Identifying Perils in Coastal Areas: Going beyond Litter to Identify Hazards
The Save The Waves App is a powerful digital platform that bridges local knowledge and global action, encouraging collective responsibility to preserve coastal ecosystems. This innovative tool, part of a broader movement to empower coastal communities, allows individuals to report various coastal threats, turning local users into ocean stewards and citizen scientists.
Plastic trash and marine debris can harm animals by causing ingestion or entanglement. Impacts to coral reefs can be observed as bleached corals, broken reef structures, or damaged marine life, and they can affect the health of coral reef ecosystems, which offer several ecosystem services to humans. The Save The Waves App enables users to report coral reef impacts, contributing unique local knowledge about these threats.
Coastal development like jetties, seawalls, private fences, or construction near the shoreline can lead to habitat destruction, increased pollution, altered coastal processes, and reduced biodiversity. The app allows users to report coastal development, helping to raise awareness and foster collaborative solutions.
The City of Gold Coast has released a recreational water quality platform that monitors water quality data in real time at 25 popular swimming locations on the coast. However, the Save The Waves App takes this a step further, allowing users to report poor water quality, which can be identified by strange smells, discoloration, dead fish, visible runoff, or sewage. These reports can trigger immediate alerts and action, creating ocean stewards and citizen scientists.
The Save The Waves App supports community engagement by enabling people — from surfers to beachgoers — to participate actively in monitoring and protecting coastal environments. It complements efforts like Surfline Coastal Intelligence, which uses imagery and data modeling to protect surf spots, but with a focus on community-driven threat detection and action.
As part of the GenOcean campaign and the Ocean Decade Challenges, the app aligns with the Save The Waves Coalition's mission to protect and restore ecosystems and biodiversity, understand and beat marine pollution, and restore humanity's relationship with the ocean. The coalition aims to protect 1,000 surf ecosystems by 2030.
The Gold Coast City Council has launched a water quality task force in response to the reports from the Save The Waves App, demonstrating the impact of this innovative tool. To become an ocean steward, one can download the Save The Waves App and report observations during beach visits.
The Save The Waves App allows shoreline lovers to become citizen scientists and stewards, contributing unique local knowledge about coastal changes. By integrating user-generated reports, it enhances situational awareness beyond traditional monitoring systems, strengthening collective efforts to tackle complex coastal threats.
For more information about the Save The Waves Coalition and their various projects and protected areas, visit their official webpage. Kassia Meador, another pro surfer, and Hannah Bennett, a pro surfer and Save The Waves Ambassador, emphasize the importance of protecting the coasts as they are crucial for livelihoods and recreation. Access issues like locked gates, blocked trails, "No Trespassing" signs near public surf spots, or trails being blocked by floods or someone unlawfully trying to block access can affect the connection with the coast and should be available to everyone.
The Save The Waves App's real-time alert system was instrumental in routing a report of murky water at a local break in the Gold Coast World Surfing Reserve to regional partners. Sea level rise and erosion can be identified by flooded access paths, crumbling cliffs, and exposed roots, and they can cause displacement and habitat destruction of both marine and terrestrial animals as well as people. By reporting these threats, users can help protect these precious environments.
- The Save The Waves App empowers individuals to report coral reef impacts, contributing unique local knowledge about these threats that can harm marine life and the health of coral reef ecosystems.
- The app allows users to report coastal development, such as jetties, seawalls, private fences, or construction near the shoreline, which can lead to habitat destruction, increased pollution, altered coastal processes, and reduced biodiversity.
- Poor water quality can be identified by strange smells, discoloration, dead fish, visible runoff, or sewage, and the Save The Waves App allows users to report such incidents, triggering immediate alerts and action.
- The Save The Waves App supports community engagement, allowing people — from surfers to beachgoers — to participate actively in monitoring and protecting coastal environments, complementing efforts like Surfline Coastal Intelligence.
- The Save The Waves App's real-time alert system can help protect precious coastal environments from threats such as sea level rise and erosion, which can cause displacement and habitat destruction for both marine and terrestrial animals, as well as people.
