THIS time last year the entire Treasure Beach stretch had people lying on their towels soaking up the sun and enjoying the waters. But now there is hardly any beach left.

According to Dennis Abrahams, who owns and operates a boat tour business, increasingly active erosion along the southern coast has washed away the majority of the sand and the waters continue to eat further inland.

In an interview with the Jamaica Observer last Thursday, Abrahams said the recent declines started with major hurricanes and have been sustained due to constantly rising seas and battering waves.

“After Hurricane Ivan in 2004, we lost a lot of our beaches and a lot of trees, and then two years later we had Hurricane Dean that came and did a lot of damage as well, but still left us with a little bit of sand to work with and a little bit of beach,” Abrahams said.

But in the past five years, and in the last year in particular, things have changed dramatically. Visitors to the beach have noticed and business owners have had to be constantly rebuilding.

“People had towels laying in front of Eggy’s place, a restaurant and bar. People could lie out on the beach in front of the bar; now he has had to build on stilts about four to five feet above sea level because the water is right up into his place,” Abrahams said, giving an example of the effects of the rising sea level.

“Last year this time we have 30 ft of beach and we had tables out on the beach,” Anthony ‘Eggy’ Gordon told us from his shop, which now sits on stilts above the water.

“It happened so fast and it just continue happening,” he added.

Alwin Williams, who runs Pratta Hot Sprat further down the beach, told an even more frightening tale. He said the pile of black-coloured, moss-covered rocks to the right of his stall were only washed there in the last three months, and he had the photos to prove it.

Starve Gut Bay is but one area affected by the rapid erosion, Abrahams said, pointing to Frenchman’s Beach and Bluefields as other examples.

“It is a big threat because one, we are losing the beaches; two, the water is now going up into the villas… and three, it doesn’t make is as comfortable for myself or for my guests, where I pick up and drop off for the tours. It’s been very uncomfortable dealing with it because we don’t have a pier and we normally pick up on the beach, and normally where we would shelter under the reef to do our pickup — because we don’t have any sand — the water gets deeper and the waves are breaking in those areas where it never used to happen,” Abrahams explained.

“It is very frightening. We’re very [worried] about what will happen within the next year,” captain Dennis added.