Homer Alaska - News -

Story last updated at 9:33 PM on Wednesday, September 10, 2008

Surfer-photographer to speak at CoastWalk kick-off



BY MICHAEL ARMSTRONG
STAFF WRITER

Cowabunga, dudes. Those rippin' and gnarly waves don't always bring in radical surfing. Sometimes Kachemak Bay's ocean throws up all sorts of junk plastic bottles, fishing nets, buoys and really icky marine debris.

Beach lovers can help clean up the bay this month and make a personal commitment to a coastal CODE with the Center for Alaskan Coastal Study's 24th annual CoastWalk. That's C-O-D-E as in "A Clean Ocean Depends on Everyone," the motto of the Ocean Foundation. This year, the Ocean Foundation's CODE Fund, in partnership with the Alaskan Brewing Company, helps sponsor CoastWalk. Alaskan Brewing donates a portion of its proceeds from sales of Alaska IPA Beer to support the Ocean Foundation.

To highlight surfer support for clean beaches, Homer photographer and surfer Scott Dickerson speaks at local schools this month for CoastWalk presentations. Tonight from 7-8 p.m. CoastWalk gets started with a potluck kick-off at the CACS building off Lake Street. Dickerson does a presentation, "Snapshots: Surfing and Saving Alaska's Coasts."

CoastWalk runs today-Sept. 30. The annual weeks-long event sends volunteers to bay beaches to monitor coastal changes and to bring home the trash thrown up or left behind by humans. Last year, 397 volunteers spent more than 1,000 hours removing 1,800 pounds of marine debris from area beaches.

"We are also publicizing a series of educational events planned to take place in Homer during Kachemak Bay Coast Weeks," said CoastWalk coordinator Beth Trowbridge.

At Kachemak Bay Campus, instructors this semester teach a variety of courses oriented toward coastal ecology. At 7 p.m. Thursdays, from today-Oct. 9, Ed Berg teaches "Cycles of Nature." Monday nights from Sept. 22-29 and Oct. 13-20, Craig Matkin teaches "Cetaceans." On Oct. 4 and Oct. 11, Carmen Field teaches "Plankton Ecology." To register, call 235-7743.

From 10 a.m.-4 p.m. Sept. 20, volunteers can take training in monitoring carcasses of marine birds washed up on beaches.

A phytoplankton monitoring workshop is Oct. 7-8 at the Kachemak Bay Research Reserve, time to be announced. Call 226-4663.

For National Estuaries Day from 10 a.m.-4 p.m., join a bio-team for the Beluga Slough BioBlitz, when expert-led teams inventory animal life in and around Beluga Slough. Call Carmen Field at 226-4659. Coast Weeks ends with the CACS annual meeting at 6 p.m. when Kris Holderied, Kasitsna Bay Laboratory director, talks about results of this summer's Hydropalooza, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's Kachemak Bay mapping.

Michael Armstrong can be reached at michael.armstrong@homernews.com.

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