Mission Statement: SEA is a non-profit group dedicated to protecting the coastline for surfers and all others who cherish the beach. SEA is willing to take on the hard issues, to tackle corporate polluters, to guarantee access to our coast and to support other activists who share these ideals.
SEA
P.O. Box 3578
Santa Cruz, CA 95063
Phone/fax: 831-425-7327
E-mail: mthomas@got.net
Formed: 1994
Membership Cost: All contributions are voluntary.
Chapters: California, New Jersey and New York (Baja forthcoming)
Executive Director: Mark Thomas
From the Beach: 100% of total revenue from membership and contributions
To the Beach: 100% of total expenses used for programs and issues. (Executive Director Mark Thomas receives a small stipend for his work.)
Roots | Past Victories | Present Battles
Roots
A diligent and tireless group dedicated to preserving coastal access and cleanliness, SEA has proven that David can kick Goliath's ass when sufficiently motivated and organized. With a small squadron of pro-bono lawyers, the group has already done wonders for the California coast. Most notably, it's forced UNOCAL to take full responsibility for its mindless destruction of the Guadalupe Nipomo Dunes area in San Luis Obispo. Grass roots to the core, SEA is militantly anti-bureaucratic and prides itself on making decisions democratically and in the ultimate best interest of the coast.
Back in 1991, an ambitious young lawyer named Mark Massara was instrumental in presenting the Surfrider Foundation's protracted but ultimately victorious campaign against the Louisiana-Pacific and Simpson Paper pulp mills in Humboldt. The companies were eventually forced to pay $5.8 million in fines, implement secondary treatment, remove chlorine from bleaching process and build beach showers, campground and an environmental conference center. However landmark that win, the magnitude and duration of the case, coupled with certain fiscal factors that arose in its wake, it strained inter-Surfrider relations well beyond the snapping point. Massara, among others, began to feel that Surfrider had lost sight of and compromised founder Glen Hening's original grassroots vision.
Among the disgruntled were Steve Merrill, Ward Smith and Greg Cummings -- members of Surfriders' board of directors. Smith and Cummings were there from the inception with Surfrider founder Glen Hening. Surfrider's deservingly heralded Blue Water Task Force was Smith's baby -- a baby that's since grown into the foundation's flagship program. In the personal and legal fallout that followed the Humboldt case (Massara eventually sued Surfrider for moneys owed as its counsel in the proceedings). These three, along with Massara, agreed that the coastal well-being of surfers nation and worldwide would be better served by a more proactive, less bureaucratic entity.
With that in mind, they splintered off from Surfrider and formed SEA in 1994. At the time, the highly publicized and somewhat acrimonious split appeared to fracture the burgeoning surf-related environmental cause, but the two, if not completely reconciled, have nonetheless since found ways to work together.
"It's difficult to discuss," says current SEA Executive Director Mark Thomas. "One of our tenets is to honor and respect members of our tribe and we consider Surfrider members of our tribe. We'd prefer to focus on the positives of what our organizations can do rather than the dirty laundry from the past."
Taking what rights and (from their perspective) wrongs they'd seen in Surfrider, SEA scripted a basic series of operating principles designed to battle injustice and coastal ruin while still maintaining a good sense of humor and never forgetting to hit it when the wind goes offshore:
1. Surf first
2. Preserve the integrity, stability and beauty of the biotic community. Oppose those things which don't.
3. Keep the organization and its message simple
4. Be fiscally responsible
5. Make decisions by consensus
6. Support the ethical use of natural resources and oppose unsustainable consumption
7. Keep a sense of humor. *Surf often!
8. Trust and respect the tribe
9. Surf last
In addition, it was agreed that SEA would not be a membership-based organization. Whereas other groups operate on the notion that mass membership equals power, SEA's theory was more that those individuals willing to give at will of their time and funds, not specifically for a social function or for fear of missing any renewal deadline, are inherently more deeply dedicated to the cause. The many lawyers, who, thus far, have offered their services to SEA pro-bono, would seem to prove they're right. Though something of a membership plan has been enacted in the past year, the group is by and large more of a network than a formal assembly. When called to arms, however, as with the UNOCAL suit(s) or other issues both local and national, the some 1,000 strong "supporters" quickly unify for battle.
With chapters in California, New York, New Jersey and soon coming under the leadership of now Baja resident Steve Merrill, Mexico, SEA has chalked up a healthy sum of significant legal battles. None, however, are as significant as its five-year combat with oil giant UNOCAL.
The story begins in 1992 when daring UNOCAL employees revealed the companies' continued practice of burying crude and carcinogenic sludge in the sandy-duned coastline near its Guadalupe oil field. The dunes were subsequently pumped full of kerosene to dilute said sludge, which, predictably, leaked and found its way onto the beach. In 1994, following a suit by the San Luis County's District Attorney Office, SEA filed notice on behalf of a group of surfers sickened by surfing in nearby waters and for violations of the Public Trust and Coastal Zone Management Act.
Soon after, the surfers settled with the firm (donating their money back to SEA for legal costs), but then State Attorney General Dan Lungren stepped in, halting their suit for one of his own that, again predictably, sought a smaller, "more reasonable" settlement. Undaunted, Massara and his legal team filed against UNOCAL in federal court in early 1998, the pressure from which eventually forced the oil company into $43.8 million settlement for clean up.
Unsatisfied with the terms of the cleanup, SEA then took its case before the Coastal Commission. It sought ratification of the settlement -- chiefly that an independent monitor oversee the operations, those operations move more swiftly than agreed upon and that detailed restoration plans be drafted. Later still, in December 1998, SEA individually targeted Lungren in yet another suit, this one claiming he "violated the public trust by failing to aggressively prosecute UNOCAL Corp for its huge oil leak at the Guadalupe oil field." Though later dropped at the merciful end of Lungren's term, the suit set important legal precedence that negligent individuals or politicians, not just faceless cooperations, could be faulted and targeted. Moreover, new state Attorney General Bill Lockyer yielded to SEA's major demand that all records of UNOCAL's gross misconduct be made public.
"[Beating UNOCAL] is by far the best thing any surfer group has done to protect our coast," says a rightfully proud Thomas. "We exposed a toxic spill larger than that from the Exxon Valdez. We did not let it get buried or go away or die easily. UNOCAL was going to settle for $15 million, and by the time we were through with them, that number had jumped by almost $30 million. Thirty million more dollars for coastal betterment.
"We set a precedent," Thomas continues. "We stopped Big Oil on the coast. We were the first environmental group to do that. Not only was it great for that site and that beach, but it sent a message that it can be done, Big Oil can be defeated."
Past Victories
(1994-1999) Defeated UNOCAL in landmark environmental action
Working against not only the oil giants but state Attorney General Dan Lungren as well, SEA convinced the Coastal Commission to ratify UNOCAL's $43.8 million cleanup project for the Nipomo Dunes Complex where the company illicitly "stashed" 40-million gallons of crude and carcinogenic sludge from a nearby oil field. These amendments to the settlement will ensure near total restoration of a once pristine coastline. SEA also forced UNOCAL into a generous settlement on behalf of numerous surfers sickened while surfing near the oil field.
(1998) Set a legal precedent for holding an individual politician accountable for environmental neglect
SEA's suit against (thankfully) former State Attorney General Lungren was the first of its kind in America -- the first time any organization had targeted a public official for environmental crimes against the state whose best interest he purports to represent. Legal ramifications are that perhaps individual big wigs from tobacco or gun makers can be sued for actions that lead to mass harm or fiscal hardship.
(1996) Put a halt to the "swim with sharks" eco-tourism business trend off Ano Nuevo
When local dive entrepreneurs began chumming off this popular surfing beach then lowering shark cages packed with high-paying clients into the water (dives that reportedly ran in the $10,000 neighborhood), SEA realized the immediate danger to surfers, kayakers, etc. Persistent lobbying of the Department of Fish and Game, headed by current Santa Cruz Mayor Keith Sugar, led to an eventual stoppage of the practice.
(1988) Drew significant public attention to the Mitsubishi's planned salt plant at Laguna San Ignacio, Baja Sur
SEA members were among the first to draw Bay Area activists into the fight against Mitsubishi's construction of the world's largest salt plant at this last pristine breeding grounds of the California Gray Whale. The cause, also championed by the International Fund for Animal Welfare (IFAW) and National Resources Defense Council (NRDC), was victorious when, earlier this year, Mexican President Ernesto Zedillio and Mitsubishi, announced that all plans for the plant were to be scrapped.
(1999) Stopped Fleuhr vs. City of Cape May
Working with a local Surfrider chapter, SEA convinced New Jersey's highest court to dismiss the case of a bodysurfer suing the city of Cape May for injuries he suffered while in the ocean there. The more cities and states are held accountable for personal injuries in the surf, the more likely they are to close certain "dangerous" beaches or all beaches during times of significant swell for fear of lawsuits.
Present Battles
(1999-) The Endangered Ecosystems Trust for the Americas
Created to preserve "critically important ecosystems" along the Pacific and Gulf Coasts of Baja, this partnership seeks to link Mexican and American environmentalists, scientists, lawyers, campesinos, educators and politicians together to work for coastal well-being. The first three areas targeted as potential wildlife corridors are: Punta Ballenas, San Lazaro and Canon Tajo.
(1997-) Stopping the disposal of harmful dredged material from the New York and New Jersey into the area off Sea Bright, New Jersey
SEA is lobbying for the ratification of current standards regarding monitoring of all sludge dumped in the so-called "Mud Dump" off the Jersey coast. Current guidelines for managing this waste are "impossibly flawed." Fish or lobsters caught in the dump zone have been found to have unacceptably high dioxin levels.
(1999-) Continue fighting UNOCAL and other negligent "Big Oil" companies
SEA has joined forces with the National Lawyer's Guild International Law Project for Human, Economic and Environmental Defense (HEED). In the wake of the San Luis Obispo travesty, HEED is pressuring the attorney general's office to revoke UNOCAL's corporate charter, which would effectively force UNOCAL to completely withdraw all business from California. It's a legal long shot, but so was the case in San Luis Obispo. In addition, SEA is forming a Coastal Oil Action Coalition to wage future pro-coastal battles against Big Oil.
(2000-) Opposing a planned seawall at Pleasure Point
SEA is leading the call to arms against this proposed structure directly in front of Pleasure Point between 32nd and 36th avenues. SEA fears the wall will scour the sand both in front of it and farther down the beach, eliminating the beach there and adversely affecting not only historic Pleasure Point but also breaks down the way like the Hook. --Greg Heller
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