des Battures, a lake on Montreal’s Nuns’ Island, uses coconut mats to control the growth of invasive reeds along the shoreline.

At the New Jersey site, a few miles south of the musical hotbed of Asbury Park, trucked-in sand has joined with sediment accruing from the tides to create a beach that is noticeably wider than what used to be there.

“Underneath your feet right now are hibernating fiddler crabs,” said Capt. Al Modjeski, a restoration specialist with the Littoral Society. “They'll be excited about this new habitat.”

First Published: March 19, 2023, 10:00 a.m.

RELATED
SHOW COMMENTS (0)  
Join the Conversation
Commenting policy | How to Report Abuse
If you would like your comment to be considered for a published letter to the editor, please send it to letters@post-gazette.com. Letters must be under 250 words and may be edited for length and clarity.
Partners
Advertisement
Preston Coleman, 52, was beaten and strangled inside an Aliquippa VFW on Jan. 5, 2025, in what police described as a vicious, unprovoked attack.
1
news
Bartender working at Aliquippa VFW during beating that left man unconscious facing charges
The University of Pittsburgh's Cathedral of Learning
2
business
Amid funding uncertainty, Pitt pauses doctoral admissions
Mayor Ed Gainey during  a press conference at the Downtown Public Safety Center on Thursday. He angrily criticized what he believes negative media coverage of his work as mayor.
3
opinion
Brandon McGinley: ‘The wheels are coming off’ the Gainey administration
On the UPMC Mercy Pavilion's rooftop terrace, the Rehabilitation Garden provides a safe environment where patients can practice navigating training ramps, steps and diverse surfaces like gravel, turf and concrete. The garden includes fragrant herbs and other pleasant sensory stimuli.
4
business
East Liberty-based artificial intelligence firm raises $250 million, deploys AI platform in 100 healthcare systems
Longtime KDKA-TV host Jon Burnett on May 22, 2019.
5
a&e
Jon Burnett, long a KDKA-TV staple, leaves legacy of ‘putting good out into the world’
Logs of coconut husk known as coir sit on the bank of the Shark River in Neptune, N.J., Jan. 31, 2023 where the American Littoral Society doing a shoreline restoration project incorporating coconut fibers. The material is being used in shoreline stabilization projects around the world.  (Wayne Parry/Associated Press)
Logs of coconut husk known as coir sit on the bank of the Shark River in Neptune, N.J., Jan. 31, 2023, where the American Littoral Society doing a shoreline restoration project incorporating coconut fibers. The material is being used in shoreline stabilization projects around the world.  (Wayne Parry/Associated Press)
Capt. Al Modjeski, a restoration specialist with the American Littoral Society, examines a beach along the Shark River in Neptune N.J., Jan. 31, 2023, where his group is doing a shoreline restoration project incorporating coconut fibers. The material, known as coir, is being used in shoreline stabilization projects around the world.  (Wayne Parry/Associated Press)
Logs of coconut husk known as coir sit on the bank of the Shark River in Neptune, N.J., Jan. 31, 2023, where the American Littoral Society doing a shoreline restoration project incorporating coconut fibers. The material is being used in shoreline stabilization projects around the world.  (Wayne Parry/Associated Press)
Tim Dillingham, left, and Capt. Al Modjeski, right, of the American Littoral Society, examine logs of coconut husk known as coir along the bank of the Shark River in Neptune, N.J., Jan. 31, 2023 ,where their group is doing a shoreline restoration project incorporating coconut fibers. The material is being used in shoreline stabilization projects around the world.  (Wayne Parry/Associated Press)
Logs of coconut husk known as coir sit on the bank of the Shark River in Neptune, N.J., Jan. 31, 2023, where the American Littoral Society is doing a shoreline restoration project incorporating coconut fibers. The material is being used in shoreline stabilization projects around the world.  (Wayne Parry/Associated Press)
A close-up of a log of coconut husk known as coir along the bank of the Shark River in Neptune, N.J., Jan. 31, 2023 where the American Littoral Society is doing a shoreline restoration project incorporating coconut fibers. The material is being used in shoreline stabilization projects around the world.  (Wayne Parry/Associated Press)
Logs of coconut husk known as coir sit on the bank of the Shark River in Neptune, N.J., Jan. 31, 2023, where the American Littoral Society is doing a shoreline restoration project incorporating coconut fibers. The material is being used in shoreline stabilization projects around the world.  (Wayne Parry/Associated Press)
Wayne Parry/Associated Press
Advertisement
LATEST news
Advertisement
TOP
Email a Story