CLEAN OCEAN ACTION INC
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Mission Statement
“Clean Ocean Action's goal is to improve the degraded water quality of the waters off the New Jersey/New York coast.” COA uses research, education, and citizen action to unite and empower people to protect the ocean.
About This Cause
In 1984, a small feisty coalition of groups called the Ocean Dumping Task Force, under the wing of the American Littoral Society, spun-off to form Clean Ocean Action. Believing that the ocean was both an economic and ecological treasure, the mission was to improve and protect the marine waters in the New York Bight (the shared marine waters between New York and New Jersey) and its coastal waterways. The coalition was an unprecedented broad-based alliance of environmental, business, and community groups. At its core, COA understood the interdependence of the environment and the economy. The first goal was to close eight ocean dumpsites by implementing environmentally sound alternatives. This considerable challenge prompted hiring of scientists and lawyers to ensure scientific and legal excellence of campaigns. By 1997, the ocean was dumpsite free. The success of Clean Ocean Action’s coalition model in fighting ocean dumpsites led the organization to focus more attention on land-based sources of pollution in the watershed of the Jersey Shore. This challenge required COA to target monitoring programs to ensure fair and accurate assessment of pollution, and efforts at the local, state and federal level to stop pollution from entering the marine environment. This led to many victories. For example, NJ’s premier water quality testing programs of the 1990’s became the national standard with landmark federal legislation. Storm drains along the entire shoreline were mapped and many monitored. Statewide, all are now tagged with a message “drains to waterway” to make the connection between land use and water quality. Early-on COA started one of the nation’s first beach litter cleanup initiatives, called Beach Sweeps, which works to educate citizens about the connection of land-based litter and marine debris. It is now NJ’s largest environmental event. Today, Clean Ocean Action is a coalition of 115 groups, hundreds of businesses, and thousands of concerned citizens focused on addressing land use policies to improve marine water quality, engaging citizen action in local pollution reduction activities, and improving waste and storm water infrastructure systems. With a new headquarters in Long Branch, NJ and a field office on Sandy Hook, at the top of the Jersey Shore, Clean Ocean Action's highly motivated and professional science, legal, and citizen action team is focused on improving degraded marine water quality. The lean, green, ocean pollution fighting machine, includes a full-time scientist with expertise in water quality, a professional legal team, and experienced management team. Clean Ocean Action’s mission and tactics remain the same -- to improve the marine water quality of the New Jersey/New York coast by identifying the sources of pollution and attacking each source through research, public education, and citizen action. Since the mid-1990’s these efforts have focused on land-based sources of pollution and the lack of strong policies to protect water quality. While strategically COA still focuses on land-based sources of pollution, vigilance is also targeted offshore to ensure attempts at ocean industrialization are tenaciously fought and halted. The primary geographic areas include the coastal areas of New Jersey and Long Island, as well as all watersheds that lead to marine waters, which include nearly the entire states. The New Jersey and New York coastal counties and harbor areas are densely populated, including constituencies from the highest to the lowest income levels. The engaged citizens of the coalition include the small and the tall from diverse interests and backgrounds with a common interest in the marine ecosystem and all that it provides. The constituency also includes the extraordinary aquatic and marine life that are most voiceless in the decisions of public policy. Those that benefit from the work of COA are the millions who enjoy a day at the beach, a seafood dinner, and economic vitality that is a result of the bounty and richness of the marine ecosystem. COA is honored to be recognized by Charity Navigator as a 4-Star Charity for multiple years.