Coastal Blog
December 2011
December 23 2011
Surfrider Foundation Briefs the Appellate Court for Marine Life Protection
Know Your H20 Desalination Legal
On December 28, 2011, Surfrider Foundation filed an appellate brief articulating our opposition to the San Diego Regional Water Quality Control Board’s approval of the Carlsbad Desalination Plant without proper analyses of the appropriate site, design, and technology that would minimize harm to coastal resources. Additionally, the project approval allowed…
December 21 2011
Rincón Chapter Marine Debris Removal & Education Program
Ocean Ecosystems Marine Protected Areas
With funding provided by NOAA, the Surfrider Foundation Rincón chapter is working on their third marine debris removal and prevention project along the west coast of Puerto Rico. Check out this video update on the project.
December 20 2011
Flotsam Clusters - Nothing New
Check out this rad artwork! I'm usually hesitant to glorify trash and marine debris but I love this work from Lowell Nickel and wanted to pass it along. Plastic trash and litter is easily ignored by most people but these works highlight how durable and everlasting it can be. Next…
December 19 2011
What does a 3% increase in violent crimes have to do with a plastic bag ban?
Nothing, it's just a scare tactic. In advance of the Seattle City Council vote on a plastic bag ban for the city that passed 9-0(!), a major plastic bag manufacturer started running an opposition ad in Seattle newspapers that could be described as scare tactics. Why else would they include…
December 19 2011
Santa Monica, CA: Ocean Park Boulevard Green Street Project
Know Your H20 Low Impact Development
The Ocean Park community and City of Santa Monica celebrate the groundbreaking of the Ocean Park Boulevard Green Street Project. A community member expresses perfectly the long term vision that the KYH2O program is trying to grow in coastal communities.
December 19 2011
Corona del Mar High School
The Newport Beach Chapter’s Teach and Test Program reaches 800 students from seven area high schools every year. At Corona del Mar High School, science teacher Kim Rapp, has worked BWTF water testing into her curriculum for her eleventh and twelfth grade AP Environmental Science classes.
December 16 2011
Making LA City Hall Lawn Ocean Friendly: Occupations for Occupiers
LA Times writer, Emily Green, has written a blog post today about re-doing the landscape at LA City Hall supports both the Ocean Friendly Gardens principles of CPR - Conservation, Permeability and Retention - and hands-on trainning components through building demonstration gardens.
December 16 2011
From King Tides to Sea Level Rise
Coastal Preservation Shoreline Armoring
“King tides” are extreme high tide events that tend to be more dramatic in the winter when storms cause increased wind and wave activity along the coast. These high water events allow us to visualize now how flooding from rising sea levels will impact our beaches, coastal areas and shoreline…
December 16 2011
Waste To Waves / Foam to Surfboard Recycling!
Waste to Waves™ is an exciting new recycling program developed by nonprofit organization Sustainable Surf, that’s designed to turn waste materials into new, eco-friendlier surfing products. Partners for the initial launch campaign include Reef, SPY Optic, Marko Foam, Surfrider Foundation and Waste Management. Waste to Waves lets you “Turn Your…
December 15 2011
How To Trim The Plastic When Grocery Shopping
Day Without A Bag is today and the focus is to avoid carryout bags in favor of remembering your reusable bags. It’s the easiest way to Rise Above Plastics at the grocery store, but just the tip of the plastic iceberg. Here are some other tips to help trim the…
December 13 2011
Stocking Stuffer Alert - Reusable Glass Straws!
Our friends at Simply Straws recently sent along a special batch of reusable glass straws etched with the Surfrider logo! Conventional plastic straws can be a dangerous single-use plastic item because it's really hard to recycle them and it seems they are often littered. Once littered they often start the…
December 13 2011
If You’re Not at the Table You’re On the Menu
Why are some wave energy projects moving forward while others stall? In this short film by Robin Yeager, participants in the Reedsport, Oregon OPT Wave Energy Project discuss the benefits of collaboration in advancing the first commercial-scale project in the United States. A must see for anyone interested in the…
December 13 2011
More Congressional attacks on clean water & the environment
Our representatives in Congress continue to try to tack dirty water amendments onto the appropriations bills that need to pass in order to keep our government running in 2012. Final negotiations are underway now. Let's hope Surfrider and the rest of the clean water community have made our voices heard…
December 12 2011
Celebrate Day Without A Bag THIS THURSDAY!
A Day Without a Bag is an educational grassroots event started by Heal the Bay in Los Angeles and hosted by Surfrider Foundation Chapters along with local community groups throughout the country. Held the third Thursday in December, we ask holiday shoppers and retailers to forgo single-use, plastic shopping bags…
December 11 2011
Chad Nelsen presents the US Surf Economics Report
Surf Protection Surf Economics
Check out a video of Chad Nelsen presenting the results of the Surfrider / Surf-First US Surf Economics report at the 2011 Global Wave Conference in San Sebastian, Spain. This is the first national report on the recreational, demographic and economic characteristics of surfers.
December 09 2011
Know Your H2O Principles in Statement to Congress
Water expert Dr. Peter Gleick testified before Congress recently and presented nine targeted recommendations for fundamental change in federal water policy. Several of these recommendations, in particular numbers 1, 2 and 6, are consistent with the themes of our Know Your H2O program as expressed in our Cycle of Insanity…
December 08 2011
Hawaii Print PSA’s
HUGE Mahalos to Kevin Whitton (Ed./Publisher) and Kyle Tanaka (Art Dir.) for sponsoring Surfrider HI's Rise Above Plastic ads in Green Magazine! Thanks to the Surfrider Foundation Oahu Chapter 'RAP' Comm., Sheila, Rob, Leilei, Robert, Lora L., Pasha P., Tia-Brooke F., Stuart C. and all those who helped design and…
December 08 2011
Legislation to Help Restore Sharp Park Passes San Francisco Board of Supervisors
Surfrider Foundation's San Francisco Chapter is taking strides to protect coastal Sharp Park from the current mismanagement that includes reinforcement of a destructive sea wall and continued harm to endangered species. The Chapter received a positive vote from the San Francisco Board of Supervisors this week to transfer the park…
December 08 2011
San Diego State opens Center for Surf Research
Surf Protection Surf Economics
Surfers often pave the way for larger scale tourism industries and too often create a legacy of soiled destinations, disheartened and distressed communities, and missed opportunities to replace poverty with sustainable livelihoods. The new Center for Surf Research at SDSU hopes to help change that.
December 07 2011
Rise Above Foam
What lightweight single-use plastic is typically used for under ten minutes and can easily break into many pieces if littered? If you guessed expanded polystyrene foam, you are correct! These small pieces of foam run the risk of harming wildlife that mistake it for food. Even if someone has the…
