Yorkshire Water and the Environment Agency have launched a joint investigation to determine the sources of poor-quality bathing water in the region.
It comes after people were advised against swimming in the sea in Bridlington last year after an Environment Agency sample deemed the water poor quality.
The study aims to identify and better understand the sources of pollution that are impacting water quality.
The Environment Agency said preliminary investigations have been able to identify some of the potential contributing sources of bacteria using microbial source tracking techniques. This has shown that the bathing water can be impacted by humans, seabirds and dogs at different times.
However, work to date has not been able to drill down into the level of detail required to fully understand causes of pollution.
To get a better understanding of the sources of pollution, samples will be taken at half hourly intervals from 8am to 6pm on specific days throughout the next month.
Samples will be taken at Bridlington South monitoring point, Bridlington Harbour and Bridlington North monitoring point and will be analysed initially for Ecoli and IE.
The Environment Agency’s technical bathing waters expert Claire Campbell said: “Whilst we will always strive for improvements, overall bathing water quality has improved significantly over the last decade – with a continuing upward trend – due to robust regulation and working with partners. In most places bathing water is now better than it has been for many years.
“We are, however, keen to find out the detail of what is causing our poorer results, so that action can be taken by the relevant people to improve our bathing waters.
“This project in Bridlington will help us identify the bacterial inputs and better understand the sources of pollution, so that collectively we can work together to improve water quality.”
She added: “Across Yorkshire we have seen a rise in the number of Excellent bathing waters – up by four in the last year, with 89% of bathing waters rated as Good or Excellent – in line with last year’s results.”
The poor rating for Bridlington South Beach led to events including an annual Boxing Day charity swim being cancelled last year.