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¹ Institute of Biology of the Southern Seas, 2, Nakhimov ave., Sevastopol, 99011, Ukraine DOI : 10.4194/1303-2712-v12_2_30 Viewed : 5176 - Downloaded : 3795 More than 70% of the beaches in the World are in decreasing stage during the past few decades, and the Black sea beaches are not exclusion. The paper gives a brief conceptual review of published and unpublished results of author’s longterm complicated study (1995-2010) in different areas of the Crimean coastline. Interconnections between marine communities and beach erosion are analyzed as well as some anthropogenic impacts on processes in beach area. Selfaccelerating mechanism of beach erosion and marine communities degradation was suggested. Two interrelated components in the system “beach-sea” are crucial in regulating the balance of sand on the beach in our case - the coastal vegetation and benthic communities producing clamshells. Two stable state of coastline - fluctuating stable sand beach and no sand beach state - can be. It should be noted that with the rise of sea level, is now observed, the steady state beach is only possible if the existing balance of sand is positive. New perspectives for rational management of sandy beaches require paradigm shifts. Sustainable long-term management of our beaches requires a set of alternative strategies for environmental management and the timely switch from one strategy to the alternative one. Keywords : Beach, mollusks, zostera, alternative states, Black sea