If you have walked down the staircase just south of the Crescent Beach pavilion this summer and wondered what the little metal bracket is, it is a research instrument and you are supposed to use it.
It is a CoastSnap station, installed in June by researchers backed by Rhode Island Sea Grant in partnership with the Town of New Shoreham, and it is the first one on Block Island. The design is deliberately dumb in the best way: a cradle holds your phone at a fixed angle, you take a photo of the shoreline, and you upload it. Every photo lines up with every other photo taken from that spot, going back to June, which turns a summer of tourist snapshots into a time series.
That series is the point. Researchers are tracking how the beach and the dunes move in response to storms, seasonal change, and sea-level rise — the kind of measurement that normally requires a survey crew and a budget.
“CoastSnap allows anyone with a smartphone to help us document those changes over time and contribute to a better understanding of how this coastline is evolving,” said Nathan Vinhateiro, science director at the University of Rhode Island’s Coastal Institute, in Rhode Island Sea Grant’s announcement.
Bryan Oakley, a professor of earth system science at Eastern Connecticut State University, framed why it matters here: “Understanding where sediment comes from, how it moves, and what processes are driving erosion is critical if communities are going to make informed decisions about future resilience efforts.”
The project is led by Annette Grilli, with co-investigators Eliza Berry, Bryan Oakley, Nate Vinhateiro, Stephan Grilli, and Christopher Baxter.
If you’re going: it is on the way to the water at the town beach, it takes about fifteen seconds, and September light is better than August light anyway. Take the picture on your way out rather than your way in, when your hands are free.