"My favourite beach?" asks Dr. Miles O. Hayes of Columbia, South Carolina. "There's no doubt that the most beautiful beaches in the world are the beaches in South Carolina. You should go to Kiawah Island. Beautiful clean white sandy beaches."
Amused by his own boosterism, Hayes laughs heartily. He is an internationally recognized coastal geologist who advises governments and corporations about beach clean-ups all over the world. But he is a patriot too. His office is in the capital of South Carolina, he has taught at the University of South Carolina, and in a sense he *designed* the beaches of Kiawah Island, near Charleston. When the Kuwait Development Corporation was planning to subdivide the island, they commissioned Miles Hayes to create regulations which would preserve those sweeping beaches in all their natural glory.
So Hayes can hardly be expected to praise beaches elsewhere — but then, to my surprise, he does.
“Actually my favourite beaches are in Alaska,” he says. “ The beaches in Cook Inlet and the beaches down off the Copper River delta are absolutely the best. Also I really like the beautiful white beaches in Oman -- the exposed beaches on the Indian Ocean, where the beaches are composed of little shells called forminifera tests. Those are my favourites."
When I met Miles Hayes, I was researching a book called *The Living Beach* (Macmillan, 1998). I spoke to scientists, surfers, engineers, cottagers, conservationists, politicians. In passing, I asked them about their favourite beaches. To my surprise, I found that many people have three favourite beaches.
