Montenegro's Beaches Shrinking, Expert Says

Montenegro's Ada Bojana beach is shrinking and Mogren has lost a third of the width, both disappearing due to erosion, experts say.

Dr Sava Petkovic, a professor at the University of Belgrade, warns that Montenegro's coastline is slowly disappearing due to human activities.

"The beaches are disappearing from Florida to Spain and Italy, but there they deal with the problem. Literally since the Austro-Hungarian era nothing serious has been done or planned to protect the beautiful beaches [in Montenegro]," he said.

"As examples I mention the disappearing beach of Mogren, which lost one-third of its width over the last few decades. It is so obvious that it is enough to compare images of the beach in 1931, when it was connected to the mainland by a dozen feet and today, where we have two separate beaches," said Petkovic.

Petkovic pointed to human activity as the source of the damage to the beaches.

"Sometime it is contruction as in Petrovac and Sutomore, and sometimes, as in Mogren, the problem was created because a stream was diverted during construction that for centuries had brought material to the beach. Now there is no stream so there is no new material and the beach is narrower," Petkovic explained.