Surfers Are Up Against Sewage

Surfers are a nature-loving bunch and these days they are giving enough proof of their environmentally friendly ways through several initiatives such as sustainable surfing and Surfers Against Sewage. We have written about the former here, so now let's hear it for SAS.

This UK-based charity was created to protect the country's oceans and beaches through community action, campaigning, volunteering, education and scientific research. It was founded in 1990 by a group of surfers who, as they say on the website, "were literally 'sick of getting sick' through repeated ear, nose, throat and gastric infections after going in the sea."

The group was formed in the southwestern region of England known as Cornwall, where they got involved in grassroots action to stop the sewage pollution at their local surf breaks in the region. Soon their idea rippled out across the UK and the group grew to play a key role in the elimination of continuous sewage discharges that were the norm back in the early 1990s.

These days SAS has expanded its action scope and tackles several issues faced by our threatened oceans and coastlines. "UK water companies still use combined sewer overflows as a means to regularly discharge raw sewage into our rivers and onto our beaches so the sewage issues still exists, albeit in a slightly different guise," SAS says.

One of the group's latest actions took place on Saturday when it organized the Paddle Round the Pier event in Brighton (southeast of England). Volunteers were summoned to remove 10 items of marine litter each. They received safety equipment, T-shirts and were given information about SAS's year round environmental projects. The day ended with a glass of Barefoot Wine, which sponsored the initiative.

Cheers to that!

Image credit: SAS