levels at which turbidity becomes harmful. [In the interim, materials utilized 
in beach nourishment should be selected to minimize turbidity and nourishment 
should be carried out before the onset of larval recruitment in spring. 
Beach nourishment virtually destroys existing intertidal macrofauna; how- 
ever, recovery is usually rapid once the pumping operation ceases if the 
nourishment material is compatible with the natural beach sediments. In most 
cases, recovery should occur within one or two seasons following the project. 
Harmful consequences to the intertidal macrofauna and subsequent reduction in 
surf-feeding fish populations can be reduced or avoided by carrying out nour- 
ishment operations during the winter after adult Donax spp. and EF. talpotda 
leave. Small nourishment projects, of 0.8 kilometer or less, should recover 
faster than larger projects since the speed of recovery is dependent upon 
recruitment from nearby beaches. A succession of small projects carried out in 
nonsequential order should have less long-term impact than a single grand- 
scale nourishment project. 
There are two types of biological associations tound on sanay peacnes. 
There are beaches dominated by organisms recruited from pelagic larval stocks, 
and there are beaches where the entire life history of the dominant organism 
is within the beach system. Results of this study indicate that on beaches 
where the major organism is recruited from pelagic larval stocks (as is the 
case with £. talpotda and Donax spp. in North Carolina), the impact of beach 
nourishment will be drastic but ephemeral. However, on beaches where the major 
organism is one whose entire life history is within the beach system (as is 
the case with H. canadensis, the dominant species on northern beaches), recovery 
of secondary production biomass will be very slow, thus local sport and commer- 
cial fishing may also be affected. 
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