The germ is MRSA, or methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus — a hard-to-treat bug once rarely seen outside of hospitals but that increasingly is spreading in ordinary community settings such as schools, locker rooms and gyms.

The germ causes nasty skin infections as well as pneumonia and other life-threatening problems. It spreads mostly through human contact. Little is known about environmental sources that also may harbor the germ.

Finding it at the beach suggests one place that people may be picking it up, said Marilyn Roberts, a microbiologist at the University of Washington in Seattle.

"We don't know the risk" for any individual going to a beach, she said. "But the fact that we found these organisms suggests that the level is much higher than we had thought."

She presented results Saturday at an American Society for Microbiology conference in California. Last year, her team reported finding a different type of bacteria, enterococci, at five West Coast beaches. And earlier this year, University of Miami researchers reported finding staph bacteria in four out of 10 ocean water samples collected by hundreds of bathers at a South Florida beach.

Many communities also commonly restrict bathing at beaches because of contamination with fecal bacteria.

In the new study, researchers tested 10 beaches in Washington along the West Coast and in Puget Sound from February to September 2008. Staph bacteria were found at nine of them, including five with MRSA. The strains resembled the highly resistant ones usually seen in hospitals, rather than the milder strains acquired in community settings, Roberts said.

No staph was found in samples from two beaches in southern California.

People should not avoid beaches or be afraid to enjoy them, scientists say.

"It's probably prudent to shower when you come out" to lower the risk of bacteria staying on the skin, said Dr. Lance Peterson, a microbiologist at NorthShore University Health System in Evanston, Ill.

"Make sure you get all the sand off," and cover any open cuts or scrapes before playing in the sand, Roberts added. Digging in the sand or being buried in it seems to raise the risk of infection, she said.

On the Net: Microbiology meeting: http://www.icaac.org/

Kiama Municipal Council wants to separate long-established surf schools at Seven Mile Beach, Gerroa, from recreational users who flock to the mouth of the Crooked River on the South Coast.

There is more than 11 kilometres of beach stretching south, of which 1.8 kilometres is controlled by the council - but access is far more convenient at the river mouth.

The proliferation of surf-school activities has been so disruptive that Kiama council has been forced to act, displaying a draft zoning plan for the beach. It will discuss the issue at its meeting on February 16.

Surf schools and boot camps are commercial operations and councils are required to balance business use of the beach with that of other beachgoers.

The director of planning for Byron Shire Council, Ray Darney, said licences clearly indicated which areas of the beach could be used for commercial activity, and it was necessary to separate the groups using the beach for safety reasons.

But the managing director of Surf Camp surf school, Paul Vella, said that at Seven Mile Beach not enough people were using the surf for it to be an issue.

''On 90 per cent of the days there is nobody there. You could fire a cannon down the beach and not hit anyone. We are looking for 150 metres of beach or [we are] happy to have three zones of 50 metres.

''We have been operating at Seven Mile Beach since 2003 on licence from the Department of Lands. We have a lot more friends than we have enemies. Normally we have 30 to 35 people in the water. But over seven years we have operated here we have brought some 20,000 tourists to the district.''

Ron Williamson, a member of the Gerroa Community Service Association and representative of the longboard riders' club Malnutrition, said the issue was the concentration of the surf schools in the most popular area. ''There is access to other areas of the beach further to the south through a number of tracks. If tourists have come 20,000 kilometres to go to these surf schools, they can do another few hundred metres.''

Anthony Butcher, a proprietor of the Land's Edge Surf School, the other big surf school using the beach, said: ''There are a lot of interested parties down there. One issue might be access to the beach. Another might be location of the surf schools. There are a lot of people who care about the beach, and there are a lot of different concerns.

''I guess council is trying to work out the best way of managing a shared space. We have been there for 11 years and have a very good relationship with the council. We will just have to wait and see how it turns out.''

Blake Johnston, manager of the Cronulla Surf Academy, said surf schools were meticulous about not affecting other users on crowded beaches.

''We have been here seven years and we are training every school day through the summer period. We have a local plan that takes into account the other beach users.''

Craig Watchholz, general manager of Let's Go Surfing at Bondi Beach, agreed.

''We have been here 15 years and there are lots and lots of other users. There are two surf lifesaving clubs, swimming clubs, surf skiers, ocean swimmers. We are privileged to be operating in a public space. We have imposed limitations on our members to address those sorts of things.''