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"This" being coastal water management?

JJ: Yes, all of it, the whole thing about how we manage our coasts. This state is really interesting in this regard, because it's hard to think of a state other than Florida or maybe Maine that makes as much of its income out of nonextractive uses of the water. Recreational use is an enormous business in this state.
You know, I've never been on a surfboard in my life, and I'm sure I never will be, at the age of 63, but I've worked quite closely with the Surfrider Foundation, because they get it. Those are potentially powerful organizations.

And what is the Surfrider Foundation doing?

JJ: What got them interested in all of this is, A, they don't like dirty-looking beaches, and B, they really don't like getting hepatitis. And they really don't like not being able to go in the water after it rains. And basically, from Santa Barbara south, if it's been dry awhile and it rains, they shouldn't go in the water. But in [dealing with these issues], they pick up on the other stuff.

And then there's groups like World Wildlife Fund, which is big on sustainable fisheries. What they're really good at is dealing with the corporate world quietly and effecting change that way. They're the prime movers on sustainable forestry, and they're working to do the same thing with fisheries. It's an important approach, but it's not the only approach. Sort of a mix of World Wildlife Fund and Greenpeace makes a lot of sense, I think, because it's almost a good cop, bad cop approach--and they talk to each other. They'd never admit it, but they talk to each other all the time.

And then there's the Nature Conservancy, and Environmental Defense. There was a big article in the New York Times business section about a deal TNC has brokered with the trawl fishers on the central California coast. [For more on this, see the earlier "Reinventing a Local Fishery on the Morro Bay Waterfront," Coast & Ocean, Autumn 2005.] Basically, they're buying out the licenses, and then they're going to retire them. That gets pretty close to TNC owning half of all the licenses in California--which is a huge investment, but it's a really smart strategy.

So most organizations are involved. In any movement, though, there's a lot of rhetoric, and there's a lot of striving to be the most important group, and to get the most publicity and attention. It's one of the things that offends me about environmental organizations in general. They're not much different from BP when it comes to, "Look what World Wildlife did!" or "Look what Nature Conservancy did!" instead of "Look what we all did, and accomplished." Greenpeace might be the exception, because they're so radical; they don't think the same way.

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