Government has commissioned a study of coastal erosion after concern that rising sea levels could wipe out large chunks of land.

Environment Minister Dennis Lister told The Royal Gazette: "What we have seen from recent hurricanes and the effects along the south shore shows it's a serious issue.

"And if we don't address it now we may get to the point where it is too late.

"We have to address it now. We are taking a proactive stance and are funding an initiative to look at coastal erosion."

The study is set to start next month and could take about six months to complete.

"Hopefully the study we are doing this year will give us some answers as to what we can do," said Mr. Lister.

"The company which is coming in to do has had similar experience in other islands. They will bring that expertise to the table."

However Bermuda Aquarium and Zoo Curator Jack Ward said: "It's complicated. The message in the end might be plan how to respond to how your property is going to fall into the ocean.

"There have been attempts to work against coastal erosion but the actual remedial plan causes more problems than leaving it alone.

"In some cases very hard structures have failed and then get thrown by waves like a battering ram against soft, coastal structure and can actually cause more problems."

He said hard buttresses could concentrate waves on both sides of the hard structure and then act as a pincer against the area which was supposed to be protected. "The result of the study might say that it is not viable to stop the erosion," said Mr. Ward. "Then you need to plan the way in which you develop. These are huge forces."

Dr. Annie Glasspool of the Bermuda Zoological Society said scientists were predicting a rise in sea levels of between one or two feet over the next century.

"That's not insignificant. But the predictions keep changing.

"Our sea level has been rising over the last few centuries, there's no doubt about it and the predictions over the next century are that it's going to accelerate."

She said fierce storms and hurricanes were also increasing.

"We are seeing quite a lot of coastal erosion, we are seeing a lot of south shore being eroded.

"Large chunks are coming down. If you go out to the little islands you get massive chunks breaking off. It's pretty substantive to those small islands."

Asked if some of the outlying islands would be lost she said: "They will be impacted if this is a continuing trend.

"The issue is the speed that it's rising at."

"Some people on the shoreline now are experiencing problems. You see that with a hurricane. People are losing chunks of property.

"I would anticipate those kinds of activities will continue."

National Trust Director Amanda Outerbridge said she hoped the study would help give pointers to a consistent and environmentally-friendly approach to the problem.

She said: "It's not about stopping coastal erosion - that's a little Canute-like - but in how you replenish the coast line when it has eroded.

"That's an issue with the Planning Department because people are building quite close to the coastline and when that starts eroding you see your house disappearing.

"But we need to work out a method of replacing the coast line so we retain long tail nests and an attractive coastline rather than everybody do it their own way and shoving a bit of concrete in."

Dr. Glasspool said rising and falling sea levels were nothing new. Sea levels around Bermuda were once 22 metres higher than at present, around 300,000 years ago.

And at one time the sea levels were 125 metres below present levels, making Bermuda around 15 times its current size and about 300 square miles. "You could literally walk out to North Rock. It was all marsh."

"Some scientists guesstimate sea levels have risen two to three feet since humans colonised Bermuda, over the last 500 years but now its expected to rise one to two feet over the next century so it is speeding up.

"There's an island in the Pacific of about 14,000 people where they all had to leave.

"It's a massive problem globally for islands.

"Coastal areas and low lying land like Paget marsh will be affected."

Asked about current damage Bermuda Aquarium and Zoo Curator Jack Ward said: "Places we are seeing impact already are places like the Hungry Bay mangrove on south shore near Point Finger Road.

"We have seen signs where erosion has undermined trees and they have fallen. That compounded with hurricane activity has hit that area.

"Bermuda is low lying. I think all island states should be taking notice."

The issue will be discussed at a conference of UK Overseas Territories and other small islands which begins in Bermuda on Saturday.

Mr. Ward said he believed the sea level rise had hit cedars in Paget Marsh.

But he said the only real way of stopping the problem long-term was to cut down on emission of carbon dioxide and other gasses which caused the greenhouse effect which caused global warming.

However even this phenomenon could be counterbalanced by evidence that the world was moving to a new ice age, said Mr. Ward.

"There have been remarkable changes noted from studies done in Bermuda.

"The Pacific islands are in much more worse shape than us because they are these real low-lying atolls and a number of them have real serious concerns.

"Here if you look at the dune structure on the south shore you can see that there has been huge pieces that have gone.

"Bermuda is constantly being eroded and as you raise the sea level more wave action comes in."