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Contamination and Surfing: Thoughts of Surfrider Foundation
People who are concerned about beaches and the ocean are inspired to make efforts in their places.
This is done by the Surfrider Foundation annually. A lot of these people appreciate their natural surroundings and think of themselves as defenders of nature namely beaches and the ocean.
When being together, surfers are able to protect our planet’s oceans from plastics and rain mud.
We talked to Chad Nelson who is currently the Environmental Director of the Surfrider Foundation, an ardent surfer, and environmentalist who had found out ways to get involved in the protection of beaches and the oceans.
By protecting the oceans, we can make our surfing better.
Rains, Washes, and Various Kinds of Bacteria
Pure water, beaches and oceans, and certain locations are all which is in the zone of close attention to this agency.
Since it rains more often in winters, the problem of pure water on the ocean beaches possibly plays a key role for the biggest part of surfers.
Chad recommends abstaining from surfing in the ocean within a minimum of three days after rain.
The reason for this is washes of rain into the ocean from the cities including a big amount of plastics that flow right into our beaches and oceans.
Mud can be found in the ocean following the rain. However, the number of these microorganisms is high not only on these days.
They are just not visible to us. It can be named the poisonous mix.
Place one in regard to where it comes from is taken by ground contamination from the rain waters.
Everything from nasty substances coming from vehicles to organic waste and plastics is draining in the rain wash.
Afterward, it all can be found in the ocean and on the beaches.
All of this can lead to a great number of diseases.
This bunch consists of gastrointestinal disease and a highly unpleasant kind of streptococcus (also called flesh-eating bacteria) which caught some people after their stay on the beaches after the rain.
In addition, toxins from plastics can not necessarily bring you a severe disease, but adversely affect your body in the course of time.
Three-day avoidance of surfing after the rain is mainly recommended since the lifetime of almost all the bacteria contained in this mass of waste and plastics is limited to this time span.
One more step you can take to do yourself a favor is to keep away from admittedly muddy beaches. Among them are, for example, the Newport Jetties and the Dana Point Beach in California.
The best beaches for surfing are those that have few washes after rain.
Plastics That We Left Has Been Discovered
Another sphere of considerable concern of the Foundation is the bothering problem of plastics in the oceans.
They have founded a movement called Rise Above Plastics.
Its aim is to let people understand how important and serious the problem of plastics on the beaches and in the oceans is.
Loads of plastics were seen amidst the North Pacific Ocean, namely in the Pacific Gyre.
According to Chad, because of the plastics, they have set up this movement.
While flowing, the swirling streams of water after rain pick up these unimaginable amounts of plastics from the beaches into the ocean.
Looking at these enormous numbers of plastics in the ocean, people are beginning to realize that ecosystems of the beaches and oceans are adversely affected by what we are doing and how we are using plastics.
The things made of plastics that we have washed away and the plastics we have dropped on the beaches — all these plastic things threaten the well-being of the oceans.
The movement’s website says that the number of pieces of plastics in some zones and on the beaches of the Pacific is higher than the number of plankton, almost five times as much.
What You Can Do
As explained by Chad, their aim is one-time plastics.
These are things like bags made of plastics from the shop which are in use for a couple of minutes, but after that, these plastic things will always be there on the beaches and in the ocean.
Our purpose is to motivate people to use innovative technologies to be able to make the effect of plastics less significant.
Building a surfboard creates a truly significant effect on the environment in general, though not straight on the ocean and its beaches.
It mainly concerns air condition and waste discharge consisting of plastic materials as well. It can bring much success to using materials of reduced toxicity.
As an example, they have recently started using pine sap resin.
Chad recommends taking a considerable step forward on the issue of plastics on the beaches and on the ocean, check out special websites, such as Riseaboveplastics.com, to become more informed on how to reduce your plastics intake, including one-time plastics.
A good practice is also to show more interest in reducing plastic use on the beaches locally.
Surfrider is a mass movement for protecting the beaches and the ocean.
Its power is in its volunteers. There are a great many of them on a nationwide scale, and they are the ones who are changing the world.
Above all things, the organization tries to attract people to become part of these changes in defending our oceans and beaches.
In Chad’s opinion, it is astonishing to see again and again that this involvement is having success, that people who are concerned about our planet co-operate and take these important steps to protect beaches to the best advantage.
