Part four of four in our Annual Report blog series highlighting everything Coastkeeper in the year of 2012.
How can you get involved this year?
Adaptable– From rinsing your fruits and veggies in a bowl of water to recycling graywater in your home, there are so many ways to adapt your water habits to use only what you need.
Advisable– Go one step beyond making a change at your own home: challenge yourself to convert a friend or family member’s water usage, even it if it means changing one bad habit at a time.
Shareable– With just a click, a like or a share, you can spread the word about Coastkeeper’s mission, events and volunteering through social media sites like Facebook and Twitter.
Volunteerable– Whether it’s with our Water Quality Monitoring Program , through our MPA “CLICK” mobile website or participating in our twice-a-month beach cleanups, there is always a way to help maintain fishable, swimmable, drinkable waters.
Sponsorable– Endorse our movement in San Diego by sponsoring an event and feel great knowing that your support will outlast the event and continue its impact directly through Coastkeeper’s programs like the Volunteer Core, Project SWELL and more.
Joinable– Whether you’re a seasoned water quality monitoring veteran or just getting started at your first beach cleanup or by reading our website, you can join Coastkeeper’s cause by becoming a member for as little as $25.
A Look Ahead at Coastkeeper in 2013 and Beyond:
Find and Fix: Coastkeeper identifies water quality issues around San Diego and works with our partners to get them resolved. We will focus on helping to create new Water Quality Improvement Plans to prevent stormwater pollution, resolving issues reported to us on our hotline and empowering high school students to address environmental issues through the LEAP program.
Water Supply: Coastkeeper will continue to work with local cities on developing and implementing policies to reduce demand for water and to create a safe, reliable, local water supply. We will work with the City of San Diego as it finalizes its Long Range Water Resources Plan and continues to make purified water a reality in San Diego.
MPA Watch: Coastkeeeper’s MPA Watch program trains volunteers to help monitor and record activities in our marine protected areas so we have the information we need about how people use them. Our MPA Watch volunteers contribute to a statewide data collection effort for evaluation, education of users and enforcement.
Training Tomorrow’s Professionals: A well-informed, involved community has the power to improve its quality of life by influencing decisions—their own, their neighbors’, their businesses’ and their elected and appointed officials’. By training tomorrow’s professionals, San Diego Coastkeeper ensures that future leaders have the knowledge they need to make good decisions (for us and our environment.)
Water Quality Monitoring
Trash Assessment: San Diego Coastkeeper partners with a number of organizations to help conduct the first coordinated regional assessment of marine debris. We will look at trash accumulation in ocean waters, inland streams, coastal estuaries and even inside of fish guts. This work will help figure out the source, movement and fate of marine debris for the whole of southern California
Bioassessment: Next spring, San Diego Coastkeeper will conduct bioassessment–we’re looking for bugs! Trained volunteers will wade directly into streams to collect and identify aquatic insects. This bug hunting gives us a more holistic picture of stream health, since insects are the base of the food web. We have measured pollutants in the rivers for a decade now and bioassessment allows us to see the effects of that pollution on the stream ecosystem health.
