Campaigning
for Oceans, Waves and Beaches
Written
by SurfWriter Girls Sunny Magdaug and Patti Kishel
For the non-profit Surfrider
Foundation it's always campaign season with active campaigns underway to
get plastics, trash, urban runoff, oil spills, and other pollutants out of the
ocean and off the beaches.
Through its advocacy efforts it's
reduced the discharge of wastewater into the ocean by 633 million gallons per
day.
Surfrider's Blue Water Task Force
has run close to 6,000 water quality tests to measure pollutant levels and
educate the public about clean water issues.
Working with local and state
agencies, Surfrider is helping to plan for sea level rise and combat beach
erosion.
Surfrider is helping to protect sea
life, too, with 48 campaign victories to reduce the plastic pollution in the
ocean that is harming animals.
Through its Ocean Friendly
Restaurant program, 565 restaurants now serve 225,000 plastic-free meals a
day - without plastic utensils and straws or Styrofoam containers.
Surfrider is also campaigning
against offshore oil and gas drilling, which can damage the environment.
With 30,000 volunteers removing more
than 200,000 pounds of trash from our beaches each year, the vote is in.
Surfrider has a winning campaign
strategy.
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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.