A hurricane more than 1,000 miles to the east of Bermuda is partially to blame for the substantial erosion of sand at Elbow Beach.

Hurricane Epsilon has been rattling around in the middle of the North Atlantic since the end of last month, and although it has remained too distant for its winds or weather system to affect the Island the sea surge created has hit Bermuda?s south shore for a number of days.

As a result the sand to the east of the beach, up to Mickey?s Bistro, has been washed away, while levels of sand on other parts of the beach are also much lower than normal.

Rougher seas and increased sea surge pulls sand from the beach every winter, but the higher number of hurricanes and powerful storms this year and the presence of tropical storm Delta and now Hurricane Epsilon to the east has magnified the erosive effect since October.

Part of Elbow Beach is being roped off for safety reasons and signs put in place to warn beach-goers of the potential danger created in places where the sand has been gouged out to sea.

Two palms trees that were in danger of being washed away have also been pulled back to a safer location.

Erica Martin, communication manager at Elbow Beach, said there was still enough beach for people to enjoy and efforts would be made in spring to restore the beach to its normal size.

She said the sea wall built at the resort in the wake of damage caused by Hurricane Fabian in 2003 is not believed to have contributed to this winter?s worse than normal erosion. Wolfgang Sterrer, curator of the National History Museum, said: ?It traditionally happens that sand from beaches is washed away by the water and then it returns in the summer when the seas and waves are gentler and push the sand back into place.

?That has been going on for a long time, but there could be other things happening now. Rising sea levels would push the waves higher up the beach and erode more of the sand away, and there is also the higher frequency and intensity of hurricanes.

?Even though a hurricane is a thousand miles away and its winds don?t reach Bermuda the sea surge and waves do.?

Mr. Sterrer said there should not be too much concern for the loss of the sand at Elbow Beach as it has merely been pulled away and sunk into deeper water, to be pushed back onshore when the gentler summer waves return.

He said it would only be in the spring and summer that any real change or damage could be assessed if the missing sand did not to return.