Shacks Beach

Managed by Surfrider Foundation - Rincon Chapter

Located on the north shore of Puerto Rico, Playa Shacks Beach features over eight miles of undeveloped coastline. Shacks Beach is popular among surfers for its great waves, and is great for kiteboarding, windsurfing, and swimming. Not far off the coast you can find the Blue Hole coral reef, a beautiful place for snorkeling.

Get directions to this beach

COVID-19

Keep your distance from other people.

Practicing social distancing is essential right now. Follow the advice of the health experts. If your community has asked that you remain indoors and away from others, do so. Heading to the beach should only be considered an option if social distancing practices can be followed. Spending a day in any crowded place is the worst thing we can do for our most vulnerable right now and will counter the efforts to curb the virus’ spread.

For more information, please visit the World Health Organization public resource on COVID-19.

Water Quality

Passed water quality tests at least 95% of the time
Historical Status
This status is based on the latest sample, taken on February 19th, 2020. Surfrider Foundation - Rincon Chapter updates the status of this beach as soon as test results become available. These results were posted to Swim Guide on February 21st, 2020 at 3:18 AM.

For water quality icon legend, click:

Report Pollution

Monitoring Frequency

Source Information

Surfrider Foundation’s Blue Water Task force is a volunteer-run, citizen science initiative and water quality monitoring program. The Rincon Blue Water Task Force tests both marine and freshwater sites for enterococcus, a coliform bacteria that indicates fecal pollution. Testing is conducted on a weekly basis year-round. After the island was devastated by Hurricane Maria in the Fall of 2017, there was a complete lack of any government-run water quality monitoring. Operating out of a primary lab in Rincon and secondary lab at the Ramey School in Aguadilla, the Rincon Chapter has banded together with local groups and organizations to restart their water testing program. All Blue Water Task Force results are posted to the Blue Water Task Force website, posted to community boards, broadcasted on radio stations, and shared on Facebook.

Blue Water Task Force results are compared to water quality criteria established by the EPA to protect public health in recreational waters. Test results are expressed as the Most Probable Number (MPN) of enterococcus cfu (colony forming units) per 100 mL seawater by using the IDEXX Quanti-Tray/2000 MPN Table.

When a site is marked Green, it indicates low bacteria (between 0 and 104 MPN/100 mL). When marked Red, results showed high bacteria (above 104 MPN/100 mL).

All data can be viewed at go.surfrider.org/BWTF. Any additional questions about Rincon’s Blue Water Task Force program or our results can also be addressed to Steve Tamar, stevetamar@gmail.com.

Water Quality Graph