Surf One 18

Water Watchdogs Save the Surf...One Piece of Trash at a Time

By Briana Scafidi
Photography by Marianne Groszko Lee
Of course, it's a rhetorical question, but what would Newport County be without an ocean? Its beaches? Equally bizarre and unimaginable, what would Newport County be if its ocean and beaches were so polluted and junked up that no one could use them and had no access areas to enjoy its coastal beauty? It's a reality that has one group working to monitor the water quality off the city's shores as well as protecting, preserving and maintaining the public's access to these points.

Three years ago, a few surfers teamed up with a few more community members to change what had started making surfers sick and deterring people from a fundamental aspect of life in Newport County. Clean Ocean Access (C.O.A.) came into being and began doing just that, promoting awareness through their work on the health and plight of the natural habitat. The group was born of two Newport locals and lifelong surfers Dave McLaughlin and Marty Casey. During the course of the year, this group, now numbering several dozen, clean up what litters their beloved coastline. But cleaning up wasn't just a matter of putting cans into trash bags. Cleaning up meant changing government policy that deemed the State's beaches as three-month summer destinations. To McLaughlin and Casey the beaches represented permanent, year-round places and therefore should have state policy treat them as such. The group highlighted the importance of beaches to the overall well being of the community. "What we have is a priceless commodity," McLaughlin says, "Once you lose it, it's gone forever. I want the next generation of wave riders to be able to enjoy it."