Demonstrators make their opposition to a planned beachfront development known during an April 14 rally in Asbury Park. KENNY WALTER The mission of national environmental nonprofit Surfrider Foundation can be summed up in three words, all having to do with stewardship of the coastline.
“What we are trying to do is preserve, protect and defend the ocean and basically let people know that, after all, this is your beach,” said Bill Rosenblatt, who co-founded the Jersey Shore Chapter of Surfrider Foundation more than 20 years ago.
Rosenblatt, along with John Weber, Surfrider Foundation northeast regional manager, appeared at an April 14 rally in Asbury Park aimed at saving the city’s northernmost beach from development.
The rally to save the beach is one of many campaigns and events the grassroots organization has taken up since its founding.
The Jersey Shore Chapter has hosted and participated in rallies, beach sweeps and dune grass plantings all along the coastline of New Jersey.
John Weber (l-r), northeast regional manager for the Surfrider Foundation, poses with foundation member Timm Donnelly after taking part in a rally opposing a beachfront development project in Asbury Park on April 14. KENNY WALTER One of the biggest focuses for the chapter, which boasts an estimated 1,400 members, has been an ongoing fight for legislation to protect the right to beach access.
“Obviously beach access keeps coming up and it is just because our legislators haven’t spoken out [about] beach access,” Weber said. “Most of the beaches are accessible, we have half a dozen towns that aren’t accessible.”
One of the initiatives for the foundation, Weber explained, is to promote a link between municipalities providing beach access and federal funding for beach replenishment.
“That’s the rub, beach access can’t continue until the legislature lays down the law,” Weber said.
Currently the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) has proposed a set of rules that Weber has criticized as hindering beach access across the state.
The DEP’s draft proposal would allow municipalities to create their own beach access plans, subject to approval from the state.
Weber, along with fellow environmentalists, said he would be protesting the draft rules during an April 18 public hearing in Long Branch. Another hot-button issue for Weber and Surfrider Foundation members has been offshore energy.
In 2011, Gov. Chris Christie vetoed a planned LNG facility 16- miles off the coast of Asbury Park, a project that was universally panned by environmental groups.
While the veto was viewed as a victory, Weber said offshore energy issues aren’t going away.
“All of that offshore energy stuff is going to keep coming back until we get a better energy policy in this country,” he said. “Until we get really serious about renewable wind, about solar.
“Until we get serious about alternatives there will always be the pressure about getting whatever’s offshore,” he added. “I wish I could say it was going away but it is probably not going away.”
Improved ocean water quality is another initiative for Surfrider Foundation.
“We’ve been pushing water quality testing for probably close to the 20 years that we’ve been in existence with the hope that the water we swim in is safe and clean,” Rosenblatt said. “That is going to be even more important now since the recent budget cutbacks on water quality testing throughout the country.
“We’ve been interested and very involved in a program called Ocean Friendly Gardens where we are trying to encourage people to not use pesticides and to consider the fact that everything that goes on your lawn goes into a watershed,” he added.
Rosenblatt, who serves on the international board of directors for the Surfrider Foundation, said the chapter is also focusing on reducing single-use plastics.
During the rally in Asbury Park last week, Surfrider Foundation representatives stood side-by-side with members of other local environmental groups, including Clean Ocean Action and the American Littoral Society.
Weber, who has held his current title for seven years after serving as a volunteer, said the foundation complements some of the other groups in the area.
“I think it is really important for us with Surfrider being an organization of mainly volunteers,” he said. “When we can team up with these groups that have staff that really helps us.
“We bring something to the table that they can’t always bring, grassroots members and regular people,” he added. “Some of these groups have more expertise on the policy side and we kind of complement each other.”
The Jersey Shore Chapter’s members largely hail from Monmouth and Ocean counties, but some are from the New York City suburbs.
Weber said that while membership is high the biggest obstacle is getting people to participate in some of the events.
“The biggest challenge for Surfrider Foundation its engaging people,” Weber said. “People who want to do something good for the local chapter think they are going to do a fundraiser and give us the money and we probably don’t need the money as much as you think.
“We need people to join us first and we need them to do stuff.”
According to the chapter’s website, www.jerseyshore.surfrider.org, volunteers participate in educational programs that introduce students to beach ecology and the watershed process, as well as make up Surfrider’s Blue Water Task Force, a water quality monitoring, education and advocacy program to educate citizens about coastal water quality problems and to build support for national coastal water quality testing and monitoring standards.
Volunteers also address political and environmental issues that threaten New Jersey beaches, increase public awareness of initiatives and issues impacting beach enthusiasts at community and music festivals, beach cleanups and beach mapping projects, and at local sporting events.
They also host surf clinics and contests to promote youth surfing.
The chapter, which is based in Belmar, holds monthly meetings in Bradley Beach, Monmouth Beach or Brick.
Rosenblatt listed beach access victories in Deal and Mantaloking and the creation of a surfing beach in Asbury Park as accomplishments for the chapter.
However, he said the chapter’s major accomplishment was saving the worldrenowned surf break on Sandy Hook called the Big Cove from a replenishment project that would have altered the coastline.
“We’ve helped towns realize that surfing is an important economic generator to coastal communities,” he said. “If you look at the state of New Jersey commercials right now, they emphasize surfing but there are a lot of municipalities that didn’t even permit surfing.”
According to Weber, Surfrider Foundation was founded in Malibu, Calif., in 1984 and after about five years chapters began to form across the country .
“We wanted to have a bigger reach and they were going with the chapter model,” he said. “That way we could have more of a nationwide reach and Surfrider doesn’t plan any chapters they all sort of grow organically.”
What started with a local group in Malibu has now spread to 15 countries and more than 50 chapters across the United States.
Weber said the organization began as a group of surfing enthusiasts but quickly changed priorities.
“The original issues were access and water quality issues. I think in the very beginning people thought it would be more of a cultural organization and maybe teaching kids how to surf. I think a few years in, they made this conscious decision that we are going to be an environmental organization.”