It is a new year and with that come new challenges and opportunities for Surfrider and our efforts to protect the world’s ocean, waves, and beaches.
In 2024 we accomplished some great things, such as: the establishment of Chumash Heritage National Marine Sanctuary that protects 2.9 million acres of California’s marine ecosystems; a total of 57 policy victories including 13 local and state plastic pollution campaign wins; water quality testing at 622 coastal sites; more than 110,000 pounds of trash removed from U.S. beaches; and 47 events that restored coastal ecosystems including mangroves, dunes, and wetlands.
Yet, despite Surfrider's success in protecting our coasts in 2024, we know that there is much to be done.
While we are preparing for efforts by the Trump administration to roll back critical protections for our ocean, we recognize that the accelerating impacts of climate change on our coasts require immediate action. We understand that chronic erosion, aging wastewater infrastructure, plastic pollution, and bad coastal development will continue to challenge our ability to enjoy the ocean and all that it brings.
This is why in 2025 we are taking bold action to defend our healthy thriving coastlines and recuperate what’s been lost through policy, programs, and legal action - each leveraging our expansive and diverse grassroots network.
Here is a look at Surfrider’s priorities in 2025:
Coasts and Climate
With another “warmest on record” year behind us, which included climate change-fueled storms that ravaged the southeast and wave-battered shorelines in California, we must urgently address the impacts of climate change on our coasts. Surfrider recognizes that there is no time to waste and that is why we are accelerating our Coasts and Climate Initiative campaigns and projects in 2025.
Through Surfrider’s Climate Action Program, a first line of defense to protect our coasts against climate change, we will continue to restore carbon-storing mangroves in Puerto Rico, wetlands in California and Hawaii, and coastal dunes in the northeast, southeast, Great Lakes, and the mid-Atlantic. Our goal in 2025 is to restore more than 100 acres and install 30,000 native plants through 50 restoration events.
Meanwhile, we have launched a statewide campaign in Oregon, Oregon Beaches Forever, in partnership with Oregon Shores, to safeguard the state’s public beaches through improved shoreline management, using nature-based solutions instead of coastal armoring, and preventing bad coastal development. The Surfers’ Point Managed Retreat project in Ventura, California, a gold standard in coastal adaptation, will be completed in May, 2025, bringing to the world a much needed example of coastal infrastructure relocation and habitat restoration. We are working with partners across California and beyond to scale the success of Surfers’ Point, including at Southern California’s iconic San Onofre State Beach which has experienced significant erosion and access impacts in recent years.
Water Quality
Everyone should have access to clean water to surf, swim, and play in. This year, Surfrider will continue to ensure adequate water quality monitoring and advocate for solutions to sewage and runoff issues at beaches across the U.S. through policy campaigns and programs. Our Blue Water Task Program will continue to serve as the most robust volunteer-driven ocean water quality monitoring program in the country, with 62 labs collecting nearly 10,000 samples from 600 sites. Data collected through the program will help inform Surfrider policy campaigns to pass bills in Washington, Florida, and other states that will improve water quality monitoring and public awareness of pollution issues.
Additionally, we will advocate, as we have successfully for nearly 25 years, for a well funded EPA BEACH Act Program that directly supports testing at 3,500 beaches and coastal areas nationwide.
Meanwhile, the Tijuana River sewage crisis on the US - Mexico border continues to plague border communities, with more than 1,000 consecutive days of beach closures and counting. While significant funding for wastewater infrastructure was secured in 2024, Surfrider will continue to advocate for the full funding needed for a comprehensive infrastructure solution that improves wastewater collection and treatment in both countries. Part of this effort will be designating, once again, the Tijuana River as one of America’s most endangered rivers.
We will also continue to expand our Ocean Friendly Gardens Program to engage more homeowners, businesses, schools, and municipalities in climate-smart, ocean-conserving landscaping on their properties.
Ocean Protection
This year has already seen massive progress for the protection of our ocean against new offshore oil and gas extraction. In January, President Biden took historic action to permanently withdraw 625 million acres of federal waters in the Atlantic, Pacific, Gulf of Mexico, and parts of the Northern Bering Sea from future offshore oil drilling. While this is exciting news, we will be vigilant in 2025 and beyond against attempts to undo the ban. Meanwhile, we will work to ensure sufficient funding for EPA programs that support healthy coastlines and the National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration, including its National Marine Sanctuary Program.
Surfrider will be working with partners in Puerto Rico to establish a new community-based marine reserve in Bahia de Aguadilla, continuing the success of recent ocean protection efforts in the commonwealth with the creation of Vega Baja y Manati Marine Reserve in 2024. Surfrider and its grassroots network will continue to steward California’s marine protected area network, the largest integrated network of MPAs in the world, as well as Oregon’s marine reserves.
Plastic Pollution
In 2025, Surfrider will continue to lead the movement to stop plastic pollution from entering our ocean. We will work to pass at least ten local and state plastic pollution reduction bills including Skip the Stuff bills in Cape Cod, New Jersey, and Charlotte, Extended Producer Responsibility bills in New York and Washington, and stronger plastic bag bans in Maine and Oregon.
Surfrider’s Beach Cleanup Program will continue to engage tens of thousands of volunteers nationally to remove litter from our beaches and inform policy solutions to plastic pollution in our ocean. Our goal is to remove 200,000 pounds of trash through 1,000 cleanups with the help of 30,000 volunteers in 2025.
The Ocean Friendly Restaurants and Hotels Programs will continue to grow in 2025, reducing plastic waste in the dining and hospitality industries. Our goal is to enroll 20 new Ocean Friendly Hotels in 2025 and expand Ocean Friendly Restaurants to include 700 businesses. This effort will result in 46 million single-use plastic free meals served a year and over one million plastic water bottles and two million mini toiletry bottles a year kept out of circulation.
Beach Access
Lastly, Surfrider will continue to lead efforts that protect coastal access for the public. We are engaged in a campaign to preserve the long-standing Lighthouse Beach access trail in Coos Bay, Oregon, recognizing its unique nature of beach access and ocean opportunities.
In Texas, Surfrider will continue to protect the Texas Open Beaches Act through our Don’t Mess with Texas Beach Access campaign. Meanwhile, SpaceX proposes to close coastal access for 800 hours annually to Boca Chica State Beach in Texas to make way for the Starship Super Heavy Program. Surfrider is working with local and national partners to advocate for the appropriate level of environmental review and regulation to ensure that the ecological, cultural, and recreational resources at Boca Chica are protected.
Lastly, Surfrider will continue to monitor attempts to undermine California’s Coastal Act and access protection and shoreline management laws in other states.
2025 will be an exciting albeit challenging year for Surfrider.
While we anticipate and prepare for federal level threats to the ocean and coastal protections in place, we will double down on local and state policy efforts and our programs to make a meaningful impact on the ground. We will be working with our powerful activist network of more than 55,000 volunteers around the country on every step along the way but we cannot do this work without you.
If you have not yet supported Surfrider in 2025, please consider becoming a Friend of the Ocean today.