Beach Cleanup scheduled for Wednesday, November 7th, 4 to 5 p.m. – The Cocoa Beach Surf Club and the high school group, Future Business Leaders of America, will be leading a beach cleanup at the end of Minutemen Causeway in Cocoa Beach. Starting at 4 p.m., the two groups will split north and south to pick up trash brought up by recent swells. There will free drinks and prizes given away to whoever finds the strangest piece of trash and also who collects the most. The public is invited to join in helping to keep our coasts clean.
Wednesday night at 7:00 p.m. until 8:30 p.m. there will be a presentation on The Space Coast Multi-Purpose Artificial Surfing Reef by Dr. John Hearin at the Cocoa Beach City Hall meeting room.
Next Chapter Meeting – November 8th at Dakine Diegos in Satellite Beach. The meeting starts at 7 p.m. and we’ll be discussing plans for our Winter Party as well as deciding a course of action to get the Florida Clean Ocean Act passed this year. The bill would regulate how the gambling boats treat and dispose of their sewage, which they currently can legally dump ONLY THREE MILES from our beaches.
Sean Slater Invitational for the World Skin Cancer Foundation, November 10-11th – Surfrider will be setting up the tent during the event and providing information on the latest news on what’s happening along our beaches. Free copies of the national publication Making Waves will be available as well as brochures on how to get involved. If you can help out contact surfridersi@yahoo.com or call Rick at 779-0279.
Next Tuesday, Kelly Slater and Gov. Charlie Crist will be at Roosevelt Elementary in Cocoa Beach to commemorate the passing of the Florida Open Beaches Act amendment, which safeguards the public's access to our beaches. Look for the press release in the Florida Today.
Sebastian Aravena elected as Chairman – At the last meeting held in the Surfing Hall of Fame Museum back in October, Sebastian was overwhelmingly approved as the new chairman of the Sebastian Inlet chapter. His wife, Colleen, was also voted in as volunteer coordinator. Both of the them are committing their extra time to be “Keepers of the Coast” and help lead volunteers into 2008. The current chairman, Rick Hayes, has organized over 60 events and meeting in the last two years, and the chapter has won recognition as activists to prevent ocean pollution through protests, paddle outs, beach cleanups, school visits, and presentations to community groups.
Thank you County Commissioners for Purchasing the 1000 Islands – By a unanimous vote, Jackie Colon and Helen Voltz helped preserve the Indian River Lagoon by voting to approve the purchase of the Reynolds property, located south of Minutemen Causeway in Cocoa Beach. The 257 acres contained uplands, mangroves, and many small islands, an ideal place for kayaking. The mangroves will act as part of a filtering system for the river, keeping the water clean enough for fish and humans to swim in.
Thanks to Daniel Narlock Financial Services and Ocean Minded for hosting a beach cleanup in October at Spanish House. Over a dozen volunteers came out to clean the beach, crossover, and the road north to Whiteys. The dawn patrollers scored chest high waves and offshore winds, and participants scored t’s and hats from Catalyst Surf Shop. The home baked chocolate chip cookies were a nice treat, too.
“We have a responsibility, a solemn responsibility, to be good stewards of the oceans and the creatures who inhabit them.” – President George W. Bush
The Sebastian Inlet chapter is still looking for a Vice Chairman, a Treasurer, and a Cocoa Beach District Leader. Without volunteers, we are powerless to make things better.
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From TJ Marshall - Surfrider Miami Chapter
"Hey Folks, Last night I was watching “Evening Edition” on the Weather Channel and it was a full blown focus on beach erosion in Florida due to Tropical Storm Noel. I expect there may be some areas of the State where shoreline emergencies are declared, similar to what occurred during our May Super Swell.
I ask that folks have their cameras ready and batteries charged to get some pictures right after the winds begin to die down MOST IMPORTANTLY before the beach rakes and dozers get out there and level-off the scarps which are such strong visual post-storm images of how vulnerable our coastal areas are.
Those of you who have development issues, project areas, and locations involved with litigation, I STRONGLY recommend you get some pictures to document what happened. This helps us when things aren’t as bad as sometimes they’re made out to be. On the flip side sometimes it shows just how insane some coastal development is and how it should be more tightly regulated.
If you hear of any structures impacted in your area and have the time, please take some pictures. To collect all this stuff I’ve created a Google Picasa Photo Page. This is the best stuff I’ve seen on the web and is a simple download to your computer, just click here. Once you download the software to your desktop and open it, link it to the following account: Username: FLSurfrider Password: beacherosion If it asks for the email address the account is linked to, it’s mine tjm@surfrider.org
Using the software you can upload entire folders of pictures from your computer in one step rather than the slow picture by picture process of most other online photo album websites. Check out Miami Surfrider’s Picasa Page to see what I mean, I’ve uploaded 200 pictures at a time before with one click, walk away and let it do its thing. The software automatically compresses the pictures so we can fit thousands of them on the webpage.
Don’t delete the pictures from your computer after uploading; we may need a high-res version for a publication at some point. If you have any questions regarding uploading pictures, the Picasa software or any other concerns, by all means drop me a line. TMarshall@surfrider.org
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