Surfrider Foundation - 500 Victories!

Saving Oceans, Waves and Beaches!

Written by SurfWriter Girls Sunny Magdaug and Patti Kishel

The Surfrider Foundation is riding a wave of success with its 500th victory in its quest to protect the world's oceans, waves and beaches against negative environmental impacts, including pollution, offshore drilling, destruction of natural habitat, and more.

Pete Stauffer, Surfrider's Environmental Director, says,"Since Surfrider was founded on August 22, 1984, we have been known for our special breed of grassroots activism. Our chapters and members work tirelessly to defend our coasts from looming threats like seawalls, oil drilling, and loss of public access."

In Surfrider's latest victory, Washington state adopted a marine spatial plan for its Pacific coast that brings state and federal agencies and tribal governments together to coordinate how the state's marine environment will be utilized and protected. It took people working as a team to bring this about, including a decade of advocacy from Surfrider and other ocean stakeholders.

On the opposite side of the country, Surfrider has achieved numerous victories to protect the Atlantic Ocean from offshore oil drilling - helping to get 120 local government resolutions passed.

And, in a 2016 victory that's close to surfers' hearts, Surfrider organized forces to save the iconic SoCal surf spot Trestles from a six-lane toll road that was scheduled to run through it.

Other victories include stopping a luxury home development in Hawaii that was going to impact Honolua Bay.

Obtaining public beach access in Maine.

Spearheading California's successful Ban the Bag Act to limit single-use plastic bags that pollute our oceans and waterways.

 

To celebrate these victories...and more in the making, Surfrider revised its logo to emphasize "the wave of impact" that it is having on protecting our waves and coasts.

SurfWriter Girls Sunny Magdaug and Patti Kishel are excited about Surfrider's success and proud to be part of this grassroots movement. With more than 160 chapters and student clubs nationwide and chapters around the globe, the Surfrider Foundation is proving that volunteer-advocacy is a powerful force for good.

As Surfrider's CEO Dr. Chad Nelsen says, "protecting the environment needs more than science and government – it needs people!" 

SurfWriter Girls

Surf’n Beach Scene Magazine

Please post your comment below. Comments will appear the next day.

“Like Us on Facebook!”

Sunny Magdaug and Patti Kishel hold the exclusive rights to this copyrighted material. Publications wishing to reprint it may contact them at surfwriter.girls@gmail.com Individuals and non-profit groups are welcome to post it on social media sites as long as credit is given. 

Coastal Cleanup Day 2018

A World Event Now!

Written by SurfWriter Girls Sunny Magdaug and Patti Kishel

Volunteers around the world turned out for this year's International Coastal Cleanup Day, September 15th. What started out in California in 1985 as a day to clean the coast has not only spread inland, but to other states and more than 100 countries with 6 million people participating.

With environmental groups, including the Ocean Conservancy, Surfrider Foundation, Oceana, Heal the Bay, and Orange County Coastkeeper, leading the charge, volunteers turned out to pick up trash and educate their local communities about the need to protect our oceans and beaches.

In Huntington Beach, CA (Surf City USA) Surfrider Foundation members were up early setting up booths and getting ready to turn the beach into a pristine blanket of sand.

No easy task, this involved collecting everything from cigarette butts, plastic bags and straws to bottle caps, cup lids, food wrappers, and an array of other trash items.

SoCal artist Katie Peck, a graduate of Orange County's Chapman University, knows firsthand all the flotsam and jetsam that ends up on the beach.

For the past two Coastal Cleanup Days she has turned beach trash into art, creating a Wave in 2017 that was made out of assorted plastics.

And a Seagull in 2018 made from 1,500 cigarette butts. Both artworks were showcased in Huntington Beach to build public awareness of the pollution problem that plagues the world's beaches.

Meanwhile, as the sun moved from time zone to time zone, volunteers in the UK, France, Germany, Bulgaria, Croatia, Italy, Cyprus and Montenegro collected trash. And Africa, Australia, Vietnam and the Philippines, too.

Even volunteers from Carnival Cruise Line were on board.

Record numbers of volunteers turned out in Great Britain cleaning over 300 locations from North of Scotland to the Channel Islands. In France over 1.2 tons of plastic trash were collected.

The beach gives so much to us - soft sands, balmy days, perfect waves. Like the tree in Shel Silverstein's children's book, The Giving Tree, it would give us everything, until nothing was left.

But, on one day in September, surfers and non-surfers alike had another thought in mind –  

to give back to the beach!

 

  

SurfWriter Girls

Surf’n Beach Scene Magazine

Please post your comment below. Comments will appear the next day.

“Like Us on Facebook!”

Sunny Magdaug and Patti Kishel hold the exclusive rights to this copyrighted material. Publications wishing to reprint it may contact them at surfwriter.girls@gmail.com Individuals and non-profit groups are welcome to post it on social media sites as long as credit is given.