Florin Tătui, PhD, teaching staff at the Faculty of Geography of the University of Bucharest, invites us, in a new episode of the UB Dose of Science, to a discussion about rip currents, the hidden and, in general, ignored danger on the beaches of the Black Sea in Romania.
Every summer season, on the Romanian beaches of the Black Sea, about 30 people die from rip currents, while hundreds of others are saved, often at the last moment.
As the researcher Florin Tătui points out, in the face of this threat it doesn’t matter if you are a child or a man in full strength and with swimming experience, the currents will always be stronger.
As it results from the measurements of researchers from the RORIP team, the beach sectors most affected by the development of rip currents on the Romanian shore of the Black Sea are the Eforie Nord beach, the Costinești beach, the 2 Mai beach, the Jupiter-Venus beach and the barrier in the Saturn area.
So, what are rip currents and how do they form? Why are they a threat to tourists? How can we prevent drownings in the summer season? How can we raise awareness of the danger of rip currents? All these questions and many others are answered by researcher Florin Tătui in this edition of the UB Dose of Science.
Episode number 11 of the UB Dose of Science series can be accessed here.
Starting from the fact that these currents are oriented from the beach area towards the open sea and that they are characterized by a horizontal flow, not vertical, the researcher Florin Tătui shows that they act in the surface horizon and pull people to the sea, not to the depths.
Through a complex analysis to recognize patterns of rip current formation, based on high-resolution satellite images, the team involved in studying the phenomenon concluded that 55% of the approximately 34 beach areas analyzed between Năvodari and Vama Veche, totaling in around 40 km of the coast, are frequently affected by rip currents, while 19% are affected with a lower frequency by these currents. As such, as Florin Tătui explains, 2/3 of the beach sectors between Năvodari and Vama Veche are affected in one way or another by the rip currents.
Next, the guest of the UB Dose of Science points out that the rip currents on the Romanian beaches of the Black Sea are strong, measurements indicating that they can develop average speeds of approximately 0.4-0.5 m/s and instantaneous maximum speeds of 1.5-1.6 m/s. To better understand the relevance of these measurements, Florin Tătui shows, among other things, that the flow speed in a mountain river is about 1-2 m/s and that swimming against such a current is equivalent to trying to swim in a mountain river upstream. At the same time, the width of the rip currents in the mentioned beach sectors is on average 20-30 m, but it can reach up to 60-70 m. As for the area of development of the currents, it includes maximum measured distances of about 150 m from water line and depths up to 3-3.5 m.
The strongest currents occur when the waves exceed half a meter, basically when we are at the storm limit, and tourists can still be in the water, that is, at the border between the red-yellow flag and the red flag.
Explaining that almost nothing is known about rip currents in Romania, Florin Tătui indicates a number of concrete solutions to increase awareness on this unseen threat and to prevent drownings in the summer season, including: installing information boards on the beaches, which explain in an accessible language how currents are formed and what we must do if we are caught by such a current, discussions with lifeguards in the beach sectors where tourists are and strict compliance with their indications, as well as discussions between lifeguards, public authorities, hoteliers, tourist associations and other entities, but also a series of legislative changes aimed at reducing the number of these unwanted situations and giving more power to lifeguards.
About the phenomenon of rip currents, about the dangers they represent, as well as about general and specific solutions, but also about how we can recognize a rip current and what we can do if we are caught in such a current, Florin Tătui tells us in episode number 11 of the UB Dose of Science.
More information on the RORIP project, focused on studying the phenomenon of rip currents, is available here, and a brochure with essential information for preventing drownings caused by rip currents on Romanian Black Sea beaches can be accessed here.
Special thanks to the Eforie Nord Lifeguard Service, which helped us in making this episode of the UB Dose of Science.
The researcher Florin Tătui is associate professor at the Meteorology-Hydrology Department of the Faculty of Geography of the University of Bucharest and a member of the Sfântu Gheorghe Marine and River Research Station of the University of Bucharest.
As a professor, he teaches courses in Oceanography and Geography of the Black Sea. He is a scholarship researcher at the Research Institute of the University of Bucharest (ICUB-GEODAR) and a scientific researcher at the Center for Risk Studies, Spatial Modeling and Dynamics of Terrestrial and Coastal Systems of the Faculty of Geography. Since 2007, he has been an associate researcher at the Sfântu Gheorghe Marine and River Research Station of the UB. He is a researcher and treasurer of the Association of Geomorphologists from Romania.
His main research interests include, among others, coastal geomorphology, submerged bar dynamics on microtidal shorelines, morphological beach-dune interactions, nearshore hydrodynamic processes, the impact of climate variability on the wind regime and coastal dynamics, coastal storms – storm climate and morphological impact and fluvial-marine interactions, especially the relief dynamics and sediment transport in the estuary area.
More details on Florin Tătui’s activity are available here and here.
Launched in October 2021, the UB Dose of Science is a project that proposes a focused and dynamic way to communicate scientific information in an attractive, lively and expressive format, establishing a platform for dialogue with the public interested in science.
Initiated within the Science Communication Program, launched by the University of Bucharest in 2018, the UB Dose of Science is aimed at the public and encourages the connection between the academic and non-academic milieus, based on current and interesting topics.
The guests of this series, intended to represent a synthetic and engaging way of communicating the various fields of science, are mainly professors and researchers from the academic community of the University of Bucharest.
The materials in the UB Dose of Science include short and dynamic presentations of topics relevant to contemporary society: pollution, climate change, education, digitalization, significant research contributions and others. Thus, in addition to the fundamental dimension of communicating scientifically validated information, the UB Dose of Science also proposes an important component of social responsibility, reconfirming the role and mission of the University of Bucharest within society and contributing to the awareness of severe problems of today’s world and to the promotion of possible solutions to these problems.
