South Sound Chapter of the Surfrider Foundation

Mission

The Surfrider Foundation is a non-profit grassroots organization dedicated to the protection and enjoyment of our world's oceans, waves and beaches, for all people, through a powerful activist network. We are surfers, beach-goers, paddlers, divers, and those who simply love our marine waters and beaches in Washington State.

Description

The South Sound Chapter of Surfrider serves Tacoma, Gig Harbor, and the southern Puget Sound region. The chapter engages in a variety of programs and campaigns in the state such as water quality testing, plastic reduction strategies, ocean planning, beach cleanups, leadership development, and ocean friendly restaurants.

In 2022, the chapter hosted 14 cleanups along our South Sound and coastal beaches and creeks, engaged 405 volunteers (including SCUBA divers to remove trash from beneath the Old Town Dock), and removed 3267 pounds of trash from our beaches. Despite continued challenges due to COVID, we managed to host monthly chapter meetings both in person (often masked) and via Zoom, and resume our monthly beach cleanups (also often masked).

Our chapter continues to support 11 Ocean Friendly Restaurants with hopes to grow that number this year.  We hosted 27 events last year both virtually and in-person, including socials at our wonderful local Ocean Friendly Restaurants, guest speakers and movie screenings, WA Environmental Lobby Day, Washington D.C. Hill Day, direct action to write to our state representatives asking them to support conservation efforts to remove the four Lower Snake River dams to restore wild salmon runs and help save our starving resident orca population, all of which allowed our chapter to reach thousands of people.

Each chapter is volunteer run and responsible for raising their own funds. Our biggest expense is supplies for our Blue Water Task Force program water quality testing which is becoming more and more important in our region as we face the challenges of a warming climate. You can find a live map of results each month here: https://bwtf.surfrider.org/report/29

Our Blue Water Task Force team of 26 volunteers now collect water samples at 11 Puget Sound locations to test for harmful bacteria monthly, year round.  We partner with Tacoma Public School's Science and Math Institute (SAMi) where high school students and volunteers perform the analysis under the supervision of our Blue Water Task Force Coordinator. We also coordinate with the Washington State Department of Ecology's Marine BEACH Program to ensure that our sampling protocols align with those of agency programs. High bacteria levels are reported immediately for the safety and health of the public. In fact, recently our team identified high fecal matter results at a test site and notified our local agency, which confirmed the results with their own testing and promptly issued a public alert.

Our goal is to raise $2,500 to help fund our growing Blue Water Task Force program for 2023. Donations given during GiveBIG will help the South Sound chapter continue working for the protection of our waterways.

Thank you for your support!