Our seas and beaches and climate change

Our beach looks benign but is far from it. Safe on an incoming tide, very dangerous from about an hour after the tide has turned. Strong currents soon take people, even the best swimmers. No lifeguards. Plenty of warning signs about mud and currents which are largely ignored. The RNLI can be very busy.

An extract from the annual report of the RNLI:

rnli.org/about-us/how-the-rnli-is-run/annual-reports

Pages 6 & 7 have the numbers of interventions.

RNLI lifeguards delivered essential lifesaving services to beach visitors, including local communities and tourists, in 2025. Our lifeguards kept watch over millions of beachgoers, providing 206,728 hours of supervised patrols on 249 busy beaches across the UK and Channel Islands. Demand for this important service continues to grow year-on-year. Their priority is the prevention of incidents and, in 2025, they instigated more than 2.6 million preventative actions. They also responded to 17,173 incidents – aiding 36,213 people and saving a total of 117 lives. The number of people aided was a significant increase on 2024, largely due to a rise in beach mass rescues and likely driven by several snap heatwaves. More than 85% of incidents occurred during the peak summer months of June, July and August.

The RNLI is wholly dependent on voluntary donations and income comes from investments and trading activities. 90% of its income comes from donations.

My daughter and I were just discussing this yesterday. She was advocating the return of Public Information Films. She remembers the one about Lonely Water which was scary. They were discontinued in 2011, she thinks, and I agree, that they should be brought back.

We have such a large coastline round the UK that it would be impossible to staff every cove, inlet and even small beach where people might fancy a swim. Maybe a nationwide unavoidable TV warning system repeated over the summer would be more practical?

Many years ago I lived by the sea where the beach sloped into the sea and was safe on an incomng tide but not on the ebb.

Posts and red flags were placed close to the tide line.

There were always people in the sea who had come for the day and were frustrated by the timing of the tide so disregarded the very prominent notices.

Volunteer lifeguards? Its easy to assume that a lifeguard will be fine. They are in just as much danger from the sea as the swimmer in difficulty. Just a bit stronger and more familiar with conditions.

That would be a big ask for a volunteer.

When we were in Northern Ireland last year, there were many beautiful, remote stretches of beach that had signs up saying there was no lifeguard service and warning of rip tides and currents, but there were still people swimming and surfing there. Some just can’t resist it. It was the same on a very large upland reservoir that I used to fish. Ostensibly a flat calm expanse of water. Very inviting, but bitterly cold even in summer, and full of hidden underwater structures, strong currents and soft muddy banks that your legs could disappear into. Signs to that effect did not stop people from stripping off and dashing in as if it was a local swimming pool and the water bailiffs who used to patrol in boats could not be everywhere at once🤷‍♀️!

At least you don’t have those wretched sharks which seem to be coming in closer to shores these days. Many of our beaches have lifeguards but a lot still swim and surf outside the flags - possibly because it can get unpleasantly crowded. As others say, many drownings seem to be tourists from overseas who can’t swim very well and have never experienced the tides and the possible rips.

Such a tragedy at Shoreham, my thoughts are with the loved ones 💐
Not sure how high the death toll is due to people drowning in open water this year but is bound to be way too high, indeed any death is too many.
I agree that with hotter summers and more people seeking respite in open waters we need a plan in place to deal with this. Lifeguards are a good idea and plenty of warnings as well as the red flag flown in clear view when the sea is not safe. But some deaths occur in rivers etc., so I think a national campaign aimed at informing people of the dangers would be good with clear signage near all waterways. Also I think schools could play a part in pushing this campaign, especially if the have a pool.

^My question/suggestion is now, with more and more people potentially seeking to cool down in our sea, should we follow the example of other countries and set up life guards during the summers, stationed on our beaches, and put up notices in areas where there are strong riptides.
^

Has that not been done for decades?

It seems people are just not aware how there different issues on some of our beaches they are not all flat with gradual sloping entry to the water Brighton for instance is very dangerous if you aren’t aware. I don’t think there are signs about steep steps in the shingle into the water maybe there should be and as others say more life guards too.

We are an island, I am always amazed that some people who go into the sea have little knowledge of tides and rips.

Every loss is tragic and sad, and on the whole preventable.

Do people take notice of the warning flag system here in the UK, do some people even know of it’s existence?

Places I have been to do have signage and some not all have lifeguards patrolling.
I don’t know if all the deaths in the sea were from the same reasons or even if they could all swim. Certainly all the major beach destinations should have lifeguards in Summer paid for by the local Council.

Not far from us.

The sea has been very rough of late, and where they were (I think) is an area of dodgy currents as it is the entrance to the port.

The biggest issue I think, and we saw it all the time when we lived in Cornwall, is people who are unfamiliar with the sea, take risk that no one else who are familiar would ever take.

Living near the sea all my life has given me great respect for its power and often unpredictability.

Where I live there are lifeguards on most beaches.
Part of the problem is people who don’t live near the coast and coming here on holiday don’t realise the dangers the sea can pose.