British surfing waves are under threat from a growing number
of activities around our coastline that can hamper or have long term
devastating impacts on some of our most prized surfing beaches. This includes
coastal developments, pollution, and restricted access.
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Waves are under threat from 3 sources: new
structures and developments, pollution including sewage and litter, and
restricted access.
·
Multiple surf breaks around the UK are currently
under extreme threat with many more subject to lesser, but escalating, degrees
of threat.
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No specific laws exist in the UK to protect surf
spots.
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According to the water industry itself, the
number of Combined Sewer Overflow (CSOs) around the UK is around 31,000. Many
of these are completely unregulated.
·
In the 10 weeks since the 2012 bathing season
started this year SAS have issued over 30,000 text messages warning water users
about the 416 individual raw sewage discharges across just 62 beaches as part
of the Sewage Alert Service.
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The UK's world-class south coast surf spot Broad
Bench is off limits for up to 228 days a year.
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The amount of marine litter found on UK beaches
has increased almost two-fold in the last fifteen years.
·
A plastic bottle may persist in the marine
environment for more than 450 years if left on a beach.
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Waves are important to coastal communities in 4
ways: economically, environmentally, culturally and socially.
·
In the UK, there are 4 types of surf spots:
beach, reef, point break and river mouth.
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There are over 500,000 regular surfers in the
UK.
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In a 2007 Defra survey, the economic value of
the surf retail sector only was estimated at £200million annually.
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At a cost of over £3million, the artificial
surfing reef development at Boscombe, Dorset has been estimated to generate
£3million of direct income with an additional £10million of image value. This
is the valuation of a spot that currently only creates poor quality, irregular
waves, highlighting the value and exceptional conditions which create the UK's
best surfing waves.
·
The overall turnover from the surfing industry
in Cornwall (£64 million annually) was about 20% more than the sailing industry
(£52 million annually), and twice as much as the golf industry (£32million
annually). Results also showed that the average visiting surfer spends about
8.5% more in Cornwall than the average visitor.
Waves are a very important and necessary part of the
workings of our planet, transferring the sun's energy around the globe. Surfing
beaches and waves also have a deep personal value to surfers and surfing
communities around the UK. However, in the UK there is currently no specific
legal protection for surfing waves or any assurance that stakeholders, including
surfers and surfing communities in Wales, Northern Ireland or England, will be
consulted fairly on activities threatening their existence.
Other sports and activities such as walking and sailing are
formally recognised, represented and consulted during many new development
processes. Other areas of outstanding beauty and countryside sites are also
protected. But politicians, developers and the wider public in general have
very little knowledge of the value, uniqueness and finite nature of surfing
waves and landscapes, swell corridors prevailing weather conditions and other
conditions creating good quality waves.
We are also seeing growing evidence that the Government is
showing a bias towards coastal intervention, together with a stance
increasingly in favour of developers. Politicians typically give only cursory
consideration to the impacts on local coastal communities, despite the fact
that the waves can be central to their existence.
Surfers Against Sewage (SAS) is campaigning to increase
public awareness and develop a greater understanding amongst policy makers that
waves are a vital part of the fabric of many UK coastal communities, and it is
essential that wave-centric communities can amplify their concerns so that
irreversible damage is not done to our waves and surfing beaches.
Surfers Against Sewage has set out four key steps to protect
the waves:
Increase public awareness
Objects such as mountains and rivers are the easiest things
for people to envisage as elements that should be protected, because they are
more or less fixed. The concept that a particular 'wave' needs protecting is,
however, much more difficult. One reason for this is that when we refer to a
'wave', we don't really mean just one wave. We really mean the circumstances
that come together to make waves break at a particular spot on the coast, in a
particular way. Saying that we need to protect the 'right-hander at Thurso
East' is a bit like saying we must protect the '09:50 from Paddington to
Oxford'. In reality we are not protecting just one train; rather we are
protecting the circumstances that allow that service to run.
Surfers become stakeholders
Surfers and other coastal water-users need an official voice
within the politics of a country, in other words, become official stakeholders;
this would ensure that their views are taken that much more seriously. A
breakthrough has recently been made in Scotland, as a direct result of
considerable lobbying by SAS. In February 2010, the Scottish Government
recognised recreational water-users’ need for a voice on Regional Planning
Partnerships within the Scottish Marine & Coastal Access Act. The amendment
was forwarded by former Green Party Member of Scottish Parliament, Robin
Harper, on behalf of Surfers Against Sewage. A seat on the regional planning
partnerships gives recreational water-users the platform to voice any concerns
relating to the marine environment and recreational wave resources.
Achievements like these set a great precedent, which can be used as an example
when justifying that water-users should become stakeholders in other countries.
Surfing reserves
Another way to protect an area containing good surfing waves
is with a surfing reserve. If implemented in a similar way to a bird sanctuary
or other type of nature reserve, the surfing reserve could make sure that, at
least, certain 'iconic' surfing waves are protected forever. The concept was
first introduced in Australia way back in 1973. Even though declaring a spot a
surfing reserve in theory won't stop somebody coming along and destroying a
wave if they really wanted to, the high-profile recognition of a spot will make
a lot more people sit up and take notice if something negative starts to
happen. In the UK, surfing reserves could be integrated into sustainable
development practices managed alongside the environmental, societal and
economic fabric of local communities.
Laws to protect waves
Laws are needed to specifically protect surfing waves. In
the UK, developers already have to go through an expensive and time-consuming
process to get planning permission, and this includes conducting an
Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA). If there were proper laws stating that
surfing waves cannot be interfered with or destroyed, it would be in the
developers' own interest to avoid putting their concrete in the wrong place. At
the moment, no law exists in the UK to protect surf spots, but it does in one
country: Peru. Peru has a history of surfing culture that goes back almost as
far as Hawaii, and surfing is seen as a respectable and worthwhile pastime,
unlike in many parts of Europe.
What leaders need to do:
Waves and surf spots need to be recognised as part of the UK
heritage and should be afforded greater recognition and protection. Surfers
Against Sewage is calling for legislation to better recognise and protect UK
surfing waves and beaches. Revised criteria could work within the existing
Marine & Coastal Access Act, revised Bathing Water Directive, Water
Framework Directive and the Clean Neighbourhood & Environment Act or be set
up as a new piece of legislation. The first step towards this is a parliamentary
debate on the economic and intrinsic value of UK surfing waves and beaches, and
a comprehensive understanding of the threats to waves.
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