"The barrier islands — the strips of land between the ocean and the lagoon — were wild places. Just sand and dunes and sea oats, shaped by every storm, with no hotels, no roads, no parking lots. They moved. They shifted. They were the lagoon's first line of defense against the ocean."
Wild Sand Bars
The barrier islands before development: The barrier islands that separate the Indian River Lagoon from the Atlantic (Cape Canaveral, Cocoa Beach, Satellite Beach, Indian Harbour Beach, Melbourne Beach, and others to the south) were wild, undeveloped sand bars 500 years ago. What a barrier island is: A barrier island is a long, narrow island of sand that sits parallel to the mainland, separated from it by the lagoon. It 'barriers' the mainland from the open ocean — absorbing the ocean's wave energy and protecting the lagoon and the mainland behind it. Wild and shifting: Before development, these islands were pure sand and dunes. They moved. Storms reshaped them; inlets opened and closed; sand shifted north and south with the longshore current. There was nothing permanent on them — no buildings to protect, no roads to maintain. Sea oats and dunes: The islands were covered in sea oats and dune grasses, whose deep roots held the sand together. Behind the dunes, the island dropped down into the lagoon-side mangroves and salt marsh. It was a wild, shifting, living landscape — the lagoon's shield against the ocean.
