The 2025 San Diego County Beach Report indicates a continuing and encouraging story for our local shores. Wonderful news indeed, as the majority of them have increased width over the past year! It was produced by the Scripps Institution of Oceanography. It uncovers unexpected results that surprised scientists, particularly given the decreased sediment delivery from California’s rivers.
Programmatic and infrastructural measurements to inform the beach report were taken from October 1, 2024 through September 30, 2025. To get this data, the Scripps team deployed an Optech LiDAR scanner on a truck, ATV or drone. This new technology helped them to capture accurate 3D models and measurements of the affected beaches. This innovative technology now enables monthly aerial assessments of these dynamic environments across all nine field-research testbed locations.
Lead author William O’Reilly, an oceanographer at Scripps, said he’s excited about the findings. “The good news is that we are now officially in the beach recovery phase post-El Niño,” he stated.
During this initial assessment, some of the beaches that were previously under long-term narrowing trends showed width increases. Remarkably, the south end of the beach at Camp Pendleton near San Diego widened as much as 1,538 feet. Venice Beach in Los Angeles and the north end of Ocean Beach in San Francisco came to mind as places where we heard variations on this improvement, too. Some regions, like Oceanside and San Clemente, are still in the red, still suffering a net erosive loss of sand.
Mark Merrifield, director of the Scripps Center for Climate Change Impacts and Adaptation and a co-author of the report, emphasized the importance of tracking these changes. “Being able to look across multiple years of the beach report lets managers assess trends, which can help inform decisions about potential beach nourishment projects,” he noted.
According to the report, changes to beach width are predictable, though. Merrifield added, “On the flip side, our research establishes that multi-year cycles of widening or narrowing beaches are not unusual. Multiple years of beach recovery often occur after a strong erosion year.”
Even with encouraging news on a portion of the nation’s beaches, researchers are still worried about the future. O’Reilly pointed out the uncertainty surrounding recovery efforts: “That said, the last recovery phase didn’t go too well, so we need to wait and see if beaches continue to recover or if it will be spoiled by increased atmospheric river activity or other extreme weather events.”
Co-author Adam Young, an Scripps coastal geomorphologist, emphasized the importance beaches serve in providing coastal defense. “Tracking beach width is important because beaches are our first defense against flooding on our coastline,” he stated. Additionally, he pointed out that clean beaches play an important role in supporting economic vitality through recreational activities and protecting healthy cultural practices.