Hawaii's majestic coastline has always been molded by the sea, but a new study found a reason to be concerned about our 50th state's pristine beaches.

Scientists at the University of Hawaii's School of Ocean and Earth Sciences and Technology recently released a study that found some of the island state's beaches will be reduced due to erosion. Their findings were published this week in the journal Natural Hazards.

The scientists came to their conclusions after studying 10 Hawaiian beaches on the islands of Oahu, Maui and Kauai. Of the three islands studied, Maui has the highest rate of erosion, with 85 percent of beaches affected.

"Over a century of building along the Hawaiian shoreline, without this sort of detailed knowledge about shoreline change, ," said Dr. Charles Fletcher, UH Geology and Geophysics Professor and lead author of the study, in a USGS report. "A better understanding of historical shoreline change and human responses to erosion may improve our ability to avoid erosion hazards in the future."

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This is especially troubling, the university's Coastal Geology Group said, because building a seawall would actually accelerate the speed of erosion, so it isn't an option for the Hawaiian coastline.

There are multiple reasons why the state's coastline is eroding, and officials must now prepare a response to all of them. First and foremost, erosion can occur naturally; not all sand is replaced at the equal rate it's removed.

"Ultimately, a beach erodes because the supply of sand to the beach ," said UH assistant professor Ken Rubin.

But there's that other cause of erosion– rising sea levels– that scientists must now factor into their studies. It's one of the reasons why this study has such dire predictions for the future of Hawaiian beaches.

"It is one of the most important things that we need to focus in on, ," Senate President Donna Mercado Kim told The Associated Press, "and if that should go, that would be so detrimental to the economy and to the environment."

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