P.E.I. suffered ‘shocking’ coastline loss from Fiona, data analysis shows | 24CA News

The numbers are in for 2022, and Prince Edward Island misplaced a file quantity of shoreline, in keeping with researchers at UPEI’s School of Climate Change and Adaptation. 

The loss in some locations was so excessive that the measuring pegs a coastal monitoring analysis mission had been utilizing for seven years had been clawed away into the ocean.

The college’s researchers have been monitoring 93 areas throughout P.E.I., together with six new ones added alongside the western coast simply final yr.

Drone pilot Andy MacDonald stated the 2022 monitoring outcomes had been on observe to be common till late September. That’s when post-tropical storm Fiona hit with all its fury.

“Everything that we flew afterwards, which was somewhere around a dozen or 15 sites, we noticed absolutely huge changes, especially on the North Shore and on the western coast of P.E.I.,” MacDonald stated.  

“On the west coast, we visited about nine sites, all showing losses within about a metre and a half to seven metres. So [that’s] very high for this study, where the average is usually around 30 or so centimetres a year.”

Everything that we flew afterwards, which was someplace round a dozen or 15 websites, we observed completely large modifications.— Andy MacDonald, drone pilot

The pilot stated the outcomes had been “jarring,” and the shoreline losses in western P.E.I. had been significantly hanging.

“While the North Shore was in the news a lot, and a lot of areas got hit hard, I think it was a particular surprise going down the west coast and finding these huge losses,” he stated. 

MacDonald stated the most important shoreline loss was reported at Cape Gage Road, a brand new website added final yr on the western coast of P.E.I. simply north of Miminegash.

The monitoring information confirmed a mean lack of seven metres, and MacDonald stated some locals reported shedding 10 to 12 metres of shoreline in close by areas. 

He stated additionally they noticed a lack of greater than 25 metres in some areas of Miminegash Harbour, from “just the direction of the winds and the direction of the storm.

“Obviously the water ranges performed a component as effectively,” he said. “It was type of an ideal storm, so to talk, for getting a whole lot of coastal erosion.”

It has been stunning. This previous yr has positively been the best quantity of abrasion that we have seen throughout our mission​​​​​.— Catherine Kennedy, masters student

Catherine Kennedy is a masters student at the UPEI School of Climate Change and Adaptation, and has worked on peg-line coastal monitoring for the last five years. 

The program uses two pegs placed perpendicular to the shore at each site, one 10 metres in and the second 10 metres back from it. 

Kennedy said the damage after Fiona was so severe that some of the 200 monitoring pegs were lost — both pegs at some sites and just the seaward ones at others. 

“It has been stunning. This previous yr has positively been the best quantity of abrasion that we have seen throughout our mission. With the areas experiencing 10 and even 25 metres, it is definitely been a priority,” she said. 

Kennedy said the peg-line project is important to coastal monitoring because it gives researchers the opportunity to connect with the community when they travel around the Island. 

“The information that folks maintain which have lived on this space for lengthy intervals of time is not one thing that we will calculate when utilizing a drone,” she stated. 

“We actually like to have the ability to get on the market and join on the bottom. So we expect it is definitely nonetheless a precious mission going ahead.”

Restricting development

Kennedy said the coastal monitoring is also important for researchers looking for ways to protect the coastline from erosion. 

“We want to think about the place we’re constructing, and doubtlessly proscribing growth in a few of these higher-hazard areas. And if individuals are contemplating constructing in coastal areas, they need to request hazard assessments from the province in order that they perceive the danger that they are taking up,” she said.

We want to think about the place we’re constructing, and doubtlessly proscribing growth in a few of these higher-hazard areas.— Catherine Kennedy, masters student

“I feel the monitoring reveals that we do have a vulnerability — and particularly following Fiona, it is exhibiting that we weren’t extremely resilient to these impacts,” Kennedy said.

“I feel the monitoring goes to assist us present what areas are doubtlessly extra weak, so that there’s much less growth in these areas.”

MacDonald stated his group is speaking to the province about one of the simplest ways to cowl as a lot shoreline as doable, as they add a couple of dozen new areas in 2024.

He stated additionally they encourage individuals to achieve out to researchers if they’re taken with becoming a member of the monitoring program.