Abstract

Artificial "seaweed" or anti-erosion devices placed in waters where shoreline erosion occurs work with nature to accrete water bottom sediment, such as sand, to establish and maintain beaches along shorelines. The seaweed is planted outwardly from the shoreline in predetermined locations to form rows of buoyant flexible finger sheets effective to trap sediment suspended in the water. The sheets are anchored to water pervious elongated hollow flexible tubes filled with lake bottom sediment as they are deployed and have low density floats sealed therein to increase their buoyancy. For efficient accretion, the still water level and the lake bottom profile are determined. The tubes are then deployed in lake bottom troughs and on mounds outwardly from the shoreline to form rows of finger sheets generally parallel with the shoreline. The heights of the fingers are regulated to always terminated well below the still water line where they will not interfere with boat traffic or become locked in ice formed on the water, and with fingers of short height extending from the low level troughs where the sediment content of the water is high and with longer fingers extending from the mounds where the water suspends less solids.