purple – marine pests
jellyfish, stingrays … others …
are in the water

According to the United States Lifesaving Association website, for decades, lifeguard agencies in the U.S. and around the world have employed flags to notify swimmers of conditions, to warn of hazards, to identify safer areas for swimming, and to notify beach users about regulated areas. To help ensure global consistency, in 2004 the International Life Saving Federation developed international guidelines for warning flags.

Red – High hazard. Rough conditions such as strong surf and/or currents are present. All swimmers are discouraged from entering the water. Those entering the water should take great care.

Yellow – Medium hazard. Moderate surf and/or currents are present. Weak swimmers are discouraged from entering the water. For others, enhanced care and caution should be exercised.

Purple – Marine pests, such as jellyfish, stingrays, or other marine life which can cause minor injuries are present in the water. This flag is not intended to indicate the presence of sharks.

These guidelines have been adopted, in part, by the International Standards Organization and are endorsed by the United States Lifesaving Association. By consistently following these warning flag guidelines, lifeguard agencies can help ensure a universal understanding of their meaning and thus improve their effectiveness.

These flags are only approved for use on beaches where lifeguards trained to USLA standards are on duty. Flags are not an acceptable substitute for properly trained and equipped rescuers, but rather a tool for their use.

To be fully effective, the use of warning flags to notify the public of current hazard levels should be consistent, based on objective, measurable criteria that can be logged and tracked, and then changed as conditions change. They should be accompanied by good public education efforts to explain the meaning of the flags flown.

In the photo above, you see BOTH the yellow flag for moderate surf as well as the purple flag for marine pests.

The last line under the Purple Flag is the best.

This flag is not intended to indicate the presence of sharks.

I learned that there is a test down here for the prence of sharks.

Put your finger in the water and then put your finger in your mouth.

If it tastes salty, there are sharks nearby.

Growing up on Lake Michigan we had neither sharks nor marine pests.

I did experience the Alewife Explosion on the Great Lakes in the late 1960’s which took place because, according to the US Geological Survey, these invasive, saltwater fish are poorly adapted to the lake’s fresh water and struggle to handle sudden water temperature changes. When they undergo the stress of spring spawning or face dropping temperatures, their weakened bodies succumb to “osmotic shock” and they die by the millions.

I can attest to the dying by the millions as every morning the beach was cover with dead fish and our morning chore was to rake the beach and bury the fish.

There are no tides on the Great Lakes and the fact that twice each day the beaches here in South Carolina are stripped and power washed and resurfaced appeals seems to be worth the purple flags, stinging marine life and risk of sharks.

there was light upon
the sea that made familiar
things mysterious

The Salt Marshes

There was a light upon the sea that made
Familiar things mysterious, which to teach,
With inarticulate, alluring speech,
The living wind with lisping tongue essayed.
O’er sand and weed and spongy moss I strayed
And lifeless, orient shells, musing on each;
While casting nets with ever wider reach
A fisher plied his immemorial trade.
A sea-bird winged the aerial solitude
Searching the deep for his appointed dole,
Where his wide-wandering flocks the ocean feeds;
And with the day’s full orbed strength indued,
At one with all, by all illumed, my soul
Pulsed to the rhythmus of immortal deeds.

By Peter MacArthur and published in his book, Lines (1901).

Peter McArthur (1866-1924) was a Canadian writer. Born in farming country in Middlesex County, Ontario, early in his life he started on a writing career, joining the Toronto Mail as a reporter in 1890. He found he had a knack for writing humour and submitted jokes and satirical essays to periodicals of the time. In 1902 he went to England where he wrote for Punch. After a failed business venture in New York, he returned to his farm home but still submitted articles and essays to magazines.Future books and essays began to feature stories of farm life – he was an advocate of ‘back-to-the-land’ agrarianism. In the 1920s he stopped writing after he joined a rural trust company as an executive. He lived out the rest of his life selling insurance to farmers. (Bio from Fadedpage.com)

I live a five miles from the Atlantic Coast and 6 feet above sea level.

Wikipedia says the average width of the United States is 2,800 miles so my five miles to the coast is 0.1786% of the width of the continent which is pretty much on the cutting edge.

We have the first sunrise.

And the first sunset.

There is a light here upon the sea and the marsh that makes familiar things mysterious.

The living wind with lisping tongue essays.

O’er sand and weed and spongy moss I stray.