UNSW research indicates confusion over beach safety signage

New research has suggested that beach safety signage designed to save lives are instead putting lives at risk with messages that are unclear to the people they are supposed to help protect.

Following an earlier study that found around 30% of beachgoers misunderstood the 'swim between the flags' sign, new research led by the UNSW (University of NSW) Beach Safety Research Group has indicated a concerning lack of understanding about the meaning of common beach safety signs.

Published in the journal Safety Science, the study surveyed a total of 220 local and international students and found many terms and icons were dangerously misunderstood, in some cases prompting young people to behave very differently to the sign’s intended message.

Almost half of both the local and international students thought the swim between the flags sign was a message for both swimmers and surfers, so surfers need to stay between the flags.

Terms including 'shore dump’ and ‘shore break’ were poorly understood with more than half the local students and three-quarters of international students not knowing what they mean. Of those who claimed to understand them, some described ‘shore dump’ as “rubbish on the shore”, and “shore break” as “two currents split by a reef or rock”.

‘Bluebottle’ also proved a mystery to many international students, who had never come across the word before and therefore didn’t automatically associate it with a small creature with a nasty sting (commonly registered as a jellyfish).

In addition, graphics and icons were also widely misunderstood, about which, in a blog, researcher Dr Masaki Shibata, a Lecturer at Monash University, wrote “this is of particular concern given the reliance on those imaged-based signs by international visitors who do not understand written English.”

More than half of both groups has no idea what the ‘slippery areas’ icon meant; and more than 65% of international students did not understand the icon for ‘dangerous currents’. Of those who claimed to understand the icons, some believed the icon for ‘slippery areas’ was warning of a sudden drop in the seabed. 11 students believed that the icon for dangerous currents was instructing readers how to call for help and four students believed that the icon warns about sharks.

Dr Shibata’s blog went on to ask “so why is it so difficult to understand warning messages on beach safety signs? The language used on the signs has to be concise and simple, but at the same time it needs to deliver the full message. This is incredibly difficult. People have vastly different experiences of coastal environments, and hence their interpretations differ wildly.

“For example, regular surfers in Australian waters would associate the word ‘dump’ with the motion of waves, but what about those who are more accustomed to beaches where there is plenty of rubbish floating about?

“Our research also found that translation apps were not the answer to the problem.”

Currently on Google Translate ‘shore dump’ and ‘shore breaks’ are mis-translated from English to Japanese and Chinese, two countries which have a high number of visitors to Australia. In both case ‘dump’ was translated as rubbish. The term ‘shore dump’ does not include the word ‘wave’ (as it would most likely do in languages like Chinese and Japanese) so readers are required to make that association themselves, without explicit help.

Dr Shibata noted “and it isn’t just an issue for people born outside Australia. More than half of local students also struggled to correctly interpret the signs.”

Why is safety signage difficult to understand?
Dr Shibata explains “the simple language often used on safety signs omits any ‘unnecessary’ information. But because of this, readers are required to choose the most appropriate meaning of the word - for example dump as a kind of wave motion, not rubbish - for a particular context such as the beach, and then infer the appropriate relationship between the other words that appear with it.

“With ‘shore break’, how many readers would be likely to associate the word ‘break’ with solid objects such as cliff or rocks rather than waves which are, technically speaking, liquid?

“Unfortunately there is no quick solution to clear up these signs of confusion.

“If we carefully look into the meaning of each word or icon used in beach safety signage and the relationship between associated words or images, we may be able to improve our signs for better comprehension and translation. This may be a long process, but if water safety experts from around the world work together, we should be able to develop the most comprehensive and easily translatable beach safety signs.

“Until then, we will need to keep educating people about beach safety as well as explaining the language of beach safety.”

Click here for more information on the study What is a shore dump?: Exploring Australian university students’ beach safety knowledge and their perceptions of Australian beach safety signage as published in Safety Science.

Images: Beach signage in Tasmania (top, credit: Belinda Lawton) and extreme signage on a Broome Beach (below, credit: Shire of Broome).