Our seas and beaches and climate change

Condolence is formal. Best wishes and love is much warmer and heartfelt and sounds just right coming from Burnham.

The family have been named as father, Hossam El-Khawwas, his wife, Zeina Alyan, and one of their daughters, Sarah. Their second daughter, Saja, remains hospitalised in critical condition. The family were Palestinian refugees from Lebanon who came from the Rashidieh refugee camp in southern Lebanon.

Anything to get a dig in FGT

I do think there should be much more information but we must realise many of the drownings this year have been adults this last tragic family drowning, the area didn’t look like a swimming area at all to me so perhaps more ‘Not suitable for swimming’ or ever ‘danger do not swim here’ notices

Good idea Chestnut but as many younger people don’t watch terrestrial TV they need to be across the likes of Tik Tok, getting the likes of Netflix and Prime involved would be good too.

Great post Chestnut

Shinamae

Just have to face the fact, some people just won’t be told…

No they wont.

Also, they cant see, and dont understand, the real dangers

Not that the family involved may have been one of those.
Even for semi-locals, it is quite easy to make a mistake.

Andy Burnham sent his “best wishes and love”.

Not at all appropriate choice of words for a Prime Minister to send to the family after this tragedy.

Condolences, man - was the word you were looking for.

I offer mine for all the family (especially the young lass in hospital)

Beyond tragic.

I believe it is talked and warned about in schools. My GC junior school came home and told me all about the dangers of rivers. It was pressed upon them because of the hot weather and the drownings in rivers.Teenagers particularly need it reinforcing at school and home. The RNLI should definitely be funded and crew paid, with any volunteers also appreciated. It would be helpful to have public announcements and mobile alerts too. Every school pupil should, imo have explicit info on safety near all waters and it should be sent home to parents,

MiniMoon

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.

I agree

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

Well this certainly happens on all the beaches near me I would imagine it happens on all the popular beaches doesn’t it ? The lifeguards are there from 10 in the morning until 6 in the evening
The problems is when people who have no idea of the coasts, the tides, the sea, or weather conditions just go in Willy nilly at any old nearby beach
Very very sad but it’s really is just common sense

General info films are good but how many younger people watch the telly these days?
The film should pop up at the beginning of all social media sites with the user having to watch the entire film before being able to access said sites, the same for Prime and Netflix etc.

Just have to face the fact, some people just won’t be told…

There’s an interesting article in last weekends Times about lifeguards on beaches . They featured Brighton beach and West Wittering. All the lifeguards interviewed said that people ignore warning , both signage , flags and verbal warnings. Paddler boarders came under fire . Apparently after blowing up their boards , they get arsey when told they can’t use them .
I agree with public information films and to take them into schools . I remember someone coming into my school to talk about the danger of playing on railway lines . There were lines near me where the fencing had holes and gaps and boys would get through them to play on the embankments.

There are many beaches like the one at Southend. Brancaster in Norfolk, and Morecambe, are notorious for that. The sea goes out miles and comes back in at breakneck speed. So easy to get cut off if you don’t read the tide tables.

petra

www.google.com/search?q=the+Ray+chanel+and+mulbery+harbour+southend&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&hl=en-gb&client=safari#fpstate=ive&vld=cid:465db042,vid:g3jsYHwxCjk,st:0

I don’t know how many times I’ve warned people of the dangers of walking out to see the Mulberry Harbour here in Southend.
What they don’t know is that they have walked across the Ray Channel.
They get to the wreck, have a look round then turn to get back to the beach. But what tgey don’t understand is that the Ray Chanel has fill up with water and it fills up at a very fast rate.

I’m with you too, this is my area.

As a young child, with my parents, we used to cross the ray at low tide, to swim.

Both of my parents were brought up here, all my cousins used to come with us and their parents.

Not once we did catch the ray above adult waist level as all parents checked the tide timetables daily and were fully aware of the times, tides, dangers.

But for those not being vigilant, and not local, it’s extremely easy to get cut off very quickly.

We normally followed an outgoing tide and never waited til a new incoming tide before making our way back.

We all learned to swim off our beaches.

www.google.com/search?q=the+Ray+chanel+and+mulbery+harbour+southend&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&hl=en-gb&client=safari#fpstate=ive&vld=cid:465db042,vid:g3jsYHwxCjk,st:0

I don’t know how many times I’ve warned people of the dangers of walking out to see the Mulberry Harbour here in Southend.
What they don’t know is that they have walked across the Ray Channel.
They get to the wreck, have a look round then turn to get back to the beach. But what tgey don’t understand is that the Ray Chanel has fill up with water and it fills up at a very fast rate.

The RNLI provide the lifeguards.

Give to them.

My grandsons were life guards for a couple of seasons and the training is as you’d expect extensive. Each year they had to do a top up train.

Given that some cities such as Edinburgh have introduced a Tourist Tax, perhaps seaside towns could have a similar tax, with the money raised going towards a properly funded system of lifeguards.

Great responses and I agree with them all.

It’s heartbreaking though to read about the water related deaths, so often totally avoidable and caused through sheer ignorance, stupidity and foolhardiness.

MiniMoon

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.

I have often thought Public Information Films should be brought back. The dangers of everyday life are always there and many young people have probably never been taught anything.

We have water safety (sea, river and lake), fire safety, road safety, safety in the home, online safety and another one 'do you know where your child is?' because obviously a lot of parents don't.

They only need to be 2 mins long and can be squeezed in before the early evening news or Eastenders or Strictly, every single day. If they save a few lives and help people to avoid accidents and disasters then they will be well worth it.

Our long beach has signs all along it warning people not to pass them. The sea goes out a very long way, but it leaves dangerous sinking mud. It always amazes me how many people totally disregard these danger notices and you see them with toddlers, children and dogs way past them. Many do get into serious problems and if it was not for the wonderful local RNLI would loose their lives.
Not being able to swim is only part of the problem - it far too many people's attitude that these sort of notices are put there just to inconvenience them, not to give them safety.
Perhaps those who use the RNLI services need to to be sent invoices covering the costs involved - which often includes helicopter.

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.