Ensure that no harm comes to our environment including Siesta beaches, waterfront property and navigation in Big Pass as well as the diverse ecology of the area. 

Since 1993 a group of concerned citizens have worked with SOS, SOS4EVER, and now with SOSS2 to insure the welfare of Big  Pass, Big Pass Shoal and the beaches these two bodies nourish: the North Siesta Key Beaches and Crescent Beach.

This entire system comprises the Siesta Key Closed Littoral Cell. (SKCLC) which stretches from the entrance of Big Pass down to the Point of Rocks. This complex system has for decades transferred sand down the shoal, continuously circulating sand from the shoal onto Crescent Beach. The shoal protects the beaches it nourishes from wave impact.

This delicately balanced system must not be disturbed at any point if it is to remain successful. And it is because of this system Crescent Beach continue to accrete, while other beaches in Sarasota County tend to erode. Coastal geologists have said that the exact mechanism of the SKCLC is not understood but it accrues to the benefit of Siesta Key.

While we understand the need for the Sarasota County and City to find a workable solution to erosion on other beaches, we are very concerned that the proposal to take sand from the Big Pass shoal could have unintended consequences as it has in other dredged shoals. A good example is the  post Debby dredge where North Lido beach has reportedly suffered immediate and severe erosion.