  Wind- and current-driven flotsam, oil spills, pollutants, and nutrients,
approaching the nearshore will frequently appear to park just beyond the break
zone, where waves break. Moreover, the portion of these tracers that beach will
do so only after a long time. Explaining why these tracers park and at what
rate they reach the shore has important implications on a variety of different
nearshore environmental issues, including the determination of what subscale
processes are essential in computer models for the simulation of pollutant
transport in the nearshore. Using a simple model we provide an explanation for
the underlying mechanism responsible for the parking of tracers, the role
played by the bottom topography, and the non-uniform dispersion which leads, in
some circumstances, to the eventual landing of all or a portion of the tracers.
We refer to the parking phenomenon in this environment as nearshore sticky
waters.

Fluid Dynamics;Atmospheric and Oceanic Physics