With 2025 in the rearview mirror, we at Surfrider are focused on the year ahead and its opportunities and challenges for a healthy ocean and resilient coasts. While issues persist — plastic pollution, contaminated water at our beaches, coastal erosion — we know that new threats will emerge. They always do in this line of work.
So, we plan for what we can while leaving room to address the unexpected. Our nimble community-based model, with policy prowess and tremendous stewardship capacity, enables us to do this. Like always, in 2026 we will scale our efforts from the beach, where we clean, restore, and monitor, to councils, state capitals, and Congress, where we educate and advocate, always with a little sand between our toes.
In anticipation of another challenging yet impactful year, we are excited to share with you our priorities for 2026 and, of course, thank you for supporting this work. If you haven’t yet, please become a friend of the ocean today.
Drilling is Killing
We are in the midst of one of the biggest fights in Surfrider’s 42 years - saving our coasts against the most aggressive ocean sell-off in decades. The Trump administration’s proposed five-year offshore drilling plan offers up all of California’s federal waters, much of the Gulf, including previously protected areas near Florida, and enormous swaths of Alaska’s vibrant ocean. Nearly 1.3 billion acres of our ocean are at stake.
Over the next few months, we will be working hard to stop this plan. We are gathering tens of thousands of public comments in opposition to new offshore drilling and delivering these messages to the Department of the Interior. Meanwhile, we are mobilizing businesses, from surf and outdoor industry companies to Ocean Friendly Restaurants and Hotels, to stand up against the plan.
In April, the team will be meeting with agencies and Congress in Washington DC to deliver the message, on behalf of ocean and coastal voices from around the country, that we will not accept new drilling off our coasts. With your help, we will stop this dangerous plan. If you have not yet taken action, please do so today and make your voice heard.
Climate Action on our Coasts
As coastlines around the country grapple with accelerating erosion and increasing impacts from climate change, we will continue to grow our new Climate Action Program to restore coastal habitats as a first line of defense against rising seas and increasingly intense storms. In 2026, Surfrider looks to install 45,000 native plants, including mangroves, across 50 acres of coastline in California, Hawaii, Florida, Puerto Rico, and Southeast, Mid-Atlantic, Northeast, and Great Lakes states. Through this work, thousands of volunteers will activate on the ground to improve the resilience of our coasts.
While the Climate Action Program is still a new endeavor for us, for decades Surfrider has been working to restore the coastal landscape of Surfers’ Point in Ventura, California. What was a quickly eroding parking lot and bike path will soon be an entirely restored coastal dune habitat, adding decades of resilience to this iconic California shoreline. Phase two of this effort will be completed in early 2026, establishing a global gold standard for nature-based solutions on our coasts.
Meanwhile, we are shifting focus to San Onofre State Beach in north San Diego County, which for generations has been a cultural hub and widely-loved recreation space. In recent years, a rapidly eroding shoreline has exposed the vulnerabilities of San O’s resilience for the future. Applying the same principles that were successful in Ventura, in 2026, Surfrider is working with local users, tribes, governments, and experts to develop a long-term coastal adaptation strategy for San O while restoring its natural shoreline.
Surfrider will be removing thousands of pounds of invasive ice plant from San Onofre State Beach in 2026 in collaboration with California State Parks
Take it to the States
While proactive ocean and coastal protection opportunities at the federal level have been few in the past year, we are getting busy in state capitols across the country to continue to advance policies that protect our coasts. For 2026, we have multiple priority state-level coastal campaigns to reduce plastic pollution and improve coastal resilience.
In Florida, Surfrider is working on policy that will allow local governments to pass practical measures to reduce plastic pollution and marine debris. We are engaged in efforts to prohibit the sale and distribution of foam food containers in Illinois and strengthen Maine’s plastic bag ban. To reduce the amount of packaging waste and increase recycling and reuse in New York, Surfrider is helping to pass a strong extended producer responsibility bill. The policy would shift the financial burden of dealing with the disposal, recycling, and cleanup of these products from local government and taxpayers back onto the manufacturers that produce them.
We are also advocating in Maryland to reduce single-use bottle litter and in Texas to end the discharge of pre-production plastics into waterways.
In addition to these plastic pollution campaigns, Surfrider is working on state policies this year to help coastlines adapt to a changing climate. In Florida, we are trying to improve state processes and guidelines for nature-based solution projects to support coastal resiliency efforts. Another policy opportunity in the state will restore local governments' authority to engage in land use and development planning for more resilient coastal communities. We will also continue our multi-year Oregon Beaches Forever campaign to protect the state’s public beaches by advocating for climate adaptation management, encouraging nature-based solutions over armoring, and preventing bad coastal development.
In state capitols around the country Surfrider will be advocating for policies that reduce plastic pollution on our beaches.
Doubling Down on Surfrider’s Programs
Surfrider is unique in that we are the only leaders on policy for our ocean at local, state, and federal levels, while also mobilizers of a vast nationwide network as on-the-ground stewards of our coasts. Every weekend, Surfrider chapters and student clubs around the country are leading programs that clean our beaches of trash, restore shorelines, and keep us safe from polluted water.
In 2026, we are setting out to remove 200,000 pounds of trash from U.S. beaches through 1,000 cleanups with 30,000 volunteers. Like always, we will collect critical data through these cleanups to help inform policy solutions to plastic pollution. Meanwhile, we will continue to run 62 Blue Water Task Force labs that will sample and analyze water quality at 600 beaches and coastal waterways across the country. Like our cleanups, data collected through the program will guide solutions that address pollution issues at the source. Both of these programs fill critical gaps in government capacity for protecting our health and our coasts.
Surfrider’s Ocean Friendly Restaurants and Hotels will continue to help businesses transition from single-use plastics to cost-saving reusable materials in their daily operations. In 2026, our goal is to achieve 55 Ocean Friendly Hotels and 725 Ocean Friendly Restaurants in more than 30 states and territories. Together, these businesses will serve 50 million single-use plastic-free meals while keeping 2.6 million water bottles and four million mini toiletry bottles out of circulation annually.
Meanwhile, Surfrider’s will continue to expand on its nearly 27 acres of Ocean Friendly Gardens that currently filter 23.4 million gallons of runoff every year. Our goal for 2026 is to host 85 OFG activities and reach 75 Ocean Friendly Gardens registered on the map, achieving 30 million gallons of ocean-bound runoff filtered per year.
Along our coasts, every weekend Surfrider chapters will be removing trash from our beaches in 2026 to reduce plastic pollution and drive policies that turn off the tap on this needless waste.
Keep Fighting for Federal Ocean Programs
We are not giving up on the federal programs in place to protect our coasts and ocean, despite the challenges they face under the current administration. While funding, staffing, and programs at agencies like the EPA and NOAA have been the target of drastic cuts, Surfrider is continuing to champion the bedrock policies that support clean water at our beaches, protected habitats, and climate-resilient shorelines.
During our 10th Coastal Recreation Hill Day this April, Surfrider will mobilize more than 150 ocean advocates from 27 states and territories to meet with their representatives in Congress to share bipartisan support for coastal protections. All year, we will track threats and opportunities when it comes to federal programs and laws and our ocean, waves, and beaches, and be at the forefront of efforts to preserve the critical protections in place.
The coasts and ocean will be well represented in DC in 2026.
We have so much ahead of us this year, and we are thrilled to have you on this journey. We, of course, cannot do this work without you — so please help us protect our coasts and ocean. Join Surfrider and become a friend of the ocean today!