Visitors to Milwaukee-area beaches really want to use the Web to get real-time weather reports before hitting the sandy shores. They also don’t know much about rip currents, and aren’t deterred by how healthy their beach may— or may not—be.
So say the results of a survey of beachgoers at five popular Milwaukee County beaches—Bradford, McKinley, Grant, South Shore and Doctor’s—conducted by University of Wisconsin Sea Grant Institute.
Last August, UW Sea Grant Project Specialist Kim Smith surveyed 223 beach visitors to gauge what type of beach information they’d want to know and use, as well as the places they’d most like to access it.
“By far, weather conditions were the type of information someone would want to know,” said Gene Clark, UW Sea Grant coastal engineering outreach specialist and the principal investigator for the survey. Information about water temperatures and wave heights hovered a distant second and third.
“Overwhelmingly, people told us they want to receive their information via website,” said Clark. When Smith prompted them, younger respondents also opted for social media and smartphone apps as preferred delivery platforms.
That part of the survey wasn’t surprising. Beachgoers’ lack of awareness and concern about rip currents and the environmental health of the beaches were.
“People told us that beach health test results would make very little difference in their decision to visit a beach or not,” said Clark, who also noted that the survey contained questions about whether beach visitors knew about or could identify a rip current. “The results also make it clear that few people know much about rip currents at all. Truthfully, it was kind of a ‘wow’ moment for us.”
Rip currents are narrow water currents that run from the beach toward the water, sometimes sweeping unsuspecting swimmers into deep and dangerous water. According to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s National Weather Service Office, in 2011, 10 people drowned in rip-current incidents on Lake Michigan, while an additional 60 swimmers were rescued from a life-threatening rip current situation. Among the Great Lakes, Lake Michigan had the largest incidence of rip-current incidents last year.
To Clark, beachgoers’ lack of rip current knowledge is a big wake-up call. “It’s telling us that putting up signs to warn people and doing radio interviews to educate them aren’t enough,” said Clark. “We have to do more.”
In another interesting finding, a surprisingly large number of survey respondents indicated they lived within 15-20 miles of the beach they were visiting. Other recent research has indicated Milwaukee-area beaches have evolved into statewide tourist destinations.
“It’s clear that users of these beaches are very local,” said Clark. “The smaller beaches were clearly community beaches. It seems like there’s an opportunity to market these beaches beyond the local community. ”
Clark hopes the survey results will provide momentum for efforts to develop a beach-specific website and/or apps that could gather and automatic distribute daily real-time updates about beaches and water conditions in a manner users could easily access.
Sue Black, Milwaukee County Parks director, supports the consolidation of beach information.“Milwaukee County Parks’ beaches are vital recreational destinations for our community and we are proud to be stewards of these environmental gems. We are delighted to partner with Sea Grant on this project to make beach, weather and water data accessible to everyone. This will also enhance our efforts to maintain healthy and safe beaches for our visitors.”
UW Sea Grant’s survey was funded by the Great Lakes Restoration Initiative, and is part of a Great Lakes Sea Grant Network project that includes the Wisconsin, Minnesota and Michigan Sea Grant programs.
