The future of sand on Anapa's beaches has sparked debates on social media.

Imported sand allowed for the resort season of 2026, but the first storm washed away a significant part of it into the sea, noted an ecologist, expressing hope that all the imported sand will eventually be washed away. Authorities may replenish the beaches along the coast before the new season, social media users expressed.

As reported by "Caucasian Knot", on September 11, activists proposed to plow the beaches before winter, or better yet, replace the sand with a more suitable one for the coast. The sand brought in after the oil spill on Anapa's beaches turned into a dense clay mass, complained a tourist and a local blogger. Ecologists pointed out that the new sand does not match the previous Anapa sand, pollution remains along the coast, and eliminating the consequences of the oil spill will take several more years. The sand on Anapa's urban beaches was washed away and partially carried into the sea, restoration will require bringing sand back to the shore.

The sand brought to Anapa's beaches differs significantly from the local sand, at least in its tactile properties, hardness, and density, noted ecologist Roman Pukalov, director of environmental programs at the "Green Patrol" organization.

"They are far from being as soft as the famous golden sands of Anapa. Moreover, they got dirty due to clay inclusions, and in rainy weather, when this clay got wet, it often required cleaning shoes after returning from the beach. At the same time, the imported sand played its important positive role — it served and fulfilled the task of allowing for a normal resort season in 2026," he wrote on his Telegram channel.

The season passed, albeit not as active as in 2024, but it still brought profit to local workers in the tourism sector and allowed people to relax without getting dirty from oil. "There was oil on the coast. I was present on Anapa's beaches in April 2026 and saw traces of those historical oil spills from December 2024 before the sand was replenished. The imported sand covered them, so its delivery indeed played a positive role. Moreover, according to unofficial information, which I think will be announced later, the funds spent on bringing this sand turned out to be several times less than the profit received from the resort season, so economically it justified itself," he believes.

According to him, the very first storm that came, quite average, with a wave of about three meters, has already washed away a significant part of this sand.

Pukalov cited the words of Vyacheslav Krylenko, a senior researcher at the ecology laboratory of the P.P. Shirshov Institute of Oceanology, who surveyed Anapa's beaches before and during the recent storm.

"On different sections of the shores of the resort city of Anapa, the storm washed away from 5% of the width of the replenished sand on the wide beaches of Vityazevo to 50% on some narrow beaches of Dzhemete. At the same time, the imported sand is quite clean, it is a natural material, and it will continue to serve its role, creating underwater bars that prevent the erosion of the coastal strip," he pointed out.

In the comments, Pukalov noted that after the washing away of these 5-50% of sand from different beaches, there is no turbidity in the coastal zone on the satellite image.

"That it will be washed away, carried away, and settled over the years, I repeat, raises no doubts. Just one storm showed the result," noted Zhanna Rybak in the comments.

"The beaches are in terrible condition, and one season of storms cannot fix this even for the sea. But wait, by next summer, they might come up with a way to replenish what was washed away," writes Olga Kotiskas in the comments to the same post on Yuri Ozarovsky's Telegram channel.

"The wind erodes the fine particles, and this clay material gets compacted to the state of stone. That's why they are fighting against it," noted user AnapaKiteTeam.