A fresh bout of conflict has erupted among Nantucket’s well-to-do residents amid claims that controversial reinforcements to stop their mansions from plummeting into the sea have been vandalized.
The celeb-studded coastal paradise where the average home is worth roughly $3 million has been grappling with rapid erosion.
Its impact on Siaconset Bluff, a steep cliff overlooking the ocean, has been particularly concerning.
It is one of the fastest-disappearing areas, losing up to four feet of sand every year since 2000.
Just a stone’s throw away from the village of Siaconset, widely known as ‘Sconset, locals have been at war over how to handle the vanishing shoreline that has been jeopardizing their lavish homes.
The Siasconet Beach Preservation Fund (SBPF) installed 900 feet of ‘geotubes’ along the base of the bluff to slow the effects of erosion in 2014 after a string of storms wreaked havoc on the beach. Geotubes are industrial-strength fabric sleeves that can be used for reinforcements.
But the installation of strong, sand-filled structures to weigh them down has been criticized by the Nantucket Coastal Conservancy, which claims they destroy beaches and accelerate their deterioration.
The most recent clash between the two groups was triggered by a Saturday Facebook post by the Conservancy.
It showed a video of the geotubes, indicating that a portion had collapsed onto the beach.
But SBPF Meridith Moldenhauer claimed that this footage did not expose the embattled system’s shortcomings, but the outcome of an attempt to wreck the tubes.
‘I have just contacted the Nantucket Police Department to file a police report because the geotubes did not fail; they were deliberately vandalized and cut,’ she wrote to The Nantucket Current on Monday.
‘Our team was on site this morning and documented multiple intentional cuts with both video and photographs.
‘We are extremely concerned and frankly shocked – this was a deliberate criminal act, and this kind of behavior cannot be accepted or minimized.’
The SBPF reportedly shared another video with The Current, in which a man pulls back the fabric to show a slit.
‘This looks like a cut to me – someone cut it,’ he allegedly said.
The newspaper also reviewed multiple photos that captured similar damage to other portions of the reinforcements.
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It is unclear who is behind the destruction of the tubes or when the alleged offense occurred.
However, The Current noted that a photo from December 1 shows the geotube array with no damage, indicating that it must have occurred after then.
The outlet also reported that there are no known instances of vandalism against the ‘Sconset structures.
Before learning of the SBPF’s claims of vandalism, Coastal Conservancy director D Anne Atherton wrote to the town that two coastal engineers warned that the damage would be ‘challenging to repair.’
‘We interpret this to mean that after 12 years in place, the existing geotubes are nearing the end of their service life,’ she wrote, per The Current.
After she was told about the possibility of foul play, she spoke out against vandalism.
‘As much as the Nantucket Coastal Conservancy has been an opponent of seawalls on Nantucket’s open beaches, we vigorously condemn what appears to be a recent act of vandalism on the geotubes below the bluff in Sconset,’ she wrote.
‘There is no place in our community for acts like this.’
Despite their divisive nature, the Conservation Commission approved a 3,000-foot expansion of the geotubes in March 2025.
This move was a 180-degree shift from a 2021 order to remove the 900-foot seawall already in place.
The Daily Mail has reached out to the Nantucket Coastal Conservancy, the ‘Sconset Beach Preservation Fund and the Nantucket Police Department for comment.
