Serge Dedina
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| Serge Dedina | |
|---|---|
 Serge Dedina |
|
| Occupation | Activist, Environmentalist, Author |
Serge Dedina is the author of "Saving the Gray Whale" (Tucson: University of Arizona Press) and an environmental activist from Imperial Beach, California. He is the co-founder and Executive Director of WiLDCOAST/COSTASALVAjE, an international organization that conserves coastal and marine ecosystems and wildlife. He is the former founding director of The Nature Conservancy’s Baja California and Sea of Cortez Program. Serge was instrumental in the development of two national parks along Baja’s Sea of Cortez coastline and a research and educational center in Magdalena Bay. He also initiated an international campaign that successfully stopped the Mitsubishi Corporation from destroying San Ignacio Lagoon—the world’s last undeveloped gray whale lagoon. Saving the Gray Whale, is based on the three years he lived in the gray whale lagoons of Baja California. His new book, Pirate Sea: Dispatches from the Coast of the Californias, will be published in 2010 by the University of Arizona Press.
[edit] Honors and Accomplishments
Since 1980, Serge Dedina has dedicated most of his time to protecting the coastal wildlands of the Californias. He has successfully worked with fishing communities and grassroots organizations on both sides of the Mexico-U.S. border to preserve more than one million acres of globally significant coastal and marine habitats. The Surf Industry Manufacturer’s Association named Serge the “Environmentalist of the Year” in 2003 for his work to protect the coastline of Baja California. In 2009 he received the San Diego Zoological Society’s Conservation Medal. The California Coastal Commission and Sunset Magazine awarded Serge the “Coastal Hero” award in 2009 in recognition of his conservation work. He is also a member of the Sweetwater Union High School District Hall of Fame.
Serge helped broker a deal to protect 140,000-acres at Laguna San Ignacio, a UNESCO World Heritage site. He also helped to stop plans by Mexican government agency FONATUR, to build mega-resorts in some of the most isolated coastal regions and national parks in Northwest Mexico. The “Don’t Eat Sea Turtle Campaign” carried out by WiLDCOAST reached more than 300 million people and was called the “best ocean campaign in human history” by Shifting Baselines Director Randy Olson. Serge is currently leading an effort to preserve Baja’s central Pacific coastline, a project that was featured in the October issue of Surfer Magazine and has resulted in the conservation of close to 20 miles of pristine coastline. Serge launched a “Clean Water Now” campaign along the San Diego-Tijuana portion of the U.S.-Mexico Border in 2004 that led to the construction of a new sewage treatment plan on the U.S. side of the border in the Tijuana River Valley. Serge also helped to initiate a new program to support the restoration and conservation of the Otay Valley Regional Park. Serge is directing a new initiative to preserve endangered shark populations in Mexico. In 2009 Serge worked with a national coalition of environmentalists and fishing groups, Senator Tom Coburn, and the Obama White House to kill plans by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to spend hundreds of millions of dollars to carry out destructive pork-barrell dredge and fill projects nationwide.
The Wall Street Journal, PBS, The Today Show, NBC Nightly News, New York Times, CNN, CBS-News, USA-Today, the Washington Post, The Economist, Los Angeles Times, Newsweek, Boston Globe, Christian Science Monitor, and the San Diego Union-Tribune have reported on Serge’s conservation activities.
Serge has published articles on the environment and surfing in the Los Angeles Times, Grist, VoiceofSanDiego.org, San Diego News Network, Surfline, The Surfer’s Journal, San Diego Union-Tribune, The Surfer’s Path, Journal of Borderlands Studies, and California Coast and Ocean. He writes a weekly column on surfing and the coastal environment for the Imperial Beach Eagle & Times.
[edit] Education
Serge holds a Ph.D. in Geography from the University of Texas at Austin. He received his Master’s degree in Geography from the University of Wisconsin and a Bachelor’s degree in Political Science from the University of California-San Diego. He is a graduate of Mar Vista High School, Mar Vista Junior High and Harbor View Elementary School (now Imperial Beach Elementary) all located in Imperial Beach.
[edit] Personal life
A first-generation American, Serge’s hometown is Imperial Beach, California, located just across the border from Mexico where he lives with his wife Emily and sons Daniel and Israel. It is here that he developed his interest in coastal conservation, while working to develop two national wildlife refuges and attempting to clean up the Tijuana River. Serge worked a City of Imperial Beach Ocean Lifeguard from 1981-1985 and a State of California Ocean Lifeguard at the Silver Strand State Beach from 1985-1993. He rescued more than 500 people while employed as a lifeguard. Serge’s article, “Waterman-Tales of the Tijuana Sloughs” inspired the Surfhenge Sculpture at the Imperial Beach Pier. He is an advisory board member of the Poseidon Marine Science Academy at Mar Vista High School, an active member of the movement to build a skateboard park in Imperial Beach, and a former member of the Tidelands Advisory Committee and the Ecotourism Advisory Committee. During the filming of the HBO series John from Cincinnati in Imperial Beach Serge worked with the production team to ensure that Imperial Beach residents were hired and secured more than $12,000 in donations for local charities. He also helped facilitate the donation of local business gift cards to North Side residents impacted by the production. Serge founded the Dempsey Holder Ocean Festival and Surf Contest in 2004, the largest annual and longest running surfing competition in South San Diego County. An avid surfer, Serge also enjoys competing in triathlons and rough-water ocean swims. Serge currently manages WiLDCOAST from an office across the street from the Imperial Beach Pier.
 |
This article about a United States writer of non-fiction is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it. |
