Buoyed swimming zone
0–150 m
Swimmers only. No motorised craft of any kind, except rescue and enforcement vessels on an active call.
Campaign proposal
Coastal zoning proposal
A workable near-shore layout: swimmers protected inside a buoyed zone, boats slowed in a no-wake band, jet skis kept out, and every approach made through one marked corridor with clear gate rules.
Every distance and rule on this page is a campaign proposal, not current Lebanese law. What is actually published is listed on the official zones page. See official zones
Plan view
The map view draws the proposal on real coastline at Raouché. Turn on Customize to move zones, buoy lines, passages, people and craft, and to write your own legend.
Check these shapes
Select an item on the map or in the list to edit its size, direction and channel width.
Plan items
- 24.25 ha
- 13.14 ha
- 952 m
- 481 m
- 33.89020, 35.47320
- 33.88940, 35.47310
- 33.89250, 35.47410
- 33.89310, 35.47530
- 33.89050, 35.46900
- 33.88690, 35.47000
Legend
- 5-knot no-wake band
- Buoyed swimming zone
- Buoy line
- Boat corridor (IN / OUT) — 40 m wide
- ◆ Port-hand gate mark
- ◆ Starboard gate mark
- 👥 Group of swimmers
- 🛟 Lifeguard post
- ⛴ Sightseeing boat
- 🛥 Jet ski
This plan is a campaign proposal drawn on a public basemap. It is not current Lebanese law, not a survey, and not a navigational chart. Distances and channel widths are drawn to scale on the ground but are unverified; the shoreline shown is an OpenStreetMap reference line, not a legal boundary. Edits stay in this browser, and when you are signed in you can also save them to your own plans — saving is private and publishes nothing.
Standards check on your plan
This reads the plan you drew above and compares it with published navigation standards and the campaign's own stated thresholds. It is advice, not approval.
What it checks against
Lateral marks — IALA Maritime Buoyage System (Region A)
Lebanon lies in IALA Region A: entering a channel from seaward, port-hand marks are red and starboard-hand marks are green. Every corridor gate in a plan must carry both.
IALA — Maritime Buoyage System (IALA-AISM)Safe speed and lookout — COLREGs Rules 5 and 6
The international collision regulations require a proper lookout at all times and a safe speed for the visibility, traffic and proximity of navigational hazards — which includes people in the water.
IMO — Convention on the International Regulations for Preventing Collisions at Sea (COLREG)Comparative practice — 300 m shore band at 5 knots (France)
French coastal rules cap all craft at 5 knots inside the 300 m shore band. The campaign uses the same figure as a reference point for Lebanon; it is comparative practice, not Lebanese law.
Légifrance — Code des transports, navigation dans la bande littorale des 300 mètresLebanese baseline — Decree 4810/1966
The shore and the sea up to the highest winter wave line are public maritime domain. Public access and swimming are the baseline right any corridor must protect.
Decree 4810/1966 — Lebanese public maritime domain
Send us your own zoning idea
Turn on Customize above, drag the zones, buoy lines and corridors where you think they belong, add or remove items, then send the result to the campaign team. A person reads every submission; nothing is published automatically and nothing becomes law.
Zones and rules
No-wake transit band
150–300 m
Maximum 5 knots, no wake, continuous lookout. Overtaking and turning manoeuvres are not permitted inside the band.
Jet-ski exclusion line
0–200 m
Personal watercraft stay outside 200 m at all times and enter only through a marked corridor at bare steerage.
Marked boat corridor
IN / OUT
One two-way corridor per landing point, marked red to port and green to starboard on entry, crossing the buoy line only at the gate.
Gate rules
Gate
Bare steerage through the gate, swimmers always have right of way, engines idle or off while embarking, and no gate transit after dark unless it is lit.
Supporting standards
Tourist & sightseeing boat speed standard (campaign proposal)
Tourist, sightseeing and excursion boats work closest to swimmers, rocks and bathing areas. We propose a dedicated standard for them.
- Within the proposed 300 m coastal safety band: maximum 5 knots and no wake.
- Within a designated sightseeing/swimmer interaction zone such as Raouché / Pigeon Rocks: a stricter 3-knot, bare-steerage, no-wake limit where operationally feasible.
- Sightseeing routes marked and kept separate from swimmer zones; boats approach only through clearly marked corridors.
- No acceleration, planing, sharp turns or wake-producing manoeuvres inside marked swimmer/sightseeing interaction zones.
These numerical limits are proposals for adoption, modelled on comparable Mediterranean practice. They are not currently Lebanese law.
Propulsion-neutral scope: waterjet and jet-drive craft included
Every rule the campaign proposes applies to a powered craft because it is powered and near swimmers — not because of the kind of drive it uses.
- Waterjet / jet-drive boats, including craft with no exposed propeller, remain subject to swimmer-separation, speed, no-wake, lookout, corridor and incident-reporting rules.
- The safety concern is not only exposed-propeller injury: collision with the hull, intake and jet hazards, wake, and the inability to stop quickly can also injure a swimmer.
- This is not a statement that waterjet propulsion is inherently unsafe. It simply is not exempt.
Sailing and non-powered craft stay outside the powered-craft rules unless they are running under engine power at the time.
Forward Visibility & Lookout Standard (campaign proposal)
Grounded in the international proper look-out and safe speed principles (COLREG Rules 5 and 6), applied to all powered boats of any size — motorboats small or large, RIBs, runabouts, outboard-powered craft, sightseeing boats, waterjet / jet-drive boats and jet skis alike. A centre-console or forward-console helm with an unobstructed forward view is the preferred safety configuration.
- The operator must have a continuously unobstructed view of the vessel's path ahead.
- Preferred configuration: a centre-console or forward-console helm, which generally gives the operator the clearest direct view of the water ahead.
- Risk category: an aft / rear helm position, high bow rise, passenger, canopy or cargo obstruction, spray, or any vessel geometry or trim that creates a material forward blind sector.
- Whenever a material forward blind sector exists, the boat slows to bare-steerage / no-wake speed AND uses a dedicated additional lookout positioned where the path ahead can be observed continuously.
- No boat proceeds at planing or high speed when the operator cannot directly see the water ahead.
- Commercial sightseeing and tourist craft operating near swimmers should have the helm positioned forward or centrally with a clear view of the water ahead. If an aft / rear helm is used, or any forward blind sector remains, a dedicated trained forward lookout and reduced speed are required while underway.
- A bow-facing camera and monitor may be considered as supplemental equipment for commercial boats with persistent blind sectors — electronic aids do not replace the human lookout requirement.
Centre-console and forward-console layouts are treated here as the safer configuration, not as a hazard. What the rule targets is an actual forward blind sector — from an aft helm, bow rise, obstruction or trim — regardless of boat type, and it applies to motorboats of any size and to waterjet / jet-drive craft. The preferred helm position is a campaign safety proposal and best-practice requirement, not an existing Lebanese technical regulation.
Small Sightseeing Craft: Capacity & Lifejacket Standard (campaign proposal)
Applies to small tourist, sightseeing and excursion craft operating in near-shore swimmer interaction areas, launch/access corridors and exposed coastal water. Safe capacity depends on each vessel's certification and design — the campaign does not propose one universal passenger number.
- Never carry more persons than the vessel's certified, licensed or manufacturer-rated capacity, whichever limit governs that vessel.
- The maximum permitted passenger count is visibly posted on the vessel and known to the operator before departure.
- The operator performs and records or confirms a passenger headcount before leaving, and does not accept additional passengers beyond the approved limit.
- No overcrowding, unsafe standing or loading, or passenger placement that materially obstructs helm visibility, emergency movement or safe weight distribution.
- Passengers have seating or secure positions appropriate to the vessel's design.
- Commercial and tourist operators maintain a manifest or headcount record appropriate to trip size and to local licensing requirements where applicable.
- Properly fitted lifejackets/PFDs are WORN — not merely carried — by every passenger and crew member while underway on small or open tourist, sightseeing and excursion craft in near-shore swimmer interaction zones, launch/access corridors or exposed coastal waters.
- Each lifejacket is the correct size and fit for the person wearing it, and children wear correctly sized child PFDs at all times while aboard or underway in these craft.
- Before departure the operator demonstrates or briefs correct fastening and confirms that every passenger is wearing a lifejacket before getting underway.
- Enough serviceable, approved PFDs for the vessel's full certified capacity are carried. Damaged, inaccessible or unsuitable PFDs do not satisfy this proposal.
CAMPAIGN PROPOSAL / مقترح حملة. These capacity and lifejacket-wearing standards are campaign safety proposals unless a specific Lebanese rule is separately sourced and verified. They do not claim to state existing Lebanese statutory requirements, and no numeric universal passenger limit is proposed because safe capacity depends on vessel certification and design.
Take it further
Where to send this proposal
Published contact details for the bodies that can act on near-shore zoning. Each line carries the source we took it from. In an emergency call 112, 125 or 140 first.
Directorate General of Land and Maritime Transport (DGLMT)
Regulator for vessel registration, licensing and navigation duties in Lebanese waters — the addressee for any near-shore zoning decision.
Ministry of Public Works and Transport — official contacts listMaritime Transport Division — DGLMT
Division handling maritime transport files inside the directorate.
Ministry of Public Works and Transport — official contacts listJoint Rescue Coordination Centre (JRCC) Beirut — Beirut Naval Base
Coordinates search and rescue in Lebanon's search-and-rescue region; inaugurated at Beirut Naval Base in October 2025.
Lebanese Army — inauguration of the JRCC at Beirut Naval BaseLebanese Navy — coastguard duty line
The Lebanese Navy is responsible for search and rescue in Lebanese waters.
Search and Rescue Contacts — Lebanon (IMO SAR contact directory mirror)
Proposed coastal zoning plan
Download the campaign's Raouché plan as data you can open in a GIS, attach to a submission, or hand to an authority. It is a proposal, not law.
- Legal basis: Decree 4810/1966 — the shore and the sea to the highest winter wave line are public maritime domain; public access and swimming are the baseline right.
- No published Lebanese text fixes a per-beach swimmer-protection distance. Every distance drawn here is a campaign proposal to the DGLMT, not existing law.
- Depth contours are not drawn: no public bathymetric survey covers this frontage. Import surveyed data before treating any line as a depth limit.