COASTAL Recovery

The sand around the grounded vessel, FIRAT, is an example of the type of accretion Joseph Farrell encountered throughout 35 years of salvage and wreck removals.

While faced with this issue, he began to wonder – what if we could actively manage sand in order to maintain shorelines? From this, an idea was born: to create a module that mimics the sand accretion around a stranded vessel, yet is underwater and unseen.

The result of the modules was demonstrated through numerical modeling and wave tank studies. For more than three decades, Resolve Marine has managed projects involving partly emergent breakwaters and alternative shore protection mechanisms, created artificial reefs from both ships and modules, propagated coral nurseries, removed ships grounded on coral reefs, and monitored quantified and remediated marine life impacted through casualties and maritime commerce.

In addition to the beach modules, mobile labs are set up for students to monitor wind, waves, and currents realtime . They will then take this information and use it in coastal models to determine changes in the coastline and the rate of erosion and accrual.