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"A tsunami is a series of ocean waves generated by sudden displacements in the sea floor, landslides, or volcanic activity. In the deep ocean, the tsunami wave may only be a few inches high. The tsunami wave may come gently ashore or may increase in height to become a fast moving wall of turbulent water several meters high." - from [http://www.tsunami.noaa.gov/ NOAA's Tsunami website]. +
On September 7th, 2001 THEY WILL SURF AGAIN (TWSA) kicks off its second annual surf mission up the coast of California, from San Diego to San Francisco, to raise funds for spinal injury research. TWSA surfers will be surfing up the coast from surf break to surf break for seven days. For schedule and other info, contact Richard Yelland at tel. (310) 745-1039 or [mailto:curtisbirch@mediaone.net curtisbirch@mediaone.net]. +
The Santa Barbara Chapter of Surfrider Foundation has been busy dealing with a rash of seawall and revetment proposals and placements in the past few years. The trend toward hardening and armoring the Goleta and Gaviota coastlines is alarming. In several cases, agencies have self-issued emergency permits that bypass the proper environmental review process. Even when these permits are revoked, removing these seawalls proves difficult. See the Santa Barbara Chapter web site at http://surfrider.org/santabarbara +
A total of $6.9 million in grants has been awarded to 43 municipalities throughout Wisconsin to help them improve local waters degraded by runoff pollution. (Excerpt from Environmental News Service at http://ens-news.com/ens/sep2001/2001L-09-26-09.html +
"The loss of naturally breaking waves due to improper coastal development is indicative of an interconnected coastal ecosystem in decline." (Quote from Chris Evans, Executive Director of Surfrider, in the June 2001 issue of "Making Waves," at http://www.surfrider.org/makingwaves17-3/3.pdf) +
"Yesterday's horrific terrorist acts have as little to do with drilling for oil in ANWR as last summer's electricity crisis in California. Responding to such terror by allowing oil drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge would be breathtakingly ineffective and irrelevant... Meanwhile, we can be certain of remaining dependent on foreign sources for approximately half our oil consumption, whether we drill in ANWR or not, as long as we do not move boldly to improve the fuel economy of our transportation system." (Quote from Massachusetts Representative Edward Markey) +
"The National Park Service has confirmed that it was a cruise ship that killed an endangered pregnant humpback whale in Alaska's Glacier Bay N.P says the Anchorage Daily News 9/26. The whale, which died "instantly" when its skull was crushed, was found floating within park boundaries and has been the subject of a "criminal investigation." The NPS refused to name the cruise line or "say if charges would be filed." (Excerpt from the email newsletter, GREENLines, Thursday, September 27, 2001, Issue #1475 From The Endangered Species Coalition, http://www.stopextinction.org) +
"First, I learned that the Orange County Health Department tests water quality 200 yeards out rather than at the shore where peole swim. I found bacteria levels up to seven times over the legal bacteria limit at shore, while the County's samples taken 200 yards out showed safe water conditions." (Quote from Margaux Thomas of Laguna Beach, CA. Margaux, a high school student, has been testing beach waters through the Surfrider Laguna Beach Chapter's Blue Water Task Force) +
"State environmental authorities are doing a poor job of enforcing the nation's clean water laws, concludes a new report by the General Accounting Office, the investigative arm of Congress. The agency looked at the behavior of water polluters nationwide by documenting violations of the Clean Water Act between October of 1997 and December of 1998 as recorded in the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's (EPA) Permit Compliance System database."(Excerpt from Environmental News Network at [http://enn.com/news/enn-stories/2001/08/08292001/s_44779.asp http://enn.com/news/enn-stories/2001/08/08292001/s_44779.asp]) +
"Killing or damaging the last remaining good shallow reefs in east Florida by dredging and filling would be like dynamiting the last giant redwood stand," said Dr. Tom Goreau, president of The Global Coral Reef Alliance. "At a time when reefs are showing the effects of multiple stresses, any activities that would cause any further damage could irreversibly degrade the reef ecosystem and damage local fisheries." +
"Because it is the ocean's basic food, plankton is often called the pasture or grass of the sea. The word derives from the Greek ''planktos,'' meaning "wandering" or "drifting." The term ''plankton'' is a collective one used to describe all the one-celled ''drifting'' life of the oceans, as opposed to ''nekton,'' which consists of strong swimmers such as fish, crabs, and whales." (Excerpt from ''The Ocean Almanac,'' by Robert Hendrickson, Doubleday, 1984, pg. 1) +
"As a result of a battle to the death with a ten-foot eel, the largest ever seen here. Duke Kahanamoku, who won the world's championship at Stockholm, is today minus the index finger on his right hand and his swimming prowess may be permanently impaired. <br/>Â Â Â Â The swimmer encountered the eel while practicing for the Australian swimming championships off here, and after a fight lasting several minutes, choked it to death. He was exhausted when he reached the shore, with the eel's body in tow."(Source: ''Long Beach Press'' from Jan. 29, 1913) +
"Compromise is often necessary, but it ought not to originate with environmental leaders. Our role is to hold fast to what we believe is right, to fight for it, to find allies, and to adduce all possible arguments for our cause. If we cannot find enough vigor in us or our friends to win, then let someone else propose the compromise, which we must then work hard to coax our way. We thus become a nucleus around which activists can build and function." (Excerpt from ''Let the Mountains Talk, Let the Rivers Run,'' by David Brower with Steve Chapple, Harper Collins, 1995, pg. 25) +
Boston's ancient sewer pipes were built to collect not only sewage, but also rainwater, which carries bacteria and pollutants as it moves under city streets. Normally, the Deer Island Treatment Plant treats all that waste and sends it through the sewage tunnel to be diluted in ocean currents. "But the plant doesn't have the capacity to treat all that waste every time it rains heavily. Instead, some pipes are redirected into Boston area rivers, the harbor, and the bay, dumping untreated human waste along with animal waste into beach areas. That's why after heavy rainstorms, red flags go up on Carson Beach in South Boston, for example, warning visitors it's too dangerous to go swimming." (Excerpt from a ''Boston Globe'' [http://www.boston.com/dailyglobe2/253/nation/Harbor_cleanup_falls_short_at_beaches-.shtml article] from 9/10/01) +
"It's not like it's been an outstanding year - it's been an average year," said George Burgess, director of the International Shark Attack File at the University of Florida."The main thing is we had two or three high-profile attacks ... that kind of got the media's attention very quickly. It had a life of its own." +
"The dividing line between the sea and the land, then, is not really a line at all; it is an area, a zone, a dominion in its own right. Partaking in some measure of both land and water, it belongs wholly to neither. Because its upper and lower limits are defined by the extremes of the tides, we speak of it as the "intertidal zone," or sometimes called the "littoral." (Excerpt from the book, SEASHORE LIFE OF SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA, by Sam Hinton, University of California Press, 1987, pg. ix) +
"Fallout from the atmosphere is an important and previously under-appreciated source of a number of important pollutants, including nitrogen, lead, mercury, and organochlorine compounds such as DDT and PCBs. Some of these pollutants can be transported over long distances before falling onto the ocean or on watersheds draining to the coast. Atmospheric transport is the primary mechanism for contamination of oceanic regions remote from human activities, such as polar seas and the open ocean." (Excerpt from "Marine Pollution in the United States," published by the Pew Oceans Commission, 2001, pg. 12) +
"Yeah, where's the skill? Where's the training? Where's all the years of working up to be able to do this? Guys who couldn't catch a 2' wave at Trestles if they had to paddle in to one can go out and learn to jet ski and ride waves. Let's go back to the real Ten Commandments of surfing, as bespeaks the principles of waterman-dom: self-reliance, physical strength, knowledge of the ocean, patience, intelligence, respect, peace and quiet, communion with nature. Jet skis break about every rule there." (Excerpt from Dr. Mark Renneker, quote appearing in Surfer's Journal, Summer 2001, pg. 112) +
"The vast majority of native Hawaiian plants and animals are found nowhere else on Earth. Many, unfortunately, are in grave danger of extinction. While Hawaii represents less than 1 percent of the U.S. total land mass, it has 363 (over 30%) of the 1,104 species federally listed as threatened or endangered." (Excerpt from ''Atlas of Hawaii'', Edited by Sonia P. Juvik and James O. Juvik, University of Hawaii Press, 1998, pg. 150) +
"MPAs preserve biodiversity, protect important ocean habitats such as fish spawning grounds, set aside areas for scientific research, and help depleted fish populations recover. While the ocean covers nearly 70% of the earth, and while 97% of all living matter is in the ocean, and while more than 95% percent of the ocean is unexplored, less than 1% of the ocean is set aside as protected wilderness." (Excerpt from California Coastwatcher, November 2001 issue, written by Mark Massara, Sierra Club Coastal Program) +