December 2013 (ROTM#60) Australian Rip Drowning Statistics

This Rip of the Month might not show you what a rip looks like, but it should show you just how important and dangerous these common hazards on Australian beaches are. A few months ago, we published a fairly simple study in the scientific journal Natural Hazards and Earth Systems Science called ‘A new perspective on the Australian rip current hazard’. We compared the best available long term datasets for fatalities in Australia caused by natural hazards such as rip currents, bushfires, cyclones, floods and sharks.

On average 21 people drown in rip currents every year (top graph A). This is more than the average number of fatalities per year from bushfires (6), cyclones (8), floods (5) and sharks (1) COMBINED! And it’s an underestimate. Those rip drownings are incidents that were confirmed as being cause by rips, the actual number is probably much higher.

 The rip current database only goes back 9 years and when you compare the fatalities over the same time span, bushfires are #1 as shown in the bottom graph B, but only because of the terrible loss of life (173) during the Feb 2009 fires near Melbourne. Over the long term though, rips are definitely the biggest killer. And yet, they really don’t get the respect or attention they deserve. They should, there’s an estimated 17,000 on Australian beaches at any given time.

Rips are more dangerous than you think