For people, beaches can be place for a stroll or a swim. For wildlife, they can be spots for breeding, nesting, resting and feeding says Helen Pilcher. The world’s shorelines occupy an estimated 356,000 kilometres, but not all of its beaches are welcoming.
Some are a source of danger, and sometimes, even, death. So, keep your wits about you and let’s pay a cautious visit to the world’s deadliest beaches.
World’s deadliest beaches
Reynisfjara Beach, Iceland
There’s a yellow warning sign at the entrance to Reynisfjara Beach that has its own traffic lights. Green means good to go. Amber signifies a moderate level of danger, whilst red indicates that the beach is highly hazardous. Stay away!
With its jet black sand and towering basalt columns, Reynisfjara has a brutalist beauty. The sign reads, “Dangerous sneaker waves. Keep a safe distance from the waves. Never turn your back on the ocean.”
This is good advice. Powerful Atlantic currents, along with the beach’s long fetch (the uninterrupted distance that the wind blows over the water), create unpredictable waves known as sneakers, that can knock people off their feet even on a ‘green light’ day.
In addition, strong undertows close to the shore can be powerful, making it difficult for anyone swept out to sea, to make their way back. With at least five documented fatalities in recent years, this austere landscape is one to be treated with the utmost respect.
Peninsula Valdés, Patagonia
This should be a safe space. Female elephant seals and sea lions come to beaches of the Peninsula Valdés to birth and nurse their pups. The waters here are calm and full of food, such as fish and squid. But there’s something lurking in the shallows.
Orcas are apex predators, black and white killers that enjoy the taste of marine mammals. In the Peninsula Valdés, they have developed a distinctive hunting style, known as intentional stranding. Individuals aim themselves at pups near the shoreline, then accelerate directlytowards them.
Using the channels between reefs and the steeply sloping beaches, they deliberately strand themselves on the shore. Then they grab their prey from the beach and manoeuvre back into the water.
It’s a high risk, high reward strategy, that pays off more often than not. In a successful season, orcas use intentional stranding to kill around 10% of the pups born on the Peninsula Valdés, making this beach especially deadly for seals and sea lions.
Bikini Atoll, Marshall Islands
Bikini Atoll is a coral reef in the Marshall Islands consisting of 23 islands surrounding a large, central lagoon. Between 1946 and 1958, it was used by the United States as a nuclear test site. Residents were relocated. Twenty three devices were detonated at seven test sites; on the reef, on the sea, in the air and underwater.
The explosions released vast quantities of energy, equivalent to 77 million tons of TNT. Radiation levels rocketed. Plant life, animal life, soil and water all became contaminated. Today, radiation levels remain well above the maximum allowed for human habitation. Many of those living on nearby islands have gone on to develop cancer. And whilst it’s possible to dive in the waters around Bikini Atoll with special permission, no one lives permanently on the atoll. The danger may be invisible, but it’s very much still there.
Boca Raton, Florida
For loggerhead sea turtles, beaches are a source of both life and death. Returning to the beach of their own hatching, females dig holes and lay around a hundred eggs in the sand. A month and a half later, tiny turtles start to emerge and scramble to the water. But the journey is hazardous.
At Boca Raton beach, in southeastern Florida, around 40% of those that set off, never make it to the sea. Tracks in the sand reveal their fate. Disoriented by the glow of the nearby condominiums, some head off in the wrong direction and get trapped in the undergrowth where they are consumed by ants. Others head towards the sea but are picked off by ghost crabs or grey foxes. Yet more, die of exhaustion.
In 2025, there were 815 loggerhead turtle nests along the five mile stretch of strand, so it’s estimated that some 35,000 hatchlings died on the beach. For those that made it to the water, life will remain precarious. Thanks to predation, fishing and pollution, fewer than 1 in 1,000 loggerhead sea turtle hatchlings are thought to survive to their first birthday.
Praia do Norte, Portugal
In February 2024, Austrian-German surfer Sebastian Steudtner grabbed his board and headed out into the rugged waters of the Atlantic. The Praia do Norte (North Beach) in Nazaré is famed for its gigantic waves, which are created as the underwater Nazaré Canyon – the largest submarine canyon in Europe – funnels and amplifies the incoming swell.
Forget waves as big as houses, here there are waves as tall as multi-storey car parks. Regular swimmers do not venture into the water at Praia do Norte. It’s far too dangerous. But that doesn’t stop experienced surfers from gathering once a year to compete in the TUDOR Nazaré Big Wave Challenge.
During the 2020 competition, Steudtner bagged the record for the biggest wave ever surfed, when he successfully skimmed the surface of a 26 metre-tall behemoth. Four years later, however, he surfed a wave that was 28.5 metres tall. Now he is waiting for official verification to see if he has blown his own record out of the insanely choppy and dangerous water.
Farewell Spit, New Zealand
In recent years, the poignantly named Farewell Spit has been the site of too many goodbyes. Located at the northern-most point of New Zealand’s South Island, this long, narrow sandbar has been the scene of repeated whale strandings.
In February 2017, over 400 long-finned pilot whales were stranded, of which around 300 died. In February 2021, 50 became stuck, of which half died. And in March 2022, another mass stranding led to the deaths of 31 individuals.
Strandings like these are more common in whale species that are highly social, such as pilot whales, beaked whales and sperm whales. When one whale becomes stuck, others soon follow and if the whales are not refloated, disaster unfolds.
It’s not clear why the Farewell Spit is such a hotspot for strandings, but it’s thought that the gently sloping waters, which extend into the sea, may confuse the whales’ sonar navigation systems. The animals become disoriented, and when they find themselves in shallow waters, with a rapidly falling tide, escape becomes almost impossible.
Boucan Canot, Réunion Island
In 2011, a young man called Mathieu Schiller was tragically killed in a shark attack at Boucan Canot, a popular resort on the west coast of Réunion Island, in the Indian Ocean. Over the next eight years, 30 people were attacked by sharks around the island, including 11 who were killed. This accounted for almost 20% of known global shark fatalities during the same period. Authorities closed the beaches, and Réunion acquired the dubious moniker of “Shark Island.”
Since then, things have improved. Scientists have helped to design ways to make the water safer, including observation drones in the sky, electrical deterrents worn by swimmers, and floating devices called drumlines that can be used to help catch and remove dangerous individuals. In addition, a 600 metre seabed-to-surface net was strung up offshore in Boucan Canot to protect the public bathing area.
Now, the beaches are open again. Surfing is restricted to certain ‘safe’ zones, and there have been no fatal shark attacks since 2019. The beach is undoubtedly safer than it was but do be aware; sharks still swim in the surrounding waters.
Henderson Island, South Pacific
Stroll along the beach at Henderson Island, and you’d struggle (a) to stroll, and (b) to evensee the beach that lies beneath that 37 million pieces of debris that litter the shore. Henderson Island is the most plastic polluted beach in the world.
A perfect storm of ocean currents and swirling gyres deposit the rubbish on this otherwise remote and beautiful island. From bottle caps and fishing gear, to toys and even toilet seats, each square metre contains more than 650 items of junk.
The refuse presents a problem for the animals that live in and around this UNESCO World Heritage Site. Plastic has been found inside the stomachs of local birds and fish, where it can lead to long term health problems and sometimes death.
It gets tangled around the legs of sea turtles, making it hard for them to swim and feed. Hermit crabs get trapped in discarded plastic containers, causing tens of thousands to starve to death every year. Efforts are underway to clean things up, but in the meantime, the plastic poses a deadly risk for species that live there.
Skeleton Coast, Namibia
Many have lost their lives on this rugged stretch of Namibian coast. The 500 kilometre stretch of land, which stretches from the Ugab River in the south to the Kunene River on the Angolan border, contains two types of carcasses – those of ships and those of marine mammals.
The local, indigenous San people called the region “The Land God Made in Anger,” whilst Portuguese sailors dubbed it “The Gates of Hell.” When hot, dry desert air from the mainland meets cold, dense air over the ocean, dense fogs forms. Alongside treacherous currents, shifting sandbars, and a heavy rolling surf, this made it difficult for the non-powered boats of yesteryear to navigate the coastline and get out of trouble. Now, up to a thousand shipwrecks are thought to litter the Skeleton Coast, making it one of the world’s largest ‘ship graveyards.’
However, the coast is also a whale graveyard. During the 18th and 19th centuries, European and American whalers operated heavily in the South Atlantic. Tens of thousands of whales were slaughtered, and when their remains washed up on the Skeleton Coast, they stayed there, rotting slowly and bleaching in the sun.
Playa Zipolite, Mexico
On the southern coast of Oaxaca state, Playa Zipolite is Mexico’s first and only legal nude public beach. With its thatched beach shacks and long, sandy shoreline, it has a laid back, bohemian vibe, but all is not what it seems.
The clue is in the name. In the local Zapotec language, Playa Zipolite means Beach of the Dead. Locals say that in times gone by, the Zapotecs used the beach to offer the bodies of their dead to the sea. Today, however, Playa Zipolite is known for its dangerous undertow and powerful rip tides that can pull even experienced swimmers out to sea.
This makes the Playa Zipolite the deadliest beach in Mexico, reportedly claiming the lives of around 50 swimmers every year.
