Online rip current survey aimed at increasing safety of beach visitors
In New Jersey, rip currents cause an average of two drownings each summer, according to Dr. Jon Miller, NJSGC coastal process specialist, who works on rip current awareness. Researchers in Texas now want to know how much everyone else knows about rips.
Click here to take the survey.Click here for information from New Jersey Sea Grant Consortium about rip currents.
Dr. Chris Houser of Texas A&M University and Dr. Rob Brander of the University of New South Wales, with support from the Texas Sea Grant College Program, have designed a survey to determine the public’s knowledge about rip currents and the effectiveness of the current warning signs in use at surf beaches around the country.
Click here for information from New Jersey Sea Grant Consortium about rip currents.
“The results of this survey will be used to determine whether our current efforts are visible, memorable and can be understood by beach users, or whether we need to rethink how to warn beach users of the rip danger before they enter the water,” said Houser, an associate professor of geography and associate dean for undergraduate affairs in Texas A&M’s College of Geosciences. “We hope that this information will help reduce the number of fatalities involving rip currents.”
Click here to read Texas Sea Grant’s post about the survey.
Rips are fast-moving currents of water that can pull even the strongest swimmer away from the shore. According to the U.S. Lifesaving Association, rip currents account for at least a hundred deaths each year at U.S. surf beaches.
The warning signs and other educational materials and activities, including National Weather Service surf zone forecasts and Rip Current Preparedness Week, are part of the decade-long “Break the Grip of the Rip” public awareness campaign by USLA and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. The signs are illustrations designed to instruct people how to escape from a rip current if they become trapped in one, and show the rip from a bird’s-eye view rather than the perspective of someone on the beach.
More information about rip currents, including online training to help learn how to spot a rip current, is available at http://www.ripcurrents.noaa.gov and http://www.usla.org
Dr. Houser can be reached at [email protected].