Drakes Island Beach

Drakes Island Beach, located just north of the entrance to Wells Harbor, is a great place to spend the day. Visitors to the beach enjoy a variety of recreational water activities including swimming, fishing, and wave sports. It's also a nice place to just relax and sunbathe on the sand. There is paid parking near the beach and restrooms nearby. Lifeguards are on duty from 9am-5pm. During the summer, dogs are only permitted on the beach after 6pm (with the exception of service animals).

The water quality at this beach is monitored by Wells Beach Manager, Daniel Moore
Fire Chief
Tel. 646-7912
Email: dmoore@wellstown.org

Get directions to this beach

COVID-19

Keep your distance from other people.

Practicing social distancing is still essential. Only go to the beach if you are able to keep 6 feet or 2 meters away from others. Follow the instructions provided by your local health authorities. If your community has asked that you remain indoors and away from others, do so. Spending a day in any crowded place is the worst thing we can do for our most vulnerable right now and will counter our efforts to curb the virus’s spread.

Water Quality

Passed water quality tests at least 95% of the time
Historical Status
This status is based on the latest sample, taken on August 30th, 2022. Swim Guide - Main updates the status of this beach as soon as test results become available. These results were posted to Swim Guide on September 20th, 2022 at 12:08 PM.

For water quality icon legend, click:

Report Pollution

Monitoring Frequency

Source Information

The Maine Healthy Beaches program is managed by the Maine Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) and coordinated by the University of Maine Cooperative Extension. Monitoring of coastal beaches is conducted by local staff and volunteers and the decision to post the beach is the responsibility of local municipalities and parks. See the beach description for more information including how to contact the local beach management entity.

Monitoring results and advisories are posted on the Maine Healthy Beaches website. http://www.mainecoastdata.org/public/CurrentBeachStatus.aspx
Advisory and closure notices are also posted at major beach access points and/or at lifeguard stands.

Most beaches in the program are tested weekly on either Monday, Tuesday, or Wednesday. However some beaches with a high risk of pollution are tested two to three times a week, and beaches with a low risk of pollution are sampled every two weeks. The monitoring season runs between Memorial Day and until the week after Labor Day. However monitoring can begin as early as April.

If a sample exceeds water quality standards it is retested and an advisory is issued. The Healthy Beaches Program also uses a Risk Assessment Matrix to determine the likelihood of pollution, local rainfall levels and other conditions when deciding whether or not to post a beach.

When it rains heavily, contaminants are transported to the shoreline from both riverine and stormwater discharges. Therefore, as a precaution many beaches post advisories after local rain events.

Swim Guide checks Maine's Healthy Beaches website Monday to Friday for updates.

A beach is marked Green when Enterococcus is below 104 units /100 ml of water.

A beach is marked Red when Enterococcus is above 104 units /100 ml of water.

A beach is marked Grey when there is no current or reliable data available.

Water Quality Graph