Florida Beach Voted America´s Best Recreational Foreshore
A stretch of sand off the west coast of Florida near St. Petersburg is America´s best beach of 2005, according to a Florida scientist whose annual top 10 list has become a promotional tool for the tourism industry.
Fort De Soto Park´s North Beach is a "natural jewel on the finger of a sun-drenched city," Dr. Stephen Leatherman, head of Florida International University´s Laboratory for Coastal Research, said on Wednesday.
Leatherman, who calls himself Dr. Beach, described the Gulf of Mexico beach, on an island off St. Petersburg, as a "long, wide, sugar-sand beach with great shelling and thriving natural dunes."
Rounding out Leatherman´s top five, in order, are: Ocracoke Island in the Outer Banks of North Carolina; Hanalei Bay on the Hawaiian island of Kauai; Caladesi Island State Park near Clearwater, Florida; and Fleming Beach, on the island of Maui in Hawaii.
Numbers six through 10 are: Coast Guard Beach in Cape Cod, Massachusetts; Coronado Beach, San Diego, California; Cape Florida State Park, on Key Biscayne near Miami; Main Beach at East Hampton, New York, and Hamoa Beach, also in Maui.
The list describes Leatherman´s view of the top swimming beaches chosen under 50 criteria including facilities, management and scientific and ecological factors.
