Every autumn, a flowering underwater plant called posidonia, which is found only in the Mediterranean Sea, sheds its brown leaves. These leaves are carried by waves and accumulate in thick, compact piles on the sand known as "banquettes." These formations act as a natural barrier, helping to protect beaches from erosion. However, as summer nears, these banquettes are often removed by bulldozers to make the beaches more accessible for swimmers. Unfortunately, this process can also remove part of the sand itself, which is crucial for maintaining the beach's structure. A study published in 2008 in the Journal of Coastal Research found that removing posidonia banquettes was a common practice on 44 of 116 beaches in Sardinia in 2004. Researchers estimated that a total volume of 106,180 cubic meters of banquettes was removed. They found that each cubic meter of banquettes contained an average of 92.8 kilograms of sediment. When extrapolated across all the beaches studied, each site lost between 0.5 and 1,725 cubic meters of sand. About 80% of the removed sand was dumped in unauthorized landfills. Fourteen years later, a 2022 study published in the journal Water focused on a beach with limited sediment supply, where every grain of sand is particularly valuable. Researchers tracked the banquettes over one year through five sampling periods and found that the sediment content varied from 0 to 339 kilograms per cubic meter, with an average of 78 kilograms per cubic meter. They simulated the removal of up to 5,000 cubic meters of banquettes in a single season and found that the sediment loss ranged from 0.31% to 1.34% of the beach's available sediment budget. Repeated removal of these sediment-rich banquettes can create a deficit in the beach's sediment budget, an issue that may not become noticeable for several years. This delay in visible effects helps explain why the connection between raking and beach erosion is often overlooked by both local authorities and tourists. A similar situation was observed on the Croatian island of Dugi Otok, where the regular removal of banquettes from Sakarun beach coincided with a gradual loss of the sandy area, which eventually disappeared in part. In Catalonia, researchers reached similar conclusions in 2025, noting lower sediment levels but the same underlying mechanism: local authorities use heavy machinery to remove the banquettes, unintentionally weakening the coastline they aim to protect for tourists. Although alternatives exist, such as relocating the banquettes seasonally, sieving the sand and returning it to the beach, or allowing the piles to remain in less frequented areas, these methods are still rare. The preference for pristine, clean sand in tourist marketing continues to dominate local practices. In France, no national-scale data comparable to that collected in Sardinia has been identified so far. While posidonia is protected in the French Mediterranean region, the removal of its dead leaves from beaches is still practiced under certain local conditions.