The dampening of waves may reduce erosion on the shoreline; whether this effect is beneficial or detrimental depends on the specific coastline [25]. While dampening of waves may have damaging ecological effects, and more research is needed to determine the extent of this impact, studies show that sheltering due to wave devices will have a hardly noticeable effect on the largest waves, so that the ecological role of very large waves as a disturbance that maintains high biodiversity will be unencumbered [17].