SAND

Beaches are rivers of sand flowing parallel to the sea. Like riverbeds, beaches are subject to erosive and extractive processes and part of wider political ecologies. In the era of climate change, both stronger currents and human attempts to offset the effects of sea level rise interfere with oceanic sand fluxes. For instance, the construction of seawalls and groynes aims to prevent shore erosion and land loss. These interventions lastingly shape the morphology of shorelines by starving beaches of sediment. The socio-spatial implications of coastal land loss linked to sediment starvation, however, often remain hidden. To affected communities, they raise important questions of access and the future of their livelihoods.

In this short photo-essay, I use the notion of ocean sand to refer to near- and offshore deposits, including beaches, bays, lagoons, estuaries, tidal wetlands and coastal quarries. This use of the term follows Jouffray et al. (2023:9) and recognizes ocean sand as an “interconnected and dynamic complex social-ecological system at the land-sea interface.” The notion of sand as system helps to understand the embeddedness of economic and spatial dynamics in material arrangements and goes beyond a mere technical consideration of sand as construction material and resource. It allows me to think of sand as a non-human actor in the coastal environment.

Empirically, this piece is grounded in the lived realities of artisanal fishing communities near Pondicherry along the Coromandel Coast of southern India. Tracing the sandy landscapes I found here, I examine the disrupted flows of ocean sand that have led to coastal erosion as well as the social implications of sand loss for artisanal fishing communities. As my research shows, access to sandy beaches is the very foundation of artisanal fisher’s livelihoods. Beach space is needed for boat landing, repair and maintenance, catch drying, pulling and mending of nets, as well as the auctioning and selling of fish. Since this crucial site of labor is shrinking due to human-induced erosion and climate change, fishers are now often forced to adapt by migrating to new coastal stretches where sand is still available.

While migrating to other sandy beaches is a necessary means of adaptation, this leads to local conflicts over beach space and its governance. The loss of access to beaches also forces fishing communities to search for alternative work sites. To prevent coastal erosion, groynes usually made of granite rocks aim to trap the sand as it is transported northwards by the sea. Groynes are impermeable walls that extend vertically from land into the sea. Their implementation, however, is often a top-down measure and leads to an uneven redistribution of beach sand. While small beaches have formed along such hard structures, like the breakwater at the Pondicherry harbour, the groynes deprive certain areas of sand where this translates into accelerated erosion. Notably, women in the fishing sector are unequally affected and forced to move to urban areas for fish drying and selling.

The photographs hope to draw attention to the critical social role of beaches along the Coromandel Coast. Preserving shorelines often has undesired effects, since it starves other areas by interfering with sediment movements. For me this raises the question how fish workers will adapt to erosion and the loss of land which is entwined with their coastal livelihood practices. The growing tourism industry suggests that their beach uses will be squeezed between recreational uses and an encroaching sea, perhaps forcing them to seek jobs in the industrial fishing sector.