WiLDCOAST Director To Speak on Saving Whales in Tofino

WiLDCOAST Executive Director will be a featured speaker this week at the Pacific Rim Whale Festival in Tofino, Canada. Dedina, a longtime surfer, conservationist and author of the book, “Saving the Gray Whale,” will speak about “Saving Whales and Waves in Baja California” on Friday March 12, 7pm at the Cloyoquot Community Theatre, Tofino (British Columbia, Canada).

The talk by Dedina is sponsored by the Pacific Rim Chapter of the Surfrider Foundation, and will discuss the effort to stop the Mitusubishi Corporation from destroying San Ignacio Lagoon and fabled point break, Punta Abreojos as well as the efforts led by WiLDCOAST to successfully halt the construction of marinas at Baja’s best right point break and to preserve the last remaining wild Pacific coastline in the Baja California peninsula. Dedina will also discuss concerns about the impact of global climate change on the Eastern Pacific population of gray whales.

“I am honored and stoked to be invited to share our experiences in Baja California with the surfing and conservation community in Tofino,” said Dedina. “I am also looking forward to surfing the stunningly beautiful coastline of Vancouver Island.”

The WiLDCOAST director and Zach Plopper just returned from Baja’s San Ignacio Lagoon to celebrate the 10th anniversary of the successful battle to stop Mitsubishi from building a 500,000-acre industrial salt preserve at the UNESCO World Heritage Site.

WiLDCOAST’S Baja California coastal conservation efforts, supported by a grant from the SIMA Environmental Fund,  were documented in the October 2009 issue of Surfer Magazine in the article, “Wilderness Transect.”

In 2009, in honor of his efforts to preserve the coastline of the California,  Dedina received the California “Coastal Hero” Award from the California Coastal Commission and the San Diego Zoological Society’s Conservation Medal. In 2003, SIMA awarded Dedina the “Environmentalist of the Year” Award for successfully stopping the Nautical Ladder marina plan that would have destroyed five point breaks in Baja California.

Serge’s new book, “Saving the Pirate Sea: Dispatches from the Surf Coast of the Californias,” will be published in 2011 by the University of Arizona Press.

WiLDCOAST conserves coastal and marine ecosystems and wildlife and is at: www.wildcoast.net.

The Pacific Rim Whale Festival is at www.pacificrimwhalefestival.com