Best Beach Is a ‘Perfect Little Jewel’

Hanauma Bay, a volcanic crater flooded with gem-blue Pacific waters and full of hundreds of species of tropical fish, has been named the best American beach.

The bay ascends to the top of the 14th annual rankings out today from Stephen P. Leatherman, the Florida environmental scientist known as “Dr. Beach.”

“It’s a perfect little jewel,” Leatherman said in a telephone interview from Miami.

The selection of a stretch of white sand along Oahu’s eastern shore is not surprising. Hanauma Bay has appeared on the list a number of times in the past, and Hawaiian beaches have topped the list all but once in the last nine years. Since the first rankings in 1991, Florida has been the only other state to have a beach occupy the top spot.

“We certainly deserve being the best beach,” said Alan Hong, manager of the property. “We’re very different than a typical beach park.”

Hanauma Bay provides a spectacular vista and superb snorkeling, both of which have lured tourists for decades. Its popularity peaked in the late 1980s, with more than 10,000 visitors coming on its busiest days, and more than 3 million people visiting annually.

The traffic was leading to a decline in the health of the bay’s precious coral reef, and in 1990, officials stepped in to begin working to limit access. In the 14 years since, annual visitor numbers have been halved as restrictions and entrance fees have been put in place.

Also on this year’s list were Fort De Soto Park, Caladesi Island State Park, Crescent Beach and Bill Baggs Cape Florida State Park, all in Florida; Ocracoke Island in North Carolina; Main Beach in East Hampton, N.Y.; Coast Guard Beach in Cape Cod, Mass.; Coronado Beach in California; and Hanalei Bay on the northern shore of the Hawaiian island of Kauai.

Last year’s national winner was Kaanapali Beach on Maui. Once a beach earns the top ranking, it is excluded from the list.