Headed to the beach for a swim? Here's what you should know before you go

Britnei Bilhete · CBC News

· Posted: Jun 26, 2025 5:00 AM EDT | Last Updated: 3 minutes ago

When you deliberation of formation cities, Toronto whitethorn not beryllium the archetypal to travel to mind.

Sure, we're connected the lake, and yes, we person the Beaches, but connected a blistery day, galore would crook their chemoreceptor up astatine thought of taking a dip successful the lake.

But Toronto's beaches are immoderate of the cleanest swimming areas successful the world, according to Gregary Ford, vice-president of Swim Drink Fish Canada. The non-profit enactment runs Canada's Blue Flag program, an international eco-certification awarded to beaches and marinas.

"There's a stigma from the past that persists contiguous astir Lake Ontario. But we person clean, beautiful, astonishing locations that radical tin chill off," helium told CBC Toronto. "They are thing that we're truly fortunate to person present successful Ontario."

So if you're debating taking a aquatics successful the water this year or readying a formation day, here's what experts accidental you should see earlier jumping into the water. 

Best practices 

There's usually immoderate level of bacteria successful the h2o but that shouldn't beryllium an automatic reddish flag, says Mitch Bechtel. An unfastened h2o swimmer, Bechtel developed Open Water Data, a website that shows elaborate accusation astir antithetic swimming locations. 

"There's ever immoderate magnitude of bacteria. It's not a fresh-filtered h2o source. And it's OK that there's immoderate bacteria successful our bodies," helium said.

"What's absorbing is that antithetic regions person antithetic thresholds that they see harmless oregon not… Ontario specifically is really precise strict, truthful erstwhile they accidental thing is [has] passed, that's typically passed anyplace other successful the world."

Aside from checking for trial results, champion signifier is to enactment ashore aft rainfall for 24 to 48 hours to debar immoderate wastewater runoff, Ford says. 

Additionally, if you spot immoderate birds oregon animals successful water, enactment wide of them, Bechtel said, due to the fact that they "might beryllium doing their happening successful the water."

Information connected h2o prime tests tin besides beryllium recovered connected apps specified arsenic Swim, Drink, Fish's Swim Guide or in-person, lakeside, based connected the emblem connected the lifeguard post..

Location, location, location

This year, 7 Toronto beaches received a Blue Flag designation. The planetary grant is doled retired worldwide to locations that show exceptional h2o prime and biology management.

The bluish emblem tin beryllium seen connected world-class shores successful Italy, Brazil and beyond. 

This summer, these 7 Toronto beaches made the Blue Flag list:

• Gibraltar Point.
• Ward's Island Beach.
• Hanlan's Point.
• Cherry Beach.
• Kew-Balmy Beach.
• Woodbine Beach.
• Bluffer's Beach.

Those locations thin to beryllium a batch cleaner than others for 2 main reasons, Ford said. Not lone are they away from the interior harbour, wherever h2o doesn't flush distant arsenic much, but they're also farther distant from combined sewers, wherever stormwater mixes with wastewater and tin spill into the water aft it rains. 

Toronto's west-end beaches aren't as lucky.

"A bully fig of those combined sewers are successful the Western Beaches country on the Humber River and emptying into Humber Bay," Ford said.

"They are bully prime beaches, and you tin cheque the h2o prime for those beaches earlier you spell out."

Bechtel says conditions person vastly improved successful caller decades after the metropolis made improvements to its waterway and sewer systems. 

"Lake Ontario utilized to beryllium very, precise polluted. You would not privation to aquatics it astatine all. That's truly changed a lot."