Why do we need to protect our waves?

"NATURAL SURF BREAKS SHOULD BE TREATED AS WORLD HERITAGE SITES, AND SHOULD NEVER BE DESTROYED NO MATTER WHAT THE REASON… WE REALLY CAN'T ALLOW ANY EXISTING SURF BREAKS TO BE TAKEN DOWN, FOR WHATEVER REASON."

Yvon Chouinard, Founder & CEO of Patagonia, Inc.




This is a lovely little film made for Surfers Against Sewage by Robin Bushell and his crew which explains the problem and the campaign.  It might not be immediately obvious why it's so important, but the following, lifted directly from SAS's Protect Our Waves site, makes compelling argument no matter whether you're a surfer, sailor, canoeist or just love the beach.

protectourwaves.org.uk/

British surfing waves are under threat from a growing number of activities around our coastline that can hamper or have long term devastating impacts on some of our most prized surfing beaches. This includes coastal developments, pollution, and restricted access.

• Waves are under threat from 3 sources: new structures and developments, pollution including sewage and litter, and restricted access.
• Multiple surf breaks around the UK are currently under extreme threat with many more subject to lesser, but escalating, degrees of threat.
• No specific laws exist in the UK to protect surf spots.
• According to the water industry itself, the number of Combined Sewer Overflow (CSOs) around the UK is around 31,000. Many of these are completely unregulated.
• In the 10 weeks since the 2012 bathing season started this year SAS have issued over 30,000 text messages warning water users about the 416 individual raw sewage discharges across just 62 beaches as part of the Sewage Alert Service.
• The UK's world-class south coast surf spot Broad Bench is off limits for up to 228 days a year.
• The amount of marine litter found on UK beaches has increased almost two-fold in the last fifteen years.
• A plastic bottle may persist in the marine environment for more than 450 years if left on a beach.
• Waves are important to coastal communities in 4 ways: economically, environmentally, culturally and socially.
• In the UK, there are 4 types of surf spots: beach, reef, point break and river mouth.
• There are over 500,000 regular surfers in the UK.
• In a 2007 Defra survey, the economic value of the surf retail sector only was estimated at £200million annually.
• At a cost of over £3million, the artificial surfing reef development at Boscombe, Dorset has been estimated to generate £3million of direct income with an additional £10million of image value. This is the valuation of a spot that currently only creates poor quality, irregular waves, highlighting the value and exceptional conditions which create the UK's best surfing waves.
• The overall turnover from the surfing industry in Cornwall (£64 million annually) was about 20% more than the sailing industry (£52 million annually), and twice as much as the golf industry (£32million annually). Results also showed that the average visiting surfer spends about 8.5% more in Cornwall than the average visitor.

Waves are a very important and necessary part of the workings of our planet, transferring the sun's energy around the globe. Surfing beaches and waves also have a deep personal value to surfers and surfing communities around the UK. However, in the UK there is currently no specific legal protection for surfing waves or any assurance that stakeholders, including surfers and surfing communities in Wales, Northern Ireland or England, will be consulted fairly on activities threatening their existence.

Other sports and activities such as walking and sailing are formally recognised, represented and consulted during many new development processes. Other areas of outstanding beauty and countryside sites are also protected. But politicians, developers and the wider public in general have very little knowledge of the value, uniqueness and finite nature of surfing waves and landscapes, swell corridors prevailing weather conditions and other conditions creating good quality waves.

We are also seeing growing evidence that the Government is showing a bias towards coastal intervention, together with a stance increasingly in favour of developers. Politicians typically give only cursory consideration to the impacts on local coastal communities, despite the fact that the waves can be central to their existence.

Surfers Against Sewage (SAS) is campaigning to increase public awareness and develop a greater understanding amongst policy makers that waves are a vital part of the fabric of many UK coastal communities, and it is essential that wave-centric communities can amplify their concerns so that irreversible damage is not done to our waves and surfing beaches.

http://www.protectourwaves.org.uk/why-protect-waves.php

2012 was a bad year for Britain’s bathing beaches

It's no surprise but the MCS reports that one of the wettest summers on record led to increased sewage in the sea.  

MCS urges swimmers to beware as it recommends fewer beaches for excellent water quality

One of the UK’s wettest summers on record has led to a worrying drop in the number of beaches around the country being recommended for their excellent bathing water quality in the annual MCS ‘Good Beach Guide’, published online today (27th March 2013  

MCS has recommended only 403 of the 754 UK bathing beaches tested in 2012 as having excellent water quality. That’s just over half, and 113 fewer beaches than were recommended last year.

Even more concerning is that 42 beaches (5.6%) failed to meet even a minimum European standard, or equivalent, for bathing water quality – 17 more than in last year’s Guide.

Relentless rain and flooding in many parts of the country led to an increase in the amount of bacteria and viruses ending up in our bathing waters. This type of pollution can originate from a variety of sources such as agricultural and urban run-off, storm waters, misconnected plumbing, septic tanks and dog faeces.

Sewage and animal waste is full of viruses and bacteria and most water users won’t be aware that this type of pollution can increase the chance of them going home with an ear, nose or throat infection, or even gastroenteritis.

MCS Coastal Pollution Officer, Rachel Wyatt, says the latest results show that the charity’s call for improved monitoring of combined sewer overflows and action to reduce pollution from farms and populated areas is urgently needed: “We have recommended fewer beaches in every English region and in Wales and Scotland. In England, the north west and south west were hit particularly hard, with the fewest number of recommended beaches for at least a decade. Action must be taken now. With stricter bathing water standards from 2015 and summers that appear to be getting wetter, the iconic image of people bathing off golden beaches could be at serious risk.

“There is no simple solution to sewage and animal waste reaching our seas. However if the water industry, communities and local authorities recognise that there is a problem and begin to work together to find answers then that would be a significant start,” says Rachel Wyatt.

In the last twelve months MCS says it has seen a number of promising local partnerships working together to identify problems and starting to try and fix them.

“In the North West, consistently the worst part of the UK for bathing water quality, MCS is helping to drive up standards by being the only independent NGO on the seven-strong Turning Tides Board. After MCS lobbied Dŵr Cymru Welsh Water the first ever Welsh Coastal Waters Conference will be held later this year. And in Northern Ireland we have been a significant contributor to the Good Beach Summit which has identified the actions needed to reduce bathing water pollution,” says Rachel Wyatt.

However, MCS says that in too many places there is still an out of sight, out of mind mentality because you just can’t see this kind of water pollution even when you’re swimming in it.

MCS suggests there are key things that water companies, local authorities and the public can do with MCS’ help:

What water companies can do:

·         Understand their contribution – Knowing where all of their sewers and overflows are and what impact they are having on the environment is the first step to finding solutions.

·         Monitor Combined Sewer Overflows (CSOs) – Monitor all of their CSOs and provide, on a voluntary basis, data to local authorities about when and for how long the CSOs are spilling into rivers and the sea.

What councils and regulators can do:

·         Inform the public – Displaying adequate advice at beaches about bathing water pollution can allow the public to make informed choices about when and where to bathe.

·         Be proactive – Simple measures, like providing enough dog bins in popular areas (not just on the beach) or raising awareness amongst local businesses to look after their drains, can reduce bathing water pollution.

What YOU can do:

·       Vote with your feet – Go to www.goodbeachguide.co.uk  to find MCS Recommended beaches and swim only from those.

·       Report pollution – If you spot a pollution incident you should contact the local council and the UK environmental agencies’ Pollution Hotline; 0800 807060.

·       Look after your drains and check your plumbing – Don’t put fats, oils or greases down the sink or flush rubbish down the toilet (such as cotton bud sticks, wet wipes etc) - this can block the sewers and cause sewer overflow pipes to discharge untreated sewage into our rivers and seas. Go to www.connectright.org.uk to make sure your home plumbing is correctly connected and isn’t polluting the environment.

Dirtmeetsthewater's preferred course of action is to support and get involved with http://www.sas.org.uk/

The article first appeared on the MCS site here.