Keep a distance of more than a kilometre from these animals and your SUP
Stand-up paddle boarding is the perfect sport to keep others at a distance. But moving away from people means invading the habitat of animals. A new leaflet has been published to raise awareness of this.
When summer arrives, we’re all drawn to the lakes. Spending days and weeks in your own four walls makes this longing even stronger. There’s enough space to get out of each other’s way on the water. With this in mind, stand-up paddling is a perfect Corona sport. As many people will be heading to the shores in the coming months, you might be tempted to leave the official bathing spots and paddle your board through the bushes to seek out remote corners of the lake. This is a nice adventure for stand-up paddle boarders, but not for the wildlife. To point this out, the Swiss Ornithological Institute in Sempach, Pro Natura, Swiss Canoe and other partners have published a joint leaflet (available in German).
The key points
- Use official water entry and exit points or accesses at picnic areas.
- Avoid reed belts, gravel islands and estuaries of rivers. They are resting and breeding places for animals.
- Nature reserves are usually marked with yellow buoys or signs and may not be entered. Protected habitats are listed in the federal Geoportal.
- You can obtain information about local regulations from the cantonal hunting authorities, nature conservation office or lake police.
So far, so good. Goes without saying. But when you’re gliding almost silently over the water surface on the board, you feel in harmony with nature and quickly underestimate how disturbing your behaviour might be. What surprised me are the distances from which water bird sense stand-up paddlers as a threat. They might be frightened and rush off even if you’re over a kilometre away. In 2018, an empirical master thesis came to the conclusion that the animals feel more disturbed by stand-up paddle boarders than by rowers or sailors, for instance.
More often than with the other water sports that were investigated, water birds showed escape behaviour from distances of over 500 m from stand-up paddle boards. Moreover, the maximum effect and escape distances observed were higher for SUP boarders than for any of the other water sports that were assessed. In some cases, birds escaped at a distance of 1.5 km from a single stand-up paddle boarder. Birds that were disturbed by SUP boards, flew longer distances than average before landing again. In some cases, escape flights of several kilometres were documented.
The current leaflet also points out that the silhouette of paddlers is particularly threatening to water birds. Therefore, you should stay well clear of these animals and their retreat areas. On the one hand, the nice thing about stand-up paddling is that you don't need a lot of equipment, you can paddle in shallow water and get to almost any place. On the other hand, outdoor enthusiasts also have a duty to show respect for animals. And this may start earlier than we might have thought.
Simple writer and dad of two who likes to be on the move, wading through everyday family life. Juggling several balls, I'll occasionally drop one. It could be a ball, or a remark. Or both.