Hi, just wondering if any of you take interest in your local surf area water quality?
Over here in the UK we have a "Blue Flag" which is monitored by a Govt body who assess the quality of the water in and around that particular beach/area. There are some fairly strict criteria to pass before the beach is awarded a "Blue Flag" but once it's handed out the checks are fairly random and pretty much non-existent after that.
I ask, because I surf a number of beaches, and all those I surf have "Blue Flags" yet the water quality from one to another is quite different...
Just wondering what it's like over with you Guys...

Pic from a beach, the water "looks" greenish and clear.. but I can assure you it's pretty filthy by comparison to other beaches I surf.

Hi sunnybouy

Unfortunatly yes....i noticed from my old prone longboard that in surfboard you dont really notice what is around you unless you directly come accros it ( rubish..plastic bags etc..) but in SUP you can see far better around you and also deeper below you in the water and therefore notice much more pollution in the water..
I personaly try to avoid river mouth spots as the pollution is more devlopped with rivers bringing pollution from far inland...and i get suspicious if the water looks too green or foam is seen on top of tge water..but in all honesty i dont think we are seeing an improvement over the 20 past years...

Yes, that's one of the main reasons I settled in "Les Landes" (Hossegor) rather than the nearby Basque Country (Biarritz, Guetary), for the pristine water quality of Les Landes. Beaches in the Basque Country are nearly always closed for pollution after big rains.

I am a member of the Surfrider Foundations, which helps awareness on these subjects, but here we can thank a lot the EU, and the green parties at the EU parliament, which has been the main driving force to fight for water quality. The improvement in water quality has been nothing short of spectacular here, both in France and in Spain, as efforts have been made to modernize waste management, especially in Spain, build lots of water treatment plants...
You can now surf near the Bidassoa rivermouth (at the French/Spain border) in clean water, and it is quite incredible considering the situation 20 years ago. And 20 years ago, the Hossegor beaches were covered daily in Spanish trash (from the labels), whereas now storms only bring driftwood and very few man-made trash.

This shows the huge benefits of the European Union: it can better force strict laws, designed for the common good, upon local politicians who do not have the strength nor the money to resist industrial lobbies. Of course our local would-be corruptees and corrupters whine that the EU is "stealing their sovereignty", but here in Spain and France we are lucky that we do not have laws that make media unaccountable for lies, so the amount of public disinformation have not (yet?) reached the frightening efficiency levels of the UK & US. And our Trump/Boris, Marine Le Pen, thankfully lacks the pathological narcissism to fuel a power grab.

PS: The "Blue Flag" - a French program, started in 1985 - exist now in many countries, but alas is not only about water quality, but it is much better than the previous situation.

beachawards.ie/wp-content/uploads/2018/06/Blue-Flag-Beach-Criteria-Ireland-2018.pdf

Its all about where you want to SUP, and being on a sup it is way better than surfing for water pollution. Over in OZ we are petty lucky and only around big cities that beaches will be too dirty to swim after rain, 3 day rule. You can usually drive an hour to find a beach up or down the coast that will be okay in rain.
I lived and worked in the UK and was pretty impressed with the water quality. I did mainly swim in summer though. Around Cornwall it looked pretty good.
I also went up to scotland and thurso looked good there. I did stop in wales where the water was seriously muddy but a good three to four feet and peeling nicely.
What location in the UK are you talking about. Whitby and around Newcastle looked okay too.

LocationsUK:
South Coast (Witterings/Hayling/Kimmeridge) Cornwall (North and South Shores), North Devon (Croyde/Saunton/Westward Ho), North East (Saltburn/Whitby)

I'm just interested in your local beaches and whether you go somewhere else if it looks "dirty"

Cheers

If it looks dirty I don't even go in. Most of the surfers who surf in city beaches get ear infections etc. Lake or inland stormwater run off is the worst. I reckon cornwall is pretty okay,the population is small, devon not sure about. If your worried about pollution I would write to your local member as the beaches are pretty close in the UK compared to over here.

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colas said..
Yes, that's one of the main reasons I settled in "Les Landes" (Hossegor) rather than the nearby Basque Country (Biarritz, Guetary), for the pristine water quality of Les Landes. Beaches in the Basque Country are nearly always closed for pollution after big rains.

I am a member of the Surfrider Foundations, which helps awareness on these subjects, but here we can thank a lot the EU, and the green parties at the EU parliament, which has been the main driving force to fight for water quality. The improvement in water quality has been nothing short of spectacular here, both in France and in Spain, as efforts have been made to modernize waste management, especially in Spain, build lots of water treatment plants...
You can now surf near the Bidassoa rivermouth (at the French/Spain border) in clean water, and it is quite incredible considering the situation 20 years ago. And 20 years ago, the Hossegor beaches were covered daily in Spanish trash (from the labels), whereas now storms only bring driftwood and very few man-made trash.

This shows the huge benefits of the European Union: it can better force strict laws, designed for the common good, upon local politicians who do not have the strength nor the money to resist industrial lobbies. Of course our local would-be corruptees and corrupters whine that the EU is "stealing their sovereignty", but here in Spain and France we are lucky that we do not have laws that make media unaccountable for lies, so the amount of public disinformation have not (yet?) reached the frightening efficiency levels of the UK & US. And our Trump/Boris, Marine Le Pen, thankfully lacks the pathological narcissism to fuel a power grab.

PS: The "Blue Flag" - a French program, started in 1985 - exist now in many countries, but alas is not only about water quality, but it is much better than the previous situation.

beachawards.ie/wp-content/uploads/2018/06/Blue-Flag-Beach-Criteria-Ireland-2018.pdf

So Colas, are you suggesting that the faceless, unaccountable beaurecrats of Brussels are preferable to democratically elected local politicians?

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copperdog1 said..
So Colas, are you suggesting that the faceless, unaccountable beaurecrats of Brussels are preferable to democratically elected local politicians?

I suppose you are being ironic, but just in case:

The EU instances are more democratic and accountable than many national instances. Take for instance the French commissonner candidate Sylvie Goulard. She was sharply rejected yesterday by the elected EU parliament because she embezzled public funds and was working secretly for an US lobbying group. Things that were deemed not worth considering by the French president, who is even keeping his trust now to a corrupt and indicted MP, that he even pushed to be chief of the house. And it is the UE that worked swiftly to indict Goulard of embezzlement, whereas French authorities are much more lenient to those in power.

kuta nov to march is disgusting

www.minderoo.org/no-plastic-waste/?utm_medium=301&utm_source=www.minderoo.com.au

www.noplasticwaste.org

www.ted.com/talks/andrew_forrest_a_radical_plan_to_end_plastic_waste/transcript


I don't usually find myself supporting the top end of town, but if Twiggy can pull this off, i'd clean the pool at his new mansion in Cottesloe for life

That Twiggy thing was really good

Whilst I was more concerned with the more "effluent" outages in the scale of "quality" the plastics dumping and disposal is obviously a hot topic.
I suppose my post was more about what you can't see, rather than what you can.

Insecticides, fertilisers, **** etc.

I've surfed in sewerage when I went home to the North of England back in 1969 (Tynemouth) so most days on the Gold Coast are better than that although when they opened the grease traps in Sydney occasionally it was pretty gross. Fixed along time ago back in the eighties .

South Devon UK, some of the river mouths are dodgy ground after heavy rain for sure. Huge amounts of run off from farm land, sewerage over flows and storm drains. You can smell the water some days not nice... Seaton in South East Cornwall is full of bacteria and all things filth! Generally don't worry about it too much on sup but proning think twice about it some days. If it's pumping it's hard not to gamble though!

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colas said..

copperdog1 said..
So Colas, are you suggesting that the faceless, unaccountable beaurecrats of Brussels are preferable to democratically elected local politicians?

I suppose you are being ironic, but just in case:

The EU instances are more democratic and accountable than many national instances. Take for instance the French commissonner candidate Sylvie Goulard. She was sharply rejected yesterday by the elected EU parliament because she embezzled public funds and was working secretly for an US lobbying group. Things that were deemed not worth considering by the French president, who is even keeping his trust now to a corrupt and indicted MP, that he even pushed to be chief of the house. And it is the UE that worked swiftly to indict Goulard of embezzlement, whereas French authorities are much more lenient to those in power.

Yep, just poking the possum (I should say that I'm a faceless unaccountable Australian bureaucrat). The whole question of how much sovereignty you cede to briader government as opposed to more local government is complex. Here in Australia we have this debate over how much power we cede to the national government at the expense of the States. I can understand the efficiencies and the ability to get broad reforms done, but the idea of only dealing remote Canberra has its drawbacks

Select to expand quote

copperdog1 said..

colas said..

copperdog1 said..
So Colas, are you suggesting that the faceless, unaccountable beaurecrats of Brussels are preferable to democratically elected local politicians?

I suppose you are being ironic, but just in case:

The EU instances are more democratic and accountable than many national instances. Take for instance the French commissonner candidate Sylvie Goulard. She was sharply rejected yesterday by the elected EU parliament because she embezzled public funds and was working secretly for an US lobbying group. Things that were deemed not worth considering by the French president, who is even keeping his trust now to a corrupt and indicted MP, that he even pushed to be chief of the house. And it is the UE that worked swiftly to indict Goulard of embezzlement, whereas French authorities are much more lenient to those in power.

Yep, just poking the possum (I should say that I'm a faceless unaccountable Australian bureaucrat). The whole question of how much sovereignty you cede to briader government as opposed to more local government is complex. Here in Australia we have this debate over how much power we cede to the national government at the expense of the States. I can understand the efficiencies and the ability to get broad reforms done, but the idea of only dealing remote Canberra has its drawbacks

Would like to add the introduction of Super shire council format has degraded many smaller places away from the Hub with environmental issues taking much longer to resolve.

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copperdog1 said..
The whole question of how much sovereignty you cede to briader government as opposed to more local government is complex.

To put things in perspective, the European "bureaucrats" of the commission are directly chosen by the european chiefs of state, which are directly elected. So they are just as "democratic" as any minister of any government that are chosen by an elected PM or president but not elected themselves. And every democratic government has a body of unelected career civil servants.

I must say that corruption is much more likely to happen at the local scale, if only because the involved sums are smaller, thus less often seen worth prosecuting, and with less serious sentences.

Auckland, New Zealand after a lot of rain a short distance from home
i.stuff.co.nz/environment/116674658/public-health-warning-at-north-shores-browns-bay-due-to-e-coli-levels

does greta thunberg know about this topic?

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JEG said..
does greta thunberg know about this topic?

Doubt it

I am a member of Surfer Against Sewage, and whilst they've had a lot of success at local level it's just a very small blot in the ocean.

Thanks for your replys guys.