Every year the North American Sea Glass Association holds it’s annual North American Sea Glass Festival, and every year, the festival donates to a few local charitable organizations that focus on environmental concerns, shoreline protection and clean-ups, all which are also part of the NASGA mission.

This year, the NASGA Sea Glass Festival will be held September 27 and 28th at the Cape May Convention Hall in Cape May, New Jersey.   So, in keeping with past traditions, the NASGA Board of Directors wanted to make sure the donations would stay in New Jersey, to help local environmental efforts.  The Board of Directors voted on two organizations, this blog entry will introduce one of those charitable organizations, New Jersey based, Clean Ocean Action.
Clean Ocean Action is a leading national and regional voice working to protect waterways using science, law, research, education, and citizen action.    According to the Clean Ocean Action mission statement, they will identify the sources of pollution and mount an attack on each source by using research, public education, and citizen action to convince our public officials to enact, and enforce laws, which will clean up and protect our ocean.

Below is information that can be found on their website, which includes their  successful campaigns.

· Improve programs and laws that protect public health at swimming beaches.
· Reduce plastics and litter that pollute waterways, spoil beautiful beaches, and harm or kill marine life including turtles, whales, seals, birds, and fish.
· Protect coasts from oil and gas drilling in the ocean, including Maine to Florida.
· Establish the nation’s first Clean Ocean Zone to start a national chain reaction for all coasts.
· Reduce toxins in waterways to ensure fish and shellfish are free of pollution and safe to eat.

Clean Ocean Action (COA) is a broad-based coalition of 125 active boating, business, community, conservation, diving, environmental, fishing, religious, service, student, surfing, and women’s groups.  The ongoing campaigns, Waves of Action and Beach Sweeps, promote volunteerism focusing on beach clean-ups and eco-conservation projects.

To find out about their current campaigns, including signing a petition to stop underwater ocean blasting off New Jersey shorelines, or to help with their Beach Sweeps and Waves of Action campaigns, please visit their website.
Clean Ocean Action is a 501(c)3 tax exempt nonprofit organization.

written by Kim Hannon, NASGA Board