Dr Rip's Science of the Surf: Sharks Live in Rips!

For years, there’s been efforts to come up with a new beach safety message to build upon our core ‘swim between the flags’ message. The motivation is that almost all beach drownings occur outside of lifeguard and lifesaver patrol times, more than 1km away from lifeguard services or on completely unpatrolled beaches. The flags aren’t everywhere, so what new message would help?

Messages like ‘If we can’t see you, we can’t save you’ and ‘No flags. No swim’ have been around for quite some time and more recently Surf Life Saving Australia promoted ‘The Think Line. Stop. Look. Plan’ and ‘Give an F about the Flags’. 

I liked the Think Line because I’ve always promoted that. Just like looking both ways before crossing a road, you should always spend a few minutes thinking about beach safety when you go to the beach. Are there lifeguards? Are the waves too big? Are there rip currents and what would you do if you got caught in one? But the ‘Think Line’ was recently replaced with ‘Stop. Look. Stay Alive’, which comes with a catchy acronym. Then there’s ‘Float to Survive’ which has been promoted by Bruce ‘Hoppo’ Hopkins of Bondi Rescue fame.  

You may not have heard of any of these messages because there generally isn’t enough funding available to promote them with dedicated and sustained campaigns, but within the beach safety world there’s also been a narrative that there’s too many messages and they’re confusing people. 

My UNSW Beach Safety Research Group was asked to evaluate the SLSA ‘Stop. Look. Stay Alive’ campaign and in a survey of over 1500 people, most (75%) said they didn’t find all the messages out there confusing. So there’s no real problem with lots of messages, but are they effective? 

Outside of whether people heard a message and understood it, it’s almost impossible to know whether any message itself can alter behaviour and save lives.  

I think I have a solution. For years in my community talks I have always joked that to stop people drowning in rip currents, we should tell them that ‘Sharks Live in Rips’. Maybe it’s time to go public with this message! Why not?  

In terms of fatalities, rip currents are 10 times more deadly than sharks in Australia. People are already scared of sharks and that’s going to increase with the new $34 million expanded drone shark surveillance program.  

Do sharks live in rips? Sure! I’ve seen plenty of drone footage of sharks in rips, but does it matter? If it increases people’s awareness of rips and encourages them to learn more about them and swim between the flags, that will absolutely save lives. Should I go for it?