Less Salt in the sea

[SharkBaitOooHaha]

Discussing this with a friend today. I grew up in London 1980s and every summer holiday as a child we’d go to Leyesdown. I clearly remember the smell of the sea, it smelt strongly of salt. I have been to Hastings and Cambersands recently and that salty smell has gone, my friend (who hasn’t been to the beach) thinks I must be losing my sense of smell, maybe I am.. Why else would the smell have changed, anyone else noticed this?

"Actually studies show that the salinity of the sea has increased across the majority of places since the 80’s."

It depends where you are. In general, the sea surface has got saltier in the subtropics, and less salty near the equator, at the UK latitudes and also in the Southern Ocean. The Atlantic overall has probably become more salty.

Have you had Covid? That may well have altered your sense of smell permanently

This is what I was going to say. By the way,I absolutely LOVE Camber Sands,so many happy memories of the place.

It’s a beautiful beach, you should try and go over the summer.. I had a lovely day there recently.

I’ve always lived right by the sea and can smell it now just as strongly as I could when I was a child.

Don't know if it's related, but someone on the news said the seas around Europe are far warmer than they'd normally be this time of year – especially the Mediterranean. I think the seas generally are warmer. Would that affect salt levels? They also said Europe is heating twice as fast as every other continent. Apparently, Spain, Italy and Greece are especially vulnerable. God knows what the future will bring. The way this person was talking, parts of southern Italy and Spain could soon be uninhabitable in June and July.

Yes, this. It's revolting.

I love that salty, ozone, seaweed smell especially on stormy days.

Virgin Vie used to do a seasidy range that totally captured it.

Are you sure you smelt salt? When we were kids we lived inland, only went to the beach once a year..as we approached, we would wind down the windows to see who could smell it first...I was..ahem..a lot older than I should have been before I realised the smell was sewage! 🙈🤣

@Mayflyoff@Hobbes8 😆 snap..

Thanks for asking this, OP, and for all the responses. I've been wondering the exact same thing for a few years now!

I think it was more likely seaweed, the air near the sea is salty though.. You can taste it, well I used to anyway. Definitely not sewage, I’m thinking of a nice smell.

Yeah, I used to live near a sewage treatment plant and when the wind blew in a certain direction you could smell it... the "seaside smell" of my childhood was definitely not that! It was lovely.