¡Salvemos San Mateo!

The pointbreak in San Mateo, Ecuador is under threat from a proposed fishing port which national authorities and private investors plan to locate on the point directly over the surf spot. This would bury the surf spot, worsen erosion on the town's beach, and aggravate pollution and sedimentation of coastal waters in the area.

Save The Waves Coalition and Ecuador's Surfing Federation are joining forces to convince the country's fishing industry and national fishery authorities that surfing and fishing can coexist on San Mateo's legendary beach without the construction of a large port directly over the surf spot. We advocate relocating the port's location eastward and away from the point where the waves break.

Moving the port location would benefit all parties by achieving the following:

- protect the world-class wave at San Mateo;

- assist the burgeoning local surf economy and diversify local economic resources by continuing to attract surf tourism to the area;
- avoid extreme erosion caused by the new port's cement walls & breakwaters located in an area of wave activity;
- avoid pollution of coastal waters popular for surfing and swimming;
- avoid sedimentation of the new port by locating away from a nearby rivermouth.

The pointbreak at San Mateo acts as a natural trap of sand whose source is the nearby river. The proposed port location would act as an unnatural sand trap of the river's sediment and as a result the new port would quickly fill up with sand, rendering it useless or requiring constant expensive dredging.

Furthermore, coastal "scouring" of natural sandy beaches is worsened when artificial hard structures - such as this port's planned cement breakwaters - are placed on the beach. Natural sand buildup to protect the beach is then lost forever.

Nearshore sand flow and coastal sediment processes are poorly understood by engineers and rarely considered in construction projects such as this. However, understanding and respecting such sand flow issues plays a vital role in the long-term lifetime of such massive public works projects as nearshore natural erosion and sediment transport can quickly destroy these projects.

Save The Waves encourages the government of Ecuador to follow its National Surfing Federation's observations and recommendations, gathered from years of experience on the beach in San Mateo, and move the port facility to a less contentious area where it can be enjoyed by surfers, tourists and fishermen.