Swimming in Ocean at Gold Coast

by Glenis Robinson
(Auckland)

Swimming in ocean at Gold Coast

When can you not swim in the sea at the Gold Coast because of stingers etc?

The Gold Coast occassionally gets stingers during the summer months (December to March approximately).

This usually only happens when there are certain wind and tide conditions and they are blown in and onto the beaches.

The Gold Coast has many beaches and not all may be affected at the same time. So, it is unlikely that there are stingers at every beach on the Gold Coast. You might find that Broadbeach has them, but Coolangatta is fine. There are usually options if you are prepared or able to travel a little.

On the rare occassions (from memory maybe a couple of times in a year) that I have known there to be stingers in the water, the surf life savers on the beaches at the patrol areas will let swimmers know and often will close the beach.

That is why it is really important to only swim in the patrolled areas between the flags.

Although, technically*, not impossible for us to have some of the nastier stingers, box jellyfish or irukandji, on the Gold Coast, it would be a very rare and most likely due to some odd weather pattern or currents. They like the warmer waters up further north in Queensland.

Sometimes on the Gold Coast you can get sea lice. They are more of an irritation than anything else and seem to be picky about who they target. I can be standing in the water right next to my daughter and she can be jumping around like a kangaroo, whilst I look on wondering what it going on :D ! But then, mozzie's don't tend to bite me either!

I hope that answers your question, if you have any more, please put them in the comments below and I will try to answer them for you.

Cheers

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