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One of the recent changes to Facebook is the new limited newsfeed feature. You may have noticed that you are only seeing updates in your newsfeed from a few people, and that, whilst the same circle of people are commenting on your news, everyone else seems to be ignoring you. Well, the likelihood is that no one has actually blocked you. "New Facebook" has a newsfeed setting that, by default, is automatically set to only show people you've interacted with recently. Any other friends are now invisible to you and you to them.

TO FIX THIS:

Scroll down to the bottom of the Newsfeed on your HOME page and click on "Edit Options". In the popup, click on the dropdown menu next to 'Show posts from:' and select "All Of Your Friends and Pages" and then click Save.

By doing this, you will receive newsfeeds from all your friends and pages. This will ensure that you will receive important updates about protecting coastlines and the ocean worldwide from Save The Waves.

Save Sloat!!!

The original Strategic Relocation vision from the Ocean Beach Task Force 2002: Courtesy of Brad Evans and Bob Battalio of Phillips Williams and Associates.

Information courtesy of Bill McLaughlin of Surfrider San Francisco

As has been done throughout the world, the City of San Francisco has been developed right up to the edge of the coastline in Ocean Beach. The bluffs have been eroding slowly over time, but early in 2010, much of California was battered by a series of powerful winter storms. Coastal erosion was widespread. At Ocean Beach, the area south of Sloat Boulevard was hit particularly hard. Up to 30 feet of sandy bluff washed away exposing large amounts of concrete debris. The southbound lane of the Great Highway was undermined and fell off the cliff onto the beach.

On January 15th a declaration of emergency was issued by the SF Department of Public Works (SFDPW) to protect City infrastructure in area. In addition to the Great Highway, a wastewater tunnel that runs underneath that road was thought to be in danger of being unearthed. Acting under emergency powers, the agency began construction of a 440 foot long wall of boulders (or rock revetment) to halt the erosion and to protect the tunnel and what remained of the road. Surfrider Foundation San Francisco Chapter and Save the Waves Coalition joined forces to oppose the revetment and have argued the need for a more sustainable long-term plan.

So now, engineers under the SPUR Master Plan and key city officials are beginning to form alternative long term plans for Sloat Erosion. The next public workshop which will offer citizens an opportunity to weigh in on this issue will be June 4. Location TBA. In the meantime Surfrider San Francisco would like to begin a deeper discussion of our preferred plan: Strategic Relocation (also known as Managed Retreat). Below is a series of links in which Strategic Relocation was used to respond to coastal erosion events in California. These three examples involve public infrastructure that was being threatened by an encroaching high tide line, as well as the need to remove fill/rubble and add sand in its place. Note the 2 local projects. Successful examples of this strategy are found in our own backyard...

MAKING THE CASE FOR STRATEGIC RELOCATION (CLICK THE LINKS BELOW):

SURFER'S POINT - Ventura, Ca:
SURFER'S POINT (PWA PROJECT WEBSITE)
SURFER'S POINT (NOAA WEBSITE)
SURFER'S POINT (SURFRIDER WEBSITE)
SURFER'S POINT (VENTURA RIVER WEBSITE)

PACIFICA STATE BEACH (Lindamar) - Pacifica, Ca
PACIFICA STATE BEACH (PWA PROJECT WEBSITE)

CRISSY FIELD - San Francisco, Ca
CRISSY FIELD (PWA PROJECT WEBSITE)

+ LIFE IS A WAVE 2011 +

111 Minna Gallery - San Francisco - June 10, 2011

A Few Minutes Could Help Save Two Irish World-Class Breaks

Photo of Crab Island by Mickey Smith.

The fight continues to save Doolin Point and Crab Island. Despite the recent approval by the Clare County Council to build a pier that threatens the world-class waves of Crab Island and Doolin Point, the project now must acquire a foreshore license by the Department of the Environment, which is being applied for now. Please urge the Department of the Environment to rethink this project. Letters must arrive before the 21st of April, so don’t wait. Send you letter today! See guidelines below.



The Foreshore Unit,
Department of Environment, Heritage, and Local Government,
Newtown Road,
Wexford.
Ireland


Date: ____________

Re: Section 19 of the Foreshore Act, 1933. Clare Co. Co. application to Mr. Phil Hogan T.D., Minister for the Environment, Heritage & Local Government for permission to occupy an area of foreshore at Doolin, Co. Clare for the purpose of constructing an access road, pier structure and associated dredging works at Doolin Pier, Doolin, Co. Clare.
Ref: MS/51/11/234

Dear Sir/Madam,

The following points are of concern and we would ask each of you to choose some of these points and maybe add some additional issues of your own, elaborate upon them with a few sentences and submit to the above address by post to arrive before 21st April 2011. The following points are the opinion of the West Coast Surf Club in light of our assessment of the proposed development:

• The new pier structure has the potential to destroy a highly regarded surfing wave at Doolin Point and potentially have a significant impact on the surfing quality of the world renowned wave at Crab Island.
• The new pier structure will be located where surfers currently safely access the water. The new development will result in a significant danger to surfers as they will have to enter the water at either the shore side of the pier, crossing the ferry paths, or at the seaward side of the pier where the reef is extremely dangerous and this will be compounded with the backwash from the new pier.
• The proposed pier, as designed, will create significant currents in the water in and around the area where surfers paddle. This will create a serious health and safety hazard and surfers may be dragged onto rocks, the new revetment or into the paths of ferries.
• The proposed pier is of an extremely large scale which will be visible from many surrounding areas, in particular the renowned views of the point from the hills to the south.
• The pier will involve significant blasting and dredging of the seabed. The full impacts that these activities will have on the environment in and around the subject site have not been assessed appropriately. The works will have potentially disastrous repercussions for different aquatic species in the area including dolphins. A full Environmental Impact Statement should be prepared.
• The pier requires a new tarmac access road which will be constructed on the existing limestone pavement at Doolin Point.
• The development could have a significant impact on the amenity value of the Doolin area for surfers, sightseers, walkers, bird watchers, hikers, due to its size, and location.
• There is a need for a new pier. However, a design which will not have the above negative impacts can be provided and should be designed as an alternative to the current proposal.

The above points are to guide you in your submission. However, we would ask you to make your submission as personal and unique as possible. Please include your full address in the submission.



Follow this effort on the "How You Can Help Save Crab Island" Facebook page.

Contact the West Coast Surf Club at info@westcoastsurfclub.com for more information.

Will Peru Take the Final Steps to be a Global Leader in Surf Spot Protection?

Photo: Leonel Romero

Ten years ago the Peruvian Government passed Law 27280, the Law for the Preservation of Waves. This world’s first federal law that specifically protects surf spots actually includes an official registry of waves, listed by geographic coordinates, and these waves are protected from physical harm under this law.

However, this important law hasn’t gone into effect yet. For the law to be implemented, several ministries, federal agencies, and institutions must “approve” its language and enshrine it as the rule of the land. As a consequence, Peruvian waves are still facing constant threats.


Photo: Web ISA

Peru is blessed with a coastline of world-class breaks, some of the top surfers on the globe, a vibrant surf culture, and a fascinating surf history. Many Peruvians have recognized the importance of protecting the coastline to not only preserve Peru’s heritage, but also for the country’s economy. Peru has become a top surf destination, with national and international surfers chasing swell up and down the coast.



To keep the pressure on the Peruvian government to implement Law 27280, more than 100 surfers and body boarders recently paddled out at Playa Waikiki in Miraflores, Lima to ask authorities to implement Law 27280. Check it out:



FENTA, Sociedead Peruana de Derecho Ambiental, and Save The Waves will continue to urge the Peruvian government to protect its breaks by implementing this landmark legislation.

A Year after the Earthquake and Tsunami, the Battle for Clean Water Continues in Chile

The Chilean coastline stretches 2,700 miles, extending across 38 degrees of latitude. That’s comparable to the stretch of Pacific coastline from La Paz, Mexico to Northern British Colombia, Canada. It is a country with the wildest geography, a string bean of land with so many climate types, from some of the driest deserts, areas with a Mediterranean climate, humid subtropics like Easter Island, to cold mountainous regions and numerous islands in the south.


It’s a magnificent coastline that not only provides habitat for otters, dolphins, whales, and many other coastal and marine species, but also some of the best surf on the planet.

In February of 2010, Chile was hit with a magnitude 8.8 earthquake and ensuing tsunamis that devastated more than 400 miles along the coast and took the lives of many Chileans. Being uniquely positioned to assist with relief efforts following the disasters, last year Save The Waves, spearheaded by my predecessor Josh Berry, delivered supplies and equipment to the Chilean people and assisted with community projects to get people back on their feet. Among other supplies, the Save The Waves team delivered 1,000 water filters that allowed over 10,000 Chileans to have access to clean water immediately after the disaster.

Visiting the region, I completely understood why Save The Waves decided to undertake the relief project. With good-natured and hospitable people and a coastline like this, it was not an option to sit idle. The STW team felt obligated to support the people who have worked with us side by side for the past five years on conservation and water quality issues. The health of the coastal and marine habitat and wildlife also depends on the well-being and vitality of the Chilean coastal communities.


The epicenter of the earthquake was located just off the coast of Cobquecura in the Bíobío region (southwest of Santiago). Tsunami waves headed northeast and southeast of the epicenter, hitting Constitución, Pelluhue, and Curanipe hard in the north and Talcahuano, Dichato, and Concepción in the south. The destruction of the natural disaster is astounding. Countless times my partners would point out what was a structure and now is only dirt. They would say, “There used to be houses here, a restaurant there, or a theater was over there.” In Constitución, at the mouth of the Maule River communities built on the southwest banks were completely washed away.

One year later, many of the affected towns are still struggling to recuperate and return to some sense of normalcy of life before the earthquake. Communities are rebuilding, although some people are still living in camps that were meant to be temporary. Seeing the aftermath of the disaster still an everyday reality one year later, my thoughts turned to the current situation of the people of Japan who were hit by a worse fate just days before my trip to Chile.

While immediate needs understandably have taken priority following the earthquake and tsunami, water quality remains an issue for the coastline where industrial giants rule the land. In 2008, Save The Waves, having worked in the region for years, founded the Maule Itata Vigilante Costero (Coastkeeper), in partnership with the environmental legal nonprofit FIMA. The mission of the Maule Itata Coastkeeper is to monitor the quality of water along this region from the Maule River to the Itata River, along Chile south central coast. Rodrigo de la O works to monitor the coast, provide environmental education, and to build the local community’s capacity to serve as advocates on water quality issues. Charismatic, humble, and passionate, Rodrigo works with the local community to protect the Maule and Bíobío region’s coastal heritage.

In 2006, despite vehement opposition from Save The Waves and local groups like Salvemos Cobquecura, a new pulp mill plant owned by the company CELCO was constructed in the valley of the Itata River. The plant, the Nueva Aldea Forestry and Industrial Complex, is the largest plant of its kind in the county with the capacity to produce more than 800,000 tons of bleached pulp per year. Originally dumping waste directly into the Itata River, CELCO constructed a 50-kilometer pipeline, completed three years after the plant’s opening in 2009, to carry the plant’s effluent underground through the region’s agricultural lands and out into the ocean. This effluent carries the byproducts of pulp production, which includes the use of chlorine to bleach the pulp leaving highly toxic organochlorines like dioxins and furans. Standing at the mouth of the river near the last section of the duct, the earth trembles from pumps underground forcing the waste into the ocean. This waste is deposited into the ocean along a stretch of perfect left point breaks that dominate the region.

North of the Nueva Aldea plant, Constitución, once called the Pearl of Maule, is a town that has been living with the realities of pulp mill production since the late 1960’s. The pulp mill plant occupies prime coastline of the town and emits fumes that burn your eyes and nostril, reeking of toxic cabbage. A friend traveling with us, who is from Constitución, shows us the best place to get a birds eye view of the plant and points to an open space on the hill and says, “This is where we played as kids.” The consent amongst the townspeople is that air quality is now better following the installation of several air filters. Downwind of the plant, I couldn’t imagine what it was like before.

These plants transform pine and eucalyptus and into wood products and pulp to be later processed at paper plants. In the northwestern coastlines of the region BioBio and Maule, the forestry industry owns a great majority of the coastal and adjacent land where Pine and Eucalyptus, both exotic, highly invasive, quick-growing, and water consuming species. According to the World Wildlife Foundation, from 1985 to 1995, Chile lost nearly 2 million hectares of native forest, decimating local ecosystems and biodiversity.

Despite the forestry/pulp mill industry’s intent to turn the land into a profit machine, the coast is breathtaking with grasslands and forests with a rocky coast along perfect left point breaks stretching down every few kilometers. Pockets of wetlands and native Maule coastal forest habitat remain amidst the vast rows of tree farms.

The Mediterranean climate, comparable to that of California, allows small-scale farmers—nearly 1,000 along the valley of the Itata River—to produce grapes, corn, wheat, potatoes, berries and other crops in the fertile lands. Along the rocky coast, artisanal fishermen live of the sea by catching Merluza, Pejerrey, Jaibe, Reineta, Corvina, Congrio, Robalo, Lenguado, and other seafood.


In addition to pulp mill pollution, another threat is lurking in the shadows for this region. A coal-fired project called Los Robles is proposed for coastal land just north of the big wave spot Santos del Mar in the Maule Region. The project entails the construction of a 750-megawatt coal-burning facility and industrial port. Pulverized coal shipments from Australia would be unloaded there, damaging the ecosystem and polluting the ocean with ashes and toxic wastewater.

More than twenty proposals are approved or pending for the construction of similar coal-powered plants throughout Chile, many slated for the coast. Despite this overwhelming number of proposals, community organizing efforts have paid off in other regions like in Barrancones where controversial plans to build a thermoelectric plant near a protected area in the northern Chilean region of Coquimbo were cancelled. This victory illustrates the need to stay united and mobilized to protect the coast and ocean.

Up against powerful polluting industries and a pro-business government that bows to company interests, every day, local and international heroes are working for communities’ rights to clean water and air, as well as the right to a sustainable livelihood. Individuals from groups like the Maule Itata Coastkeeper, Salvemos Cobquera, Accion Ciudadana Pro-Defensa De La Costa Del Maule, Conservación Patagonica, Patagonia Sin Represas, Greenpeace, FIMA, Terram, and many others. In addition to these groups, many everyday residents (fishermen and landowners) have become leaders by drawing a line in the sand, sticking to principal, and refusing to accept bribes to overlook pollution created by powerful companies.

Save The Waves is continuing to work in the region to engage and support community members to participate as advocates to address water quality and coastal conservation issues. Like our colleagues at Maule Itata Coastkeeper say, our movement is about “Aguas Limpias, Communidades Fuertes (clean water, strong communities).” That about sums it up, although I might add “Olas Perfectas” (perfect waves) to the tag line for it to be ideal.

- Katie Westfall, Environmental & Program Director

Santa Cruz, California & Ericeira, Portugal Approved as World Surfing Reserves

World Surfing Reserves announced that two nominated surf zones – Santa Cruz in Northern California and Ericeira in Portugal – have been formally approved and will be dedicated as World Surfing Reserves (WSRs). The two iconic surf regions will join Malibu, California, which was dedicated as the first World Surfing Reserve in October 2010, and Manly Beach, Australia, which was approved in 2010 and is awaiting dedication sometime in 2011, as the first sites to receive the prestigious WSR designation.


Beautiful barrels at Natural Bridges, Santa Cruz.

The Santa Cruz zone, approximately 11 km (7 miles) of coast extending from Natural Bridges on the western end to Opal Cliffs just east of Pleasure Point, is made up of a dense collection of cold-water dream waves and is steeped in surfing tradition. The zone is best known for the iconic spots at Steamer Lane and Pleasure Point, both world-renowned righthand pointbreaks.

“I can’t think of a more deserving location than Santa Cruz,” said the city’s most notable icon, Jack O’Neill, who invented the surfing wetsuit so he and his friends could surf the frigid waters back in the ‘50s and ‘60s. “It’s got so many amazing surf spots, a wonderful surf community, and it’s just a beautiful stretch of coast. The World Surfing Reserve designation will be a great way to help preserve the area.”


The clean lines of Ericeira, Portugal.

The Ericeira area of Portugal is a surf mecca for Portuguese and international surfers alike. The approved Ericeira surf zone consists of 4 km (2.5 miles) of coastline that contains a highly concentrated group of quality surf breaks, several of them world-class, including the popular Ribeira d’Ilhas and other world-renowned breaks.

“Ericeira is such a diverse surfing coastline, it has something for everyone,” said WCT professional surfer Tiago Pires, who grew up surfing there. “There are big waves, small waves, expert waves, and beginner waves. I love this area, and I’m glad to see it get the recognition it deserves, as well as a tool to help better protect it.”

World Surfing Reserves seeks to designate and protect the most important and cherished surf areas around the world, in partnership with local surf communities. WSR sites are nominated and selected based on four major criteria: quality and consistency of waves, importance to surf culture and history, environmental characteristics, and community support. So far over a hundred sites have been submitted for consideration for WSR status from 34 different countries.

Ten-time World Surfing Champion Kelly Slater, who lent his support to the World Surfing Reserves movement last year, also expressed his strong backing for Santa Cruz and Ericeira. “Any time we have a chance to officially preserve a beach or specific surf break, I'm all for it,” he said. “World Surfing Reserves is setting the bar high and far-reaching by covering the globe with the next group of beaches to be protected. I look forward to the dedications and future protection those beaches – as well as many others – will see.”

Beyond its cultural and aesthetic significance, each WSR is a meeting of land and sea selected for the unique and salutary nature of its waves and natural setting. The dedication of each WSR seeks the protection of this coastal zone of waves and habitat from inappropriate development, through international and local partnership that builds community around conservation, to improve and dictate stewardship of the area.

About World Surfing Reserves
World Surfing Reserves (WSR) proactively identifies, designates, and preserves outstanding waves, surf zones and their surrounding environments, around the world. WSR is an initiative launched by Save The Waves Coalition in 2009 in conjunction with National Surfing Reserves - Australia, and through additional partnerships with the International Surfing Association (ISA) and Stanford University’s Center for Responsible Travel (CREST).

For more information: www.worldsurfingreserves.org