Sea dip goes ahead after pollution warning lifted

A bi-annual community sea dip event which celebrates the water has gone ahead despite a recent environmental spill.

The Big Dip community swim in Exmouth, Devon, takes place at the start and end of the bathing season. Organisers said it was "more important than ever" to celebrate the coastline after the sea was closed at the beach for 111 days in 2025 due to sewage pollution.

The Environment Agency had urged people to avoid bathing at the beach following a recent incident but that warning was lifted on Friday.

It later confirmed that it was linked to a chemical spill from a premises in Exmouth and was not sewage pollution.

The event was organised by the organisation Sideshore in collaboration with Sea Swim Devon and Exmouth Beach Rescue Club.

Organisers said the the aim was to encourage "the community to come together in a show of solidarity for the appreciation of our coastline".

Bernie Rhodes, events and projects manager at Sideshore, said the event took a "slightly different turn" and it had been wondered if it would take place following the recent incident.

She said it caused "community concern and community confusion" but "all we can do is trust the experts that the water is safe".

She said swimming at Exmouth has become "an admin exercise" as she had to check whether it is safe to swim there or not.

A total of 666 pollution incidents were recorded by South West Water across all its designated bathing sites in 2025.

Sideshore's community and innovations lead, Nicky Nicholls, said the event "was another brilliant example of the Exmouth community coming together".

She said the amount of time the beach was closed in 2025 was "not acceptable" and "has to change".

"This is our natural resource that we should be able to use," she said.

South West Water said improving water quality was a "huge priority" and confirmed both storm overflow spills and down spill duration were down over the past year.

The utility said: "We're already seeing progress, with storm overflow spills down 17% and spill duration down 25% over the past year, despite significantly higher rainfall across the region.

"We're also on track to meet new Environment Act bathing water standards by 2030, five years ahead of the national deadline, showing the impact of record investment across the South West."

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