Campaigners will hold a "non-paddle out" at a North Tyneside beach this weekend to highlight poor water quality there.
Surfers Against Sewage has organised the event for Sunday morning, when people will turn up at Cullercoats Bay in swimming, surfing, kayaking and paddling gear - but won't enter the water.
They plan to form a giant heart shape on the beach at around 10am.
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Andrew Riley, regional rep for Surfers Against Sewage, said Cullercoats was the only North Tyneside beach that does not achieve the water quality levels needed for a Blue Flag award.
Blue Flag status is given to sites that boast the best water quality, facilities, safety standards, environmental education and management.
Mr Riley said: "We have started a campaign to try and highlight the poor water quality at Cullercoats Bay.
"Tynemouth and Whitley Bay beaches have Blue Flag awards but Cullercoats has not had one for a number of years.
"Over the last couple of years we have seen how popular activities like swimming, kayaking and paddle boarding have become. And Cullercoats is a real centre for that. Yet the water in our view is not safe.
"On Sunday, we will be turning up in our gear but won't be going in the water."
North Tyneside Council and Northumbrian Water have said efforts are being made to improve the quality of water at the beach.
Phil Scott, head of environment, housing and leisure at the council, said: “The council is responsible for seafront management and we are extremely proud of our award-winning coastline and beaches, including the beach and facilities at Cullercoats.
“Since 2017, we have been working alongside Northumbrian Water and the Environment Agency, to investigate the reasons why the water quality has deteriorated at Cullercoats.
"A huge amount of work has been carried out on privately-owned sites and public spaces to try and remedy this problem and further improvements are being explored.
“Cullercoats remains a thriving and wonderful beach for locals and visitors to enjoy, with fantastic facilities in and around the beach area.
"We understand people’s concerns and we thank them for their patience, and we can assure them that we remain committed to doing all that we can to support this ongoing process until the water quality matches our aspirations, and our Blue Flag is restored.”
A spokesperson from Northumbrian Water added: "Since 2017, we have led significant investigations, alongside the Environment Agency and North Tyneside Council, into the reasons behind the water issues at Cullercoats.
"These have shown no evidence of our assets being a primary cause for the deterioration in bathing water quality. Contaminated groundwater is likely to be the cause of this.
“During this period, we have made improvements to our network and also to local authority assets and corrected some private home connection issues.
"We will continue to carry out ongoing sampling, and are looking at the potential for a diversion of water from a local authority culvert into our network to have a positive effect on the water quality.”
