Cuban beaches eroding due to climate change

Some 84 percent of the total 413 Cuban beaches are eroding because of climate change and inadequate development, experts from the National Institute of Oceanography (NIO) said Friday. The process of erosion "largely responds to the rising of sea level and to the inadequate actions practiced by people for many years," said Jose Luis Juanes, director of the NIO's Department of Coastal Processes.  The actions include sand mining, building of various works over the dunes, and incorrect locations of channels, jetties, piers and docks. Juanes said 35 beaches of the Caribbean island country are covered by a national monitoring network detecting "morphological variations and other changes that may occur in these ecosystems, due to the effect of climate change." Cuba is currently developing a macro project to forecast and search measures before sea flooding and erosion in coastal areas for 2050-2100. Hurricane Sandy, which hit eastern Cuba on Oct. 25, transformed the coast into a rocky shoreline.