The increasing use of large breakwaters and other hard structures to reduce erosion in "living shorelines" along coastal estuaries may be no better for the environment than the ecologically harmful bulkheads they were designed to replace.

A new survey of barrier islands published earlier this spring offers the most thorough assessment to date of the thousands of small islands that hug the coasts of the world's landmasses.

Earth has 657 more barrier islands than previously thought, according to a new global survey by researchers from Duke University and Meredith College.

By Rob Young During moments like these, the country understandably feels sympathy for those who have lost property in the wake of Hurricane Ike. But there is an important question that should be raised while the nation's attention is once again focused on billions of dollars in damage.

By David Lauderdale, The Island Packet, Hilton Head Island, S.C. Jul. 25--Suppose for a moment that you lived on a barrier island and didn't know the difference between an ebb-tidal delta and a Pleistocene upland.