Membership

Is Your Membership Current?

Many SDOF memberships expire at the end of the year, so renew to continue your membership into 2008! Not yet a member? Join today! The San Diego Oceans Foundation relies on a viable membership base to support our programs and office needs!

By being a member of the San Diego Oceans Foundation, you can be certain you are creating change within our community… whether that is less trash in our canyons and beaches, more fish in the sea, or to inspire the next generation to continue our quest for a viable and healthy environment. We need YOUR support this coming year, as SDOF has many great things being planned for 2008!

SDOF Membership ... a holiday gift that keeps on giving!
$100 membership includes a limited edition SDOF T-shirt
Join online TODAY!

Volunteer Opportunities

For more details and descriptions of all these events, visit our December Calendar. To RSVP for any of these activities, please email us at volunteer@sdoceans.org

White Seabass Pen Cleaning
Sunday, December 16th | 9:00-Noon
The downtown WSB pen is covered with growth! We need about 20 snorkelers and SCUBA divers to help us pick, pry and rip the sea life off of the nets to ensure our new baby fish (set to arrive Dec 20) have lots of fresh water flow and oxygen. Volunteers will need to provide all of their own snorkeling/dive gear, along with work gloves (garden gloves, leather gloves, something tough to protect your hands).

Every volunteer will get an SDOF dive T-shirt in return for their hard work!

White Seabass Sign Ups for BOTH Facilities
New baby White Seabass are expected to arrive Dec 20 at the San Diego Bay AND Mission Bay sites, and despite the holiday season, they need to be fed and cared for, especially during the first critical week!

If you are a TRAINED WSB volunteer please check the online calendar, then email courtney@sdoceans.org with the shifts you'd like to sign up for in December and January! Please specify which location you are signing up for.

Orientations for NEW WSB volunteers will begin in January, so look for info in next month's newsletter.

Trash Bash Recap

Trash Bash Bags 367 pounds!

The first annual Trash Bash was a trashing success! On November 17th, 170 volunteers joined together in Mission Beach and cleaned up over 367 pounds of trash. Afterwards, volunteers created wonderful works of art from the trash. Congratulations to SDOF Interns, Samara and Nick, for putting together such a successful event.

Thanks to "I Love a Clean San Diego," Vons, and Bruegger's Bagels for their donations to Trash Bash 2007.

Congratulations to the winners!
1st place: Trash Ties You Down
2nd place: Belmont the Turkey
3rd place: The Community Cup
Special award winners: The Toxic Party Man, The Trash Guy Chuck, Under the Sea.

Trash Bash Art Exhibit
Friday, December 21 | 5:30 - 8:00 pm
Wyland Gallery | 1025 Prospect St, La Jolla 92037
Come see the amazing works of art created by volunteers and learn how trash affects our environment.

Click here to see more pictures from the event!

White Seabass Restocking Project

9,855 White Seabass released!

Thank you to everyone who helped these fish grow since September! The average length of this batch of WSB was 9.68 inches and 4.67 ounces. It will still be a few years until these fish reach "legal" size (28 inches) and become fair game for fisherman, but until then they will add to the natural White Seabass population and keep the population at a sustainable level. To date, the state-wide White Seabass Restocking project, run in conjunction with Hubbs SeaWorld Research Institute, has released 1.5 million WSB, including 217,750 this year!

We'd like to thank the Port of San Diego for their financial support for allowing this program to exist!

Click here to see more pictures from the release!

Tag Recovery Update
From January - August 2007, thirty-one hatchery-reared, tagged WSB were recovered... a record recovery year! Eight of these fish were juveniles (less than 28 inches) recovered in the OREHP nearshore gillnet sampling program, while others (28+ in) came from commercial markets (13), recreational fishermen (8) and spearfishermen (2). Four fish raised and released by SDOF volunteers were recovered in 2007... maybe a fish YOU helped released has added to our knowledge of the WSB population and has helped us gauge the restocking efforts!

Brand New Mission Bay Pen

In November, several "handy" volunteers gathered to construct a brand new White Seabass Pen for Mission Bay. After a full day's work of measuring, cutting, priming, glueing and assembling, the pen was finally ready to be launched into the bay, but the big question still loomed... "Will it float?"
Click here to learn the answer.

Thanks to Kai Schumann, Tom Candaux, Bill Eckles, Bret Loughridge, Mark McCullough, and Jim Kinane for their hard work and the San Diego Fish and Advisory Wildlife Commiddion for the funding to complete this project!

Volunteer Spotlight

Recognizing Volunteers Who Go Above and Beyond

Kai Schumann - SDOF President 2004-2007

"I hold a deep love for the ocean and everything in it. Volunteering for the San Diego Oceans Foundation has been one of my life highlights, there are not many organizations out there that put as much into ocean stewardship with purely volunteer work. The San Diego Oceans Foundation is one of them. We do not have highly paid attorneys on staff, and the foundation officers are all volunteers - which means that other than running the office, the maximum possible amount of money can go to foundation programs.

I've spent many years on the board of directors, and the past three as president. This month my term of office will come to a close, and I will no longer be a foundation officer - but I will continue to be a foundation volunteer - right alongside all the rest of all the great volunteers we have." - Kai Schumann

Thank you Kai, for all of your years of hard work and dedication to the Foundation- you have helped make it what it is today!

Anita D'Amato - Wreck Alley Mooring Project

Anita has been volunteering with the Wreck Alley Mooring project for over a year, replacing moorings that have come loose, finding strongholds on Wrecks for new lines, and keeping track of wear on the wrecks and the moorings. The Wreck Alley Mooring project was started in 2002 to provide permanent public moorings on San Diego's most popular artificial reefs: The Yukon, Ruby E, NOSC Tower and El Rey.

She says, "It is just a small thing I get to do that helps to reduce wear on the wrecks and gives people a sure way to find these wrecks. It is very cool to come out to the wrecks on a summer day and see all the moorings in use.. like an ocean park. I think to my self, hey I did that!" Keep up the good work Anita!