Cape Beach Listed Among Top 10

[Cotuit]

Cape beach listed among 2004 best beaches

HONOLULU - Coast Guard Beach in Eastham has again made the 14th annual list of best American beaches, listed by Stephen Leatherman, the Florida environmental scientist known as "Dr. Beach."

Coast Guard Beach is listed eighth, a Cape beach's highest ranking. What's the best beach this year? A Hawaiian beach on Oahu - Hanauma Bay, a volcanic crater flooded with gem-blue Pacific waters and hundreds of species of tropical fish.

The selection of a stretch of white sand along Oahu's eastern shore is not surprising. Hanauma Bay has appeared on the list a number of times in the past and Hawaii beaches have topped the list all but once in the last nine years. Since the first rankings in 1991, Florida has been the only other state to have a beach occupy the top spot.

Still, making the list is a repeat honor for Coast Guard beach in the Cape Cod National Seashore. The North Eastham beach consistently makes Leatherman's list of top 20 beaches, ranking 18th, 20th and an unknown spot, in the late 1990s and among the top 10 in 2001. An average of more than 3,500 people a day hit the beach summers, according to 2001 counts.

Also honored on this year's list were Fort De Soto Park, Caladesi Island State Park, Crescent Beach and Cape Florida State Park, all in Florida; Ocracoke Island in North Carolina; Main Beach in East Hampton, NY; Coronado Beach in California; and Hanalei Bay on the north shore of the Hawaiian island of Kauai.

From The Cape Cod Times