Serge Dedina | Photo: Andrew Shipley
WILDCOAST
An international team working to conserve more than 31.9 million acres of globally significant coastlines, islands, lagoons, and ocean, Wildcoast establishes and manages protected areas, advocates for strong conservation policies, and works with communities to preserve healthy thriving oceans and wild coastlines. (Imperial Beach, California)
Behind me is Tijuana, Mexico, and the U.S.-Mexico border. This is ground zero for our efforts to help manage and protect marine protected areas. Stop pollution from coming across the border, stop the tsunami of plastic that’s entering the ocean, and really doing everything we can to preserve ocean wildlife and combat climate change. Anne Earhart has this really quiet presence; not everybody knows about the work she does in the world of ocean protection, but she’s out there kind of like a coach, really pushing everybody forward. She’s like that surfer on the beach that watches the gnarliest waves on the biggest day of the year — and instead of sitting on the beach, she decides to paddle out.
Serge Dedina, Executive Director, Wildcoast, Imperial Beach, California