Ocean Rips Bigger Killers Than Other Natural Hazards

A new research confirms that ocean currents claim more lives in Australia on average than other natural hazards.

The research conducted by the University of New South Wales claims that ocean rips are a bigger killer than bushfires, floods, cyclones and shark attacks. On an average, nearly 21 confirmed fatalities occur per year due to rips when compared to the 5.9 fatalities due to bushfires, 4.3 due to floods, 1 from sharks and 7.9 from cyclones, Sydney Morning Herald reported. 

"Rips account for greater overall loss of human life than other high profile natural hazards. Yet they do not get anywhere near as much attention and dedicated funding," says Dr Rob Brander, a coastal geomorphologist at UNSW, and lead author of the study.

There are over 11,000 mainland beaches in Australia that have an estimated 17,500 rip currents  at any given time. The narrow seaward flowing strong currents carry swimmers easily to a great distance offshore that leads to panic and exhaustion among swimmers and often ends in drowning.

Based on the data retrieved from Australia's National Coronial Information System, on an average there were nearly 21 confirmed deaths per year due to rips from 2004-2011.

"And this is likely to be an underestimate because there has to be a witness to an event who saw the person was caught in a rip, and then this information has to be included in the coronial report," says Dr Brander, a co-author on the study which was published earlier this year and led by researchers from Surf Life Saving Australia.

Apart from this, Dr Brander's team also gathered data from the Australian Emergency Management Institute National Disaster Database to calculate the average deaths every year due to floods, bushfires and tropical cyclones since 1962.

Here are a few tips on how to avoid rips.

The study was published in the journal Natural Hazard and Earth Science Systems