The sea gives no second chance: the Baltic's preventable summer toll

Every summer, Poland's rescue services brace for their busiest weeks on the water. The figures behind the Baltic's drowning season are sobering – yet, as the people who run the call-outs stress, almost none of these deaths were inevitable.

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29 june 2026   |   07:15   |   Source: Gazeta Morska   |   Prepared by: Kamil Kusier   |   Print

fot. Morska Służba Poszukiwania i Ratownictwa SAR

The Baltic rarely looks dangerous. From the beach, on a hot afternoon, it can seem like the safest place under the sun: a flat surface, warm sand, children in the shallows. But it is open sea, with its own rules – and each season it tests how seriously holidaymakers take them.

- The sea gives no second chance for recklessness, says Sebastian Kluska, director of Poland's Maritime Search and Rescue Service (Morska Służba Poszukiwania i Ratownictwa, SAR). - Most of our interventions are not caused by sudden failures or extreme weather, but by simple mistakes: ignoring warnings, overestimating one's own abilities, or disregarding the conditions. Common sense is the most effective piece of safety equipment.

That sentence captures the central, uncomfortable fact of the season: the overwhelming majority of water tragedies are not bad luck. They are the result of a handful of avoidable errors.

What the numbers show

Polish drowning data tells a story that does not always match the headlines.

• In 2025, 292 people drowned in Polish waters, down from 444 the year before, according to figures from the National Police (KGP). The long-term trend is downward – in the 1990s the country recorded more than a thousand drownings a year – but the toll still runs into the hundreds.
• The danger peaks in summer. According to the Government Centre for Security (RCB), 122 of 2025's drownings occurred during the holiday season, when the most people – and the most opportunities for error – are on the water.
• Most victims are not reckless teenagers but adults, frequently men over 50. Around nine in ten are male. The common thread is overconfidence.
• Most drownings happen where no one is watching – away from guarded beaches, at sites with no lifeguard on duty.
• Alcohol is a factor in roughly one in five cases – less often than commonly assumed, but the single risk factor that is easiest to remove.

The Baltic adds its own, particular traps on top of all this: cold water, rip currents and offshore winds that can catch out even a strong swimmer – including the one who is sure he "can make it back." Because one thing links almost all of these cases: they could have been prevented.

Why the Baltic catches even strong swimmers

Rip currents. These are among the most common causes of drowning on open, surf-exposed beaches. They form between sandbars, where water that has piled up at the shore funnels back out to sea in a narrow, fast channel. A rip can carry even a capable swimmer offshore faster than they realise.

- A rip current does not, in itself, pull a person underwater, Sebastian Kluska explains. - The trouble begins when someone tries at all costs to swim straight back to shore. After a few dozen seconds of fighting the current, the body runs out of strength, and that is when the tragedy starts. Staying calm and swimming parallel to the beach is often the only correct response.

A rip is often visible from the beach: a strip of water that looks different – darker, or oddly calmer – cutting through the line of breaking waves; a gap where the waves do not seem to break; or foam and debris drifting steadily out to sea.

Cold water. Even in midsummer, the Baltic can be startlingly cold – especially after upwelling.

- In summer we often see upwelling, says meteorologist Mariusz Jasłowski. - An offshore wind pushes the warmer surface water away from the shore, and much colder water rises from the depths to replace it. The temperature can drop by several degrees in a single day, which is why it is always worth checking not just the air temperature but the current water temperature as well.

A sudden plunge from hot skin into cold water risks an involuntary gasp – sometimes underwater – along with cramp, collapse and, in extreme cases, cardiac arrest. Rescuers use a simple rule of thumb, "1-10-1": roughly one minute to bring your breathing under control after the initial cold shock, around ten minutes of useful muscle movement in which to self-rescue, and about an hour before the cold takes consciousness. In cold water, a panicked breath is more dangerous than the chill itself.

Offshore wind and inflatables. A wind blowing from the land out to sea is the beach's quiet danger.

- The most treacherous wind for beachgoers is an offshore one, Jasłowski warns. - On the beach it often feels pleasant and light, but it very quickly carries airbeds, SUP boards and inflatable toys out to open water. These are exactly the conditions in which many rescues take place.

The same wind drives a large share of summer call-outs involving SUP, kitesurfing and windsurfing. Inflatable toys are not flotation equipment and have no place on open water and a child on an inflatable ring in an offshore wind is one of the scenes rescuers dread most.

Overconfidence. "I'll just swim out to that buoy" – and suddenly the shore is far, the swell is high and the arms are heavy. This is why the drowning statistics are dominated not by teenagers but by adults sure of their own ability. Fitness built in a pool is not the same as open, cold, moving sea.

Drowning rarely looks like drowning

One of the most important things rescuers teach is that real drowning is almost silent and nearly invisible to bystanders. A drowning person usually cannot call for help – all their effort goes into catching a breath. They cannot wave – their arms instinctively press down on the water to lever their mouth above the surface. The body stays vertical, the head tilts back, the mouth sits at the waterline. The whole struggle often lasts only seconds before the person slips under. Which is why someone who appears to be "behaving oddly" near the shore, or "just playing" in the water, may in fact be drowning.

What the rescue services urge

For the Polish Baltic, three emergency numbers matter – and the rescue community repeats the same message every year. In an emergency:

• 985 – the seaside emergency number, connected to the SAR maritime rescue system.
• 601 100 100 – the water-rescue number operated by WOPR (the Volunteer Water Rescue Service), available nationwide, around the clock.
• 112 – the universal emergency number, which always works if you cannot remember the others.

Beyond that, the core principles are familiar: swim only at guarded beaches, within sight of a lifeguard; respect the flags (white means bathing is allowed, red means it is forbidden); never enter the water after drinking; never leave children unattended, even for a moment; enter cold water gradually; do not swim alone or far from shore; keep inflatables off the water in an offshore wind; and check the wind and forecast before going in.

- Before going into the water, it is worth spending a minute checking the forecast, Jasłowski says. - Wind direction and strength often matter more for safety than temperature or cloud cover. That one minute can prevent a very dangerous situation.

If you see someone in trouble, the rule is to help without becoming the second casualty: raise the alarm and call for help; throw something that floats – a ring, a board, even an empty bottle – from the shore or a safe distance; and enter the water only if you are able and have a flotation aid. A panicking casualty will pull a rescuer under; composure saves more lives than bravado.

The best rescue is the one no one has to launch

Behind every call-out are people who go out – at night, in storms, into freezing water – for strangers. And, perhaps surprisingly, what they want most is for their help never to be needed.

- Every rescue is a race against time, says Kluska. - We would like as many of our call-outs as possible to end with our help turning out to be unnecessary – because someone made a sensible decision beforehand. The best rescue is the one we never have to launch.

The Baltic is beautiful. The goal – for the rescue services and everyone else – is to keep it that way: a memory of a good holiday, and nothing more.

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bezpieczeństwo nad wodą wakacje nad morzem morska służba poszukiwania i ratownictwa sebastian kluska mariusz jasłowski meteorolog

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