Summertime … and that means sunshine, swimming, and beautiful beaches.

Did you know that the City of Cape Town boasts 10 Blue Flag beaches? These are Silwerstroomstrand, Clifton 4th, Camps Bay, Llandudno, Muizenberg, Strandfontein, Mnandi, Bikini Beach, Melkbosstrand and Fish Hoek beach.

Blue Flag is an international annual award given to beaches that meet international standards of excellence.

In South Africa, the Blue Flag programme is managed by the Wildlife and Environment Society of South Africa (WESSA) in partnership with participating coastal municipalities.

The strict criteria of the programme are set by the international coordinators of the Blue Flag campaign in Europe, the FEE (Foundation for Environmental Education).

Fifty-eight Blue Flags will be proudly flown at coastal sites around South Africa over the forthcoming 2016/17 season, which opened on 1 November.

The Blue Flag is awarded to beaches that comply with the Blue Flag criteria and there are four main areas:

• water quality
• environmental education and information
• environmental management
• safety and services 

If you’re planning on spending time on the sand this summer, don’t forget the hat and sunblock, do a five-minute cleanup, be safe in the water, and remember to download the great new SharkSpotters app.

Launched in October this year, the Shark Spotters app provides the most up-to-date shark safety information, live from their operating beaches, including which shark flag is flying and why (e.g. poor spotting conditions due to cloud cover), the latest shark sightings at that beach, water temperature and lunar phase, and whether the shark exclusion barrier at Fish Hoek has been deployed or not.

Be safe out there and above all, have fun! Take nothing but photographs, leave nothing but footprints.