Rising seas threatening historic lighthouses

Rising seas and erosion are threatening lighthouses around the US and the world.

Volunteers and cash-strapped governments are doing what they can, but the level of concern, like the water, is rising.

New Jersey’s East Point Lighthouse has lit up Delaware Bay for the better part of two centuries.

But those same waters that the lighthouse helped illuminate might bring about its demise.

With even a moderate-term fix likely to cost US$3mil (RM12.6mil) or more, New Jersey officials are considering what to do to save the lighthouse.

Nancy Patterson, president of the Maurice River Historical Society, says something needs to be done.

State and local governments routinely shore up the perimeter of the lighthouse property with 1360kg sand bags and hastily bulldozed earthen walls.

In normal conditions, the bay is about 37m from the lighthouse.

Aerial photos from 1940 show at least four times as much beach between the lighthouse and the bay as there is now.

And during storms, the surf pounds against an earthen wall just 9m from the lighthouse’s front steps.

“This lighthouse is in incredible danger; it’s getting worse and worse and worse,” Patterson said.

“The water is right there, often within feet of the lighthouse.”

She recently led a rally to call attention to its plight and push the state Department of Environmental Protection to do something to save it before it falls into the bay.

It’s a threat affecting lighthouses around the country and the world, including those in low-lying areas being inundated by water, as well as those on bluffs or cliffs being eroded by storms and rising sea levels.

“It’s happening faster than anybody predicted,” said Jeff Gales, executive director of the US Lighthouse Society in Hansville, Washington.

While some of the lighthouses continue to be relied upon, others have been replaced by modern technology, and are treasured for historic and tourism purposes.

Climate change hastened by manmade greenhouse gases is not only melting polar ice, adding to sea levels, but the warmer waters are expanding and some land formations sinking.

Globally, sea levels have been rising over the past century, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, and the rate has increased in recent decades. — AP