Caribbean Beaches Shrink as Thieves Steal Sand

Caribbean round grains, favored in creating smooth surfaces for plastering and finishing, are being hauled away by the truckload late at night. On some islands, towns and ecologically sensitive areas get exposed to tidal surges and rough seas.Among the hardest hit is Grenada, where officials are building a $1.2 million seawall to protect the 131-square-mile island. Large-scale sand thefts have exposed north-coast towns to rough seas.

In Puerto Rico, thieves once mined the dunes in the northern coastal town of Isabela, said Ernesto Diaz of the Department of Natural Resources. Now they are stealing the beaches of the tiny island of Vieques – 52 square miles where the US military only recently halted its controversial bombing practice.

Large-scale sand thefts have exposed north-coast towns to rough seas, said Joseph Gilbert, the minister of works and environment. About 706,000 cubic feet of sand were taken from private property beaches in the northwest of Jamaica in late July.
Source: http://www.boston.com/news/world/latinamerica/articles/2008/11/02/sand_thieves_shrink_caribbean_beaches/; find article here.