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After months of what feels like endless rain, most people will be more keen than ever to get their togs on and head to the beach for some sun and surf this summer.
However, it pays to check conditions are right before committing to a trek to the coast, whether it’s the weather, wave height or water quality.
In the past year, Auckland Council’s Safeswim water monitoring website has expanded its reach and scope, making it more relevant for local beach-goers and more of a one-stop shop for beach information.
Pre-covid, only one or two beaches north of Orewa were included on the online real-time water quality guide and coverage was confined to the Auckland region.
Since late last year, however, the council has joined forces with several other organisations to make the service more relevant to more people, including Surf Life Saving NZ and Northland Regional Council. This has resulted not only in more local beaches being included on Safeswim, but it also shows those that have lifeguard coverage, together with weather information, tides and a three-day water quality forecast.
In 2017, there were 84 Auckland beaches on the Safeswim site – now, there are 128 in Auckland and a further 70 in Northland, with more being added all the time.
Locally, Safeswim shows conditions at Snells Beach, Anchor Bay/Tawharanui, Omaha, Goat Island, Mangawhai Heads, Mangawhai Heads estuary, Langs Beach and Waipu Cove.
Auckland Council says more will be added in future, as and when regular water sampling and its predictive modelling allows.
“In addition to the sites currently on the website, there are over 90 sites that are currently part of the Safeswim monitoring programme,” a spokesperson says. “We are collecting data from these sites with the aim of providing water quality information on the website, a process that normally requires more than 50 samples.”
Those sites include Sullivans Bay, Martins Bay, Algies Bay, Warkworth cement works, Sandspit, Buckleton Bay, Baddeleys Beach, Jones Bay, Point Wells, Matheson Bay Beach, Matheson Bay waterfall, Pakiri Beach, Lake Tomarata and Te Arai, with Algies Bay likely to be the next one to go up on the Safeswim website.
Safeswim uses simple colour-coded symbols to show whether water is okay for bathing – green for good quality and red or black for poor quality or potentially hazardous. The site can also be used to alert the public to hazards such as dangerous wave or wind conditions, rip currents, jellyfish swarms or shark sightings.
Info: https://safeswim.org.nz/
