A day at the beach should never make anyone sick – not you, your friends nor your family. Yet, one in 25 beachgoers will get ill swimming or surfing in polluted water near a flowing storm drain. Transparent, accurate, and accessible water quality data is critical public knowledge. That’s why we just published our NEW! Annual Beach Report Card, which provides A-to-F grades for more than 650 beaches along the Pacific Coast.
You deserve to know the water quality – before you go in the ocean – when unseen bacterial pollution could harm you and your family.
- Take a tour of the new Beach Report Card website
- Fresh off the presses: Explore the 2018 Annual Report
- How you can help support this work
2018 Annual Report
The 2017-2018 Annual Report was released on June 7, 2018. The report includes detailed water quality trends for three time periods along the Pacific coastline: summer dry season, winter dry weather and year-round wet weather conditions. Check out our Beach Bummers and Honor Roll lists of the best and worst sites for water quality.
Download our Annual Reports:
2018 | 2017 | 2016 | 2015 | 2014 | 2013
Updated Website: New Vibrant Look, Same Clear Mission
Good environmental data shouldn’t be boring. So we redesigned the Beach Report Card website with these goals in mind:
- Make water quality data more accessible and easy-to-read.
- Speed up our delivery of the latest and most accurate water quality information.
- Create an on-the-go experience to help the public assess health risks at any nearby beach location.
Dynamic water-quality map for the West Coast
Simple smiling and frowning face icons, a fresh color palette, and intuitive styling complement a comprehensive roundup of the latest water quality and environmental conditions on the West Coast.
You can look up beaches by name, view nearby beach sites and location options, and quickly make a decision about where to go with the lowest risk of getting sick.
The launch of daily water-quality forecasts for 20 California beaches
The official launch of NowCast in the Beach Report Card brings custom predictive models, statistical analysis and machine learning for daily water-quality forecasts at 20 popular California beaches. See how you can help us triple our coverage by next year.
Weekly water-quality reporting for 650+ beaches
The Beach Report Card offers a weekly refresh of A-to-F water-quality grades for over 650 beaches in California, Oregon, and Washington. We’ve simplified our search and detail pages for all beach locations, so you can easily find and bookmark your favorite beaches.
We are in early stages of developing our next round of features, so please give us feedback. We’re listening.
Help Us Monitor More Beaches
Okay, we hope you see the potential here for increased protections. We need your help to bring this innovative forecasting model to more beaches. Be a citizen investor!
Tell us which beaches you would love to see involved in NowCast (on the West Coast of the United States). And check out the FAQs on the Beach Report Card website for more details about how it works.
Meet the Beach Report Card Team
Ryan Searcy, Beach Water Quality Modeler @ Heal the Bay
Ryan is responsible for developing and running Heal the Bay’s NowCast program, an innovative platform that forecasts water quality at beaches daily. Hailing from Northern California, Ryan moved to sunny San Diego to earn both a B.S. in Environmental Engineering and a M.S. in Mechanical Engineering at UCSD. After the work day is done, Ryan can be found surfing waves or sipping a homebrew.
Karen Vu, Beach Water Quality Analyst @ Heal the Bay
Karen is responsible for collecting and analyzing microbial beach water quality data for Heal the Bay’s Beach Report Card program. After a long stint as an intern at Heal the Bay and the Santa Monica Pier Aquarium, she is currently pursuing a master’s degree in Environmental Management at USF. When she’s not sifting through data, you can find Karen diving in the local MPAs.
Sign Up for Our New App!
We expect to launch our new Beach Report Card app powered with NowCast this summer on Android and iOS devices. When we're live, we will send you an email so you can have the first look. We promise not to spam you.
Images of the Beach Report Card website on this page are for illustration only.
