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Hooksiel in Lower Saxony: Two DLRG lifeguards guard the North Sea beach
Photo: Hauke-Christian Dittrich / dpa
Because there are not enough lifeguards available, the German Life Saving Society (DLRG) is currently unable to monitor all of the usually guarded sections of beach on the German North Sea and Baltic Sea.
Only around 50 percent of the required volunteers are available, said the spokesman for the DLRG Federal Association, Martin Holzhause, on Friday.
Because of the corona pandemic, a complete year of trained lifeguards is missing.
The training is now up and running again.
Some DLRG swimmers would also drop out because they were catching up on study content or long-distance travel.
The coasts of Lower Saxony, Schleswig-Holstein and Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania were similarly affected by the lack of volunteers, it said.
The "Kieler Nachrichten" had previously reported that there were not enough lifeguards on some Baltic Sea beaches.
The situation is expected to ease significantly with the start of the holidays.
Then all the watchtowers on the beaches would be occupied again, said Holzhause.
Until then, guarded zones would be set up, often in the area of the main beaches.
"No beach should be completely unsupervised." Areas without lifeguards would be marked with flags.
After the high season, the situation could deteriorate again from September.
In contrast to bathing lakes or rivers, the beaches on the coasts are not guarded by permanent DLRG stations, but by voluntary DLRG lifeguards.
Philipp Postulka from DLRG Bremen explained that these are often pupils and students who are tied to vacation times.
"Many combine it with their annual leave." That's why there are no problems with missing lifeguards on lakes and rivers.
wit/dpa