Protect & Enjoy #49: Racial + Environmental Justice, White-Tipped Shark vs. Giant Squid

Surfrider's California coast and ocean policy podcast can be found on Podbean, iTunes and Spotify.

From this week's episode:

"Like many people I’ve been focusing on the ongoing protests against the killing of black people by white police officers, the dialogues happening as a result and what I – as a white person – can do to help change a system of systemic racism. Surfrider is likewise doing a lot of internal examination – we’ve been taking sincere but slow steps to improve diversity, equity and inclusion within our organization, and I’m proud of our chapters who’ve been leading on these issues and standing up for racial justice. As a historically white-led organization, we have a long way to go and I’m grateful for the grassroots activists in and outside of Surfrider leading the way. I’ll put some links in the show notes to organizations and legislation relevant to social and environmental justice – people and proposed bills that we support – so please check them out and join us in moving forward." 

– Jennifer Savage, Surfrider Foundation's California Policy Manager

Also in this episode, a short preview of this week's Coastal Commission meeting taking place Wednesday, Thursday and Friday. California Policy Manager Mandy Sackett covered the meeting's most important items in last week's podcast; since then, some items (the San Clemente LUP, the Bolinas seawall) have been postponed.

We’re still planning to speak about a terrible development proposal in Pacifica, to support enforcement staff’s efforts to stop Newport Beach homeowners from encroaching on the public beach by extending their lawns and patios out onto the sand (seriously) and attend to an item related to the Shore Hotel – that’s the one in Santa Monica that promised to provide lower cost accommodations if they were allowed to knock down two Travelodge-style motels and rebuild a new hotel, except they didn’t provide the lower cost rooms, but instead turned everything into a fancy expensive boutique situation, effectively taking away the ability for people of moderate means to stay overnight near Santa Monica beach. You can follow along via the Commission’s livestream – and participate! – right here.

And of course, staff scientist Katie Day provides a FACTOID courtesy of Beachapedia. This week, she tells the shocking story of SHARK vs GIANT SQUID! Those giants squids are no joke!