How much do you know about Rip currents?
Dr. Chris Houser will be in the Maritimes this week, to hold discussions to educate people on the dangers, and how to recognize them.
He says there aren’t very good records on how many people drown due to rip currents in the Maritimes, but the estimates are very high.
“Up to seven people could drown per year in the Maritimes as a result of rip currents, they’ve very strong surf currents. This is a disproportionately large number of people compared to the rest of the population of Canada. So the Maritimes is actually a hot spot of rip drownings.”
There are a few reasons why he got interested in rip currents, “I am a Coastal Geothermologist and I have studying beaches throughout my academic careeer, but I almost drowned twice in the past. Once on family vacation many, many years ago in Puerto Vallarta, and then once in the last decade on the Pacific coast of Costa Rica. I was body surfing and I hit my head on the body and was floating into a rip current at that moment, and it was moving quite a distance offshore.”
He also felt the need to educate more people due to something he saw when he was in Pensacola, Florida, “I watched this family, put their two kids directly into a rip current. I rushed over and got the kids out of the water, and I asked the family why they put their kids directly into that location. They said because it looked safer, because the kids could play in deeper water closer to the shore. They had no idea that it was a rip current, despite the flag on the beach and the signs. So we began looking at how do people interact with this, that is very difficult to spot, and may not affect you today, but your perception tomorrow may change.”
A New Brunswick woman who lost her husband to a rip current in PEI will also tell her story during the discussions.
“There are ways that you can spot it, and that is something I will be talking about. Looking at how the waves are breaking and the colour of the water, I will show those features, but it is still very difficult for the majority of people to be able to spot them,” Dr. Houser says.
His presentations are as follows:
Riverview Middle School on June 7th, at 7pm
Saint John at the Philip J Oland building at UNB on June 8th, at 10am
Fredericton, at Marshal D’Avray Hall at UNB on June 8th at 3pm
Charlottetown at Delta Hotel Mariott on June 9th at 1pm
You must RSVP to chouser@uwindsor.ca
