Climate crisis is coming to crush many of world’s best surf breaks, study warns — SkimNews
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- Study published in Climatic Change found over 75% of famous waves across the 13-reserve World Surfing Reserves network are at high risk, with nearly 200 local experts analyzing 57 surf breaks in 8 countries.
- Croyde beach in north Devon, UK, the Noosa point breaks in Australia, Oriente Salvaje in El Salvador, and Santa Cruz reefs such as Sewer Peak and Wind and Sea in California were rated at most risk in the analysis.
- Natural coastlines can adapt to climate shifts by shifting inland and relocating sediments, but hardened infrastructure like sea walls, jetties, and groynes makes beaches and waves less resilient, said co-author Dan Reineman of California State University Channel Islands.
- Santa Cruz surfing generates approximately $200m (£151m) a year, and eastern El Salvador's economy is "pretty much dependent on surfing," according to co-author Trent Hodges of the Save the Waves Coalition.
- Save the Waves Coalition launched the World Surfing Reserves programme in 2009 and is urging more local surfers to use the study's assessment tools to push authorities to protect waves from development and climate change.
- Gold Coast (Australia), New Zealand, and Peru have already enacted surf-specific protections, including Peru's Ley de rompientes law and New Zealand's designation of surf breaks of "national significance."
Why it matters: Communities with few economic alternatives depend on surf tourism year-round — Adam Hall noted surfers fill North Devon pubs and restaurants in winter when other tourist destinations go quiet. The study shows a direct policy lever: leaving coastlines natural lets them adapt, while armoring them for property protection destroys the very wave that sustains local economies like Santa Cruz's $200m annual surf sector.
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