Posted
Article written by
/2021/12/14/61b8b9accb57c_france-3.png)
By the end of the century, in France, up to 50,000 people could be threatened by erosion, a phenomenon which is accelerating. Example in Biscarrosse, in the Landes, where the beach has retreated by several meters.
The reappearance of a bunker is the most visible sign of erosion and the wear and tear of the swell. With its fragile and steep dune, the central beach of Biscarrosse (Landes) is closed to access. Surfers, accustomed to the place, are well acquainted with the vagaries of the ocean, and its voracious appetite to gradually gnaw and nibble on the dune. “The structure of the beach is receding more and more, and it becomes catastrophic. Over there, there are buildings that are really right up to the seaside, all it takes is a big storm and they can leave.”, says one of them.
New in Biscarrosse, the waves now regularly exceed 5 or 10 meters, during “twenty days”, adds another surfer. The new decline of the dune, estimated at 7 meters since the fall, is part of an inexorable movement of coastal erosion, with already tangible effects in Biscarrosse. “As the ocean rises super high, sometimes we don’t have room to teach. We have the waves breaking very close to the shore, so we have to cancel”, explains a surf teacher.