{"id":790426,"date":"2026-07-09T11:49:10","date_gmt":"2026-07-09T11:49:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/790426\/"},"modified":"2026-07-09T11:49:10","modified_gmt":"2026-07-09T11:49:10","slug":"dont-stand-in-deadly-ocean-in-st-vincents-n-l-whale-watchers-warned","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/790426\/","title":{"rendered":"Don’t stand in ‘deadly’ ocean in St. Vincent’s, N.L., whale-watchers warned"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Text<\/p>\n

Listen to this article<\/p>\n

Estimated 2 minutes<\/p>\n

The audio version of this article is generated by AI-based technology. Mispronunciations can occur. We are working with our partners to continually review and improve the results.<\/p>\n

When her toddler runs toward the waves, Roshell Rausch sprints after him, pulling him back. <\/p>\n

On the beach of St. Vincent’s, N.L. \u2014 where her family is scouring for humpback whales \u2014 she doesn’t take any chances.<\/p>\n

“Those waves can be deadly,” Rausch said. <\/p>\n

But not everyone is so cautious. Some St. Vincent’s residents are fearful of potential deaths, saying people are ignoring warnings and stepping in the dangerous waters.<\/p>\n

Tourists flock to St. Vincent’s beach in the summer, where humpbacks can swim metres from the shore<\/a>. But the ocean has strong riptides and a steep, sudden drop-off into the deep, says Mayor Verna Hayward. <\/p>\n

If you get washed out, she says, “chances are you’re not coming out of it.”<\/p>\n

\"VernaVerna Hayward is the mayor of St. Vincent’s-St. Stephen’s-Peter’s River. (Laura Howells\/CBC)<\/p>\n

The town has put up warning signs, but not everyone listens. <\/p>\n

“It’s very dangerous. It’s not a place to tease the waves,” said Hayward. While the whales aren’t bountiful right now, she says, more whales will bring more people.<\/p>\n

“We don’t want to have a tragedy.”<\/p>\n

Local resident Orla Moylan Hegarty says she’s often seen people getting too close to the water, and children roaming “freely” in the ocean.<\/p>\n

She’s been trying to warn people in her community Facebook group.<\/p>\n

“The riptides, the currents, they could be really strong and they could knock anybody down and just kind of suck them out without warning,” said Moylan Hegarty. <\/p>\n

St. Vincent’s beach draws many tourists, hoping to spot a humpback whale up-close. (Submitted by Ron O’Toole)<\/p>\n

Ontario tourist Yumna El -Merhevy was sitting safely on the beach, but says she didn’t realize the risks of standing in the water.<\/p>\n

“That is not something I knew,” she said.<\/p>\n

“I wouldn’t have thought like the tide would be able to just take you by just standing.”<\/p>\n

As she watches her son, Rausch worries about people ignoring warning signs across the island.<\/p>\n

“The ocean’s incredibly dangerous, and I think that it’s easy to forget that when you get sucked in the beauty of it,” she said. <\/p>\n

\"RoshellRoshell Rausch pulls her son back, after he ran toward the ocean at St. Vincent’s beach. (Danny Arsenault\/CBC)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Listen to this article Estimated 2 minutes The audio version of this article is generated by AI-based technology.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":790427,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[49,48,44],"class_list":["post-790426","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-canada","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/790426","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=790426"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/790426\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/790427"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=790426"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=790426"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=790426"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}