New Study Reveals Americans’ Worst Beach Habits
A new 2025 survey from Beach.com set out to monitor the habits of the millions of Americans who flock to the sand and sea on their downtime every year.
The survey showed that 93% of beachgoers claim “to practice good beach etiquette, yet almost everyone (92%) also admits to at least one bad beach habit.”
Travel + Leisure reported on the study which surveyed 1,000 people. Each participant was analyzed for how they think they behave at the beach and how they actually do.
According to the results, the “three most shameless beach behaviors” that Americans engage in are taking sand or shells, peeing in the water, and drinking alcohol.
70.1% of people admitted to peeing in the water, 48.6% said they consume alcohol, and 38.6% admit to taking shells home. It’s important to note that these percentages also represent what those surveyed were willing to admit, so the actual numbers could be higher.
Of all of these behaviors, taking away shells has actually been found to be the most detrimental.
According to a 2014 study, “tourists removing shells from popular beaches have led to habitat changes such as increased beach erosion, changes in calcium carbonate recycling, and declines in diversity and abundance of organisms, which are dependent on shell availability.”
“Molluscan shells are of prime importance to hermit crabs, and although sand beaches are not good places for such crabs, dead snail shells on mud-flats and rocky shores do form a primary resource for abundant hermit crabs,” said Geerat Vermeij, a mollusk expert and distinguished professor of geology, in response to the study.
“More subtly, many small organisms settle on dead shells, and so removing such shells will eliminate habitats for these colonists.”
The survey also pointed out other forms of bad beach etiquette that is common such as taking too long in the facilities, not cleaning up after their pets, playing their music too loud, feeding wild animals, and sitting too close to other beach guests.
The website also polled people on what behaviors annoy them the most when they go to the beach. The company also shared that there was a lot of hypocrisy among those surveyed, based on how common the answers were, it’s only logical that they all participated in some bad behavior themselves.
“Americans quietly admit to their bad beach etiquette, but they’re much more vocal about the bad etiquette of others. We also appear to be a bit hypocritical,” the company shared.
“Even though 93 percent of the country thinks they have good beach etiquette, 92 percent also admit to at least one bad beach behavior. Here is the hypocrisy—a whopping 70 percent also say poor etiquette negatively impacts their time at the beach.”
Eric Mastrota is a Contributing Editor at The National Digest based in New York. A graduate of SUNY New Paltz, he reports on world news, culture, and lifestyle. You can reach him at eric.mastrota@thenationaldigest.com.
