20 Hidden Hazards To Watch Out For On The Beach This Summer

Here’s something to think about while you’re having a relaxing swim on your sun-kissed beach: the Portuguese man o’ war. If you see something that looks rather like a blue balloon with lots of elongated tentacles trailing from it, you’ve likely come across one of these creatures. Although often mistaken for jellyfish – to which they are related – in fact they’re actually siphonophores.

But like many species of jellyfish, Portuguese man o’ wars pack a strong sting. This is used to overpower prey such as crustaceans and fish. Although only rarely fatal to humans, you won’t forget their sting in a hurry. One thing we definitely advise you not to do is lick them. That might sound like strange advice, but licking a man o’ war is exactly what one fellow did. British tabloid The Sun reported his deranged antics, which he chronicled on TikTok in May 2021.

Are you relaxing on a beach beneath some picturesque sea cliffs? Well, you might well want to engage in a spot of risk assessment. That’s because those spectacular-looking cliffs might be less stable than you think. And seaside landslides had a bumper year in Britain in 2021. First, there was a massive landslip on southern England at what’s known as the Jurassic Coast in Dorset.

The April 2021 landslide thankfully happened at night, so there were no casualties. A second landslide came at Nefyn Beach in north Wales just a few days later – again without injuries. Ominously though, some residents lost the ends of their gardens. Though don’t think beach landslips can’t happen in America. Tragically, in 2019 three women lost their lives when a sea cliff tumbled down on them in Encinitas, California.

You might think of lightning as nature’s dramatic light show. Yet it can of course be highly dangerous. According to the National Ocean Service (NOS), if you hear thunder or see lightning it’s time to get off the beach without delay. On its website, the service recommends that you evacuate to “substantial buildings and hard-topped vehicles.”

The NOS also points out that safe havens from lightning strikes do not include “rain shelters, small sheds, and open vehicles.” It also advises that you should stay clear of the beach until at least 30 minutes after the last sound of thunder. Overall, the beach is emphatically not the place to enjoy the electrifying spectacle of a full-on lightning storm!

Algae and cyanobacteria are microscopic organisms which sometimes proliferate in vast numbers creating algal blooms, often known as red tides. That popular name is somewhat misleading since although the blooms may indeed be red, they can also be blue, green or brown. They may look like mats on the sea surface or drifts of foamy scum.

In some cases these algal blooms – often precipitated by hot weather – can be highly toxic to marine life and also extremely dangerous for humans. So, stay out of the sea if you see one! If you swallow any of the water it could also make you very sick. You should avoid any seafood harvested around the blooms, too.

Examine a sea urchin and you’ll find a globe-shaped shell with one hole at the bottom. That shell is covered with a coating of formidable-looking black spikes. And it’s those sharp spines that present the problem. The sea urchins attach themselves to rocks underwater and it’s all too easy to unknowingly step on one. That will, of course, hurt a lot. Fortunately, although the sea urchin’s sting is certainly painful, it’s not fatal.

There is a way you can take revenge on the little critters if you’re so inclined: eat them! The eggs within the sea urchin’s shell are considered a delicacy by some. Food scientist Ali Bouzari told The Guardian in April 2021, “They taste like the sea because they live in the sea. They’re sweet, umami and a little bit salty. The texture is very creamy.” Sounds yummy, doesn’t it?

It’s sadly true that in some coastal regions around the world the sea waters are polluted by a variety of noxious substances. And rivers flowing into the oceans can carry all manner of unwanted effluent. Ships, pets, and run-off from farmland doused in fertilizers and other chemicals can all be sources of contamination. Then there are oil spills – a real hazard to wildlife as well as humans.

Horrifyingly, even untreated sewage can find its way into the sea, which is not something you want to think about when going for a swim! CNN cited a study from 2018 which found that in the U.S. “about 90 million illnesses occur from water recreation events annually.” Georgetown University School of Medicine’s Dr. Alison Huffstetler advises that swimmers wash their hands and feet once they’re out of the sea. Also, don’t drink the water!

According to the National Ocean Service, you’ll find lionfish in the Gulf of Mexico, the Caribbean and along America’s Eastern Seaboard. And they are truly amazing creatures. The brightly colored, striped body is adorned with improbably fronded and elongated fins. They’re quite gorgeous to look at – if slightly weird. But take our word for it, you really don’t want to touch one!

If you do happen to brush against a lionfish, you’ll know all about it. Along with those strange fins, the creature also has sharp spines. These can deliver a truly unpleasant sting that’s packed with toxins. The National Ocean Service notes that the lionfish’s venom “can cause extreme pain, sweating, respiratory distress, and even paralysis.” By all means, then, marvel at these amazing fish, but don’t get too close.

Obviously, we couldn’t live without the sun beaming down its warming rays onto our planet. But that great big ball of fire in the sky can also be highly dangerous to us humans. Yet it’s all too tempting once we get to the beach to strip off and languish in the heat of the sun. And cooling breezes coming from the sea can make us forget just how much sunshine is beating down on our skin.

So, sunburn is a potential problem – skin cancers can be caused by overexposure, after all. Then there’s dehydration, which can be aggravated by chugging down a few cold beers rather than water. Just how risky is too much sun, though? Speaking to the Reader’s Digest in 2019, Dr. Erica Steele pointed out that, “Heat exhaustion and heat stroke cause more deaths than floods, lightning, hurricanes, and tornadoes combined.”

The National Ocean Service (NOS) describes rip currents as “powerful, channeled currents of water flowing away from shore that quickly pull swimmers out to sea.” These treacherous anomalies commonly start from the tide line and stretch beyond the breaking waves. If you’re caught in one of these fearsome currents you can quickly find yourself a long way from shore.

A rip current can also carry you along at up to 8 feet per second, according to the NOS. That’s faster than even an Olympic-standard swimmer. So, what should you do if you’re caught in one? The best advice is to avoid trying to swim back against the direction of the current. That will likely exhaust you – putting you in greater peril. Instead, swim parallel to the coast until you’re free of the current. Only then should you swim back ashore.

A chilling example of the dangers of quicksand was reported by the Patch website in February 2021. Two women were strolling along the Milford, Connecticut’s Walnut Beach when they began to slip into the sand. Terrifyingly, one of them sunk up to her hips and the other as far as mid-chest. Sharon Rutledge – one of the unlucky women – described the pair’s escape. She recalled in a post on social media, “Somehow we both managed to pull ourselves out by clawing at the sand.”

National Geographic quoted Professor Daniel Bonn’s advice on how to escape quicksand. First, don’t ask someone to pull on you – that won’t help. Instead, Bonn said, “Wriggle your legs around. This creates a space between the legs and the quicksand through which water can flow down to dilate [loosen] the sand. You can get out using this technique, if you do it slowly and progressively.”

The National Center for Biotechnology Information (NCBI) website tells us that there are actually more than 500 varieties of cone snails. One of the most distinctive of these mollusks is the marbled cone snail. It’s regular, mottled pattern makes it highly popular with collectors. Dutch master Rembrandt van Rijn depicted one in an etching in 1650.

Unwary divers could easily be tempted to scoop one of these attractive cone shells up as a souvenir of the deep. But that seemingly simple action would in fact be a serious error. These gastropods are, in fact, exceptionally poisonous. The NCBI leaves no doubt as to how toxic these creatures are. It baldly states that, “Hypothetically, the venom from one cone snail could kill up to 700 people.” So, leave them alone!

The term shorebreak describes the phenomenon of waves breaking directly at the sea’s edge onto the beach. These waves can be quite erratic and therein lies their danger. You can never be quite sure what the impact of a shorebreak waves will be like. Though one thing’s for sure, they can be surprisingly powerful – catching incautious swimmers or paddlers with surprising strength.

The NOS website points out that the unexpected force of a shorebreak can injure limbs and even your spine. Swimmers are especially prone to back injuries when they dive head-first into a shorebreak wave or the force of it knocks them clean over. These anomalies often happen when there’s a sharp change from shallow to deep water near the shore, so that’s something to watch out for.

Children love tunneling into sand dunes or digging deep holes, and even many grown-ups enjoy this strangely pleasurable pastime. But it has the potential to be lethally unsafe. Sand by its nature is an unstable medium and any tunnel or hole dug into it has a good chance of collapsing. And that is not a lot of fun if you happen to be in an excavation when it caves in.

Just ask Matt Mina of Newport Beach, California. He was 17 back in 2011 when he and a pal dug two large holes in the beach and started to tunnel between them. After the shaft collapsed, it trapped the teenager, and it took firefighters 30 minutes to free him. Mina told ABC News, “I thought I was going to die. I was just really scared. I didn’t know if anyone could hear me when I was screaming for help.” So, think twice before you start that beach tunnel project.

Some varieties of box jellyfish – also aptly known as sea wasps – are reputedly the most poisonous creatures in all of the world’s oceans. Fortunately for Americans, the really venomous types are found only in northern Australian and Indo-Pacific waters. But if you ever take a vacation down under you really need to know about the deadly threat these creatures pose. They look much like other jellyfish – apart from the squarish shape that gives them their name.

The lethal hazard of the box jellyfish apparently lurks in its tentacles. They’re festooned with tiny cellular structures called nematocysts and are described by the National Ocean Service as “tiny darts loaded with poison.” Also, the toxicity of that poison can only be described as recklessly extravagant. In humans the venom can cause “paralysis, cardiac arrest, and even death, all within a few minutes of being stung.” Yikes, as the British say.

E.coli 0157 is a very nasty bacteria which can cause severe illness in humans – particularly young children. If you ingest the bacteria, you can expect to suffer violent stomach upset, and in serious cases E.coli can lead to kidney and even brain damage. It’s something to be aware off not only at the seaside but also by creeks and lakes.

Dr. Erica Steele had some words of reassurance for Americans during her interview with Reader’s Digest in 2019. The expert said, “So far, we have not seen documented cases domestically.” But she added, “For those traveling abroad, care should be taken when swimming in foreign bodies of water.” Be cautious, then, especially if you have children under the age of five.

Coconuts? Really? How can they be hazardous? Surely the only risk would come from drinking too many of those fancy cocktails served in coconut shells. Well, think again. Remember, coconuts hang high up in palms – trees that can grow to a height of more than 100 feet, according to a 1984 study called Injuries Due to Falling Coconuts by one P. Barss. And a coconut still in its protective husk can weigh nearly 9 pounds.

And what do you get if a nine pound weight falls on you from a height of 100 feet? You face the risk of severe injury and possibly even death, of course. P. Barss’ research found everything from serious head trauma to fatality among patient records at the Provincial Hospital in Alotau, Papua New Guinea. Our advice? Don’t sit under coconut palms.

Time and tide wait for no man, as the proverb famously has it. The twice-daily flow of the tide is as dependable as the sun and the moon. Even so, unwary beach-goers are all too often caught out – or cut off – by the incoming tide as it floods the coast line. And that can be a very dangerous situation to find yourself in.

Problems with the incoming tide tend to happen when an ill-advised trip to an alluring headland goes wrong. It’s easy to walk out to the inviting point, but if you haven’t been paying attention you may find yourself cut off by a large expanse of sea that’s appeared with the incoming tide. How do you avoid this risk, though? Well, tide tables are available online for many locations around the U.S. coast on the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration website. Be sure to check them out, then.

Looking at the sea surface, it’s often difficult to accurately judge just how deep the water is in any given spot. That can make diving or jumping into the sea hazardous in the extreme. There’s no denying that plunging into the ocean can be bliss. Though the joy will be thoroughly spoiled if you crash into a rock or other obstruction from a height.

If you’re tempted to dive from a pier or even a cliff, be sure to consult someone who knows the local waters and the seabed. Plus, pay proper attention to warning signs. It might be perfectly safe to dive in from any particular spot. Though you shouldn’t use guesswork to make your judgment on that. And don’t forget to factor in the tide. High tide may be perfectly safe, while the low variant might be anything but.

Ever heard of the manchineel tree? No, us neither. You can find them growing on beaches in the Caribbean and Central America. They sport small green fruits that resemble apples and indeed an alternative name for the tree is the beach apple. Rather more sinisterly, they’re also called the death apple. And there is a very good reason for that baleful nickname.

The manchineel apple-like fruits are, in fact, poisonous. If you were to consume a manchineel fruit, you’d be afflicted by painful blisters in your mouth and gullet. So, don’t eat them. The foliage and the sap exuded from the trees are also toxic. It’s best not even to sit in the shade of one of these malign trees since the sap might drip on you. Our verdict: avoid like the plague.

It sounds quite attractive the name blue-ringed octopus, doesn’t it? They look pretty amazing as well with golden-brown circles ringed by electric blue outlines dotted across their bodies. These critters have beaks as do other octopuses, and they can bite. Yet it’s worse than that. Their saliva contains a highly toxic venom called tetrodotoxin.

Tetrodotoxin acts as a paralyzing agent on muscles. Death is vanishingly rare but not unheard of. But even a mild dose of tetrodotoxin is really not something you want to experience, and the bad news is that there’s no anti-venom. These blue-ringed octopuses are common around the coasts of Australia, but human encounters with them are reportedly infrequent, which is a relief.