Much Love for California Ocean Day

Surfrider California is so stoked to have spent California Ocean Day with nearly 300 volunteers in Sacramento this week!

In it's 19th year, California Ocean Day is an annual event where Surfrider partners with Environment California, Azul and other amazing non profit organizations to bring volunteers from across the state to Sacramento in order to advocate on behalf of important coastal priorities.

This year, we trained volunteers and met with 86 legislator offices to support 14 bills and 5 other key priorities. Some of our asks of state leaders included:

• End the Coastal Environmental Justice Crisis at Our Border
• Restore the State's Coastal Resilience Budget
• Stand Up for the Coastal Act
• Celebrate Our Marine Protected Area Network

You can read more about all these priorities and the bills we are supporting in this year's lobby packet. You can also learn more about the bills and how we're advocating for them by watching the lobby training recording on our website.

Huge thanks to our amazing speakers from the State Legislature, which included Assemblymember Dawn Addis, Assemblymember Al Maratsuchi, Assemblymember Rebecca Bauer-Kahn, Senator Padilla, Senator Blakespear, and Senator Allen. Other featured state leaders included:

• Marce Gutiérrez-Graudiņš, Founder of Azul
• Julie Packard, Executive Director of the Monterey Bay Aquarium
• Samantha Murray, President of the Fish and Game Commission
• Chuck Striplen, Commissioner at the California Coastal Commission
• Alexis Jackson, Councilmember at the Ocean Protection Council
• Jennifer Fearing, President of Fearless Advocacy
• Ramon Chairez, Un Mar de Colores
• Jennifer Savage, Plastic Pollution Initiative Lead at Surfrider Foundation

We also featured the following films from amazing artists in the state:

• The Baker, Perry Gershkow
• The Most Endangered River, Un Mar de Colores
• The Biggest Health Crisis You've Never Heard Of, Surfrider Foundation
• Fighting Climate Change with Nature, Surfrider Foundation
• History of the Monterey Bay Sanctuary, Dana Frankoff
• Kumeyaay Between the Tides, Eliza Thomas
• Women of the Deep, Megan Howatt-Kinzler

As well as photography by the one and only surf photography legend Sachi Cunningham and the kelp queen herself, Oriana Poindexter.

California Ocean Day is a warm reminder that many of our state leaders are ocean and coastal champions, and that everyone who cares about the coast in California can play a meaningful role in supporting change.

Thank you to all our volunteers for bringing a wave of activism to Sacramento with us this year! More photos will be uploaded to the website soon.