* Social Action Research

Name: Emma

The client:
Overview of the client.
Who are they, when did they start, why did they start, what do they do, how are they funded?
Surfers Against Sewage (SAS) are an environmental charity organisation who are determined to protect
the UKs beaches, oceans and waves so that they can be enjoyed by all and to make them safe.
Established in 1990 by a group of surfers in the villages of St Agnes and Porthtown in Cornwall, they
wanted to create a national campaign for better water quality.
They target costal environments that have issues such as litter, sewage pollution, chemicals, climate
change, shipping, industry and coastal development. The aim is to create big improvements in the state
of our oceans, waves and beaches through changes in the behaviour of the public, government policy and
industry practises.
Their objectives are to: Undertake and promote for the benefit of the public the conservation,
protection, improvement and ecologically sustainable management of the marine environment including
associated land, shoreline and structures;
To advance the education of the public in the conservation, protection, improvement and ecologically
sustainable management of the marine environment including associated land, shoreline and structures.
The SAS are funded through membership donations, subscriptions, individual and corporate donations,
grant making bodies, merchandise profit, fundraising events who support the organisation and project
sponsorship. They have a policy to make sure that corporate sponsorship agreements are ethical and one
that would not compromise the SASs position.

The issues:
Your client advocates on a number of different yet related issues.
What issues your client campaign on?
The issues they campaign on are:
Water Quality, e.g. Sewage By providing surfers and beach users with a sewage alert service,
information about sewage discharges at beaches nationwide will be sent to those users so they know to
avoid it at that time. They also plan to lobby the water industries for further action to reduce the
frequency of sewage.
Protecting Waves They plan on protecting the UK surf spots from environmental damage, development
impacts and negative impacts on wave quality. As well as this, they also plan to promote the rights of
surfers to have sustainable access to all waves in the UK. By campaigning for increased legislation to
recognise the value of surfing, they hope to be able to protect the UKs surf spot heritage.
Marine Litter They plan to get companies to invest in low impact packaging and to improve recycling
targets to help reduce the amount of marine litter that end up on the beaches and in the ocean. They
also hope to get thousands of volunteers to help take direct action through cleaning up the beaches
around the UK.
Climate Change They want to encourage surfers to reduce their carbon footprint wherever possible is
one of the issues they plan on changing as well as supporting offshore renewable energy sources that
provide clean, safe energy without compromising on the quality of the waves or marine environment.
Education and Reports By delivering education presentations in schools, they are able to educate and
inspire the next generation of surfers and non-surfers who can protect the UKs beaches and oceans.
Scientific Research By delivering scientific reports to identity the problems as well as the sustainable
solutions which will be achievable, you are able to manage the problems in order the protect the
coastlines.
They plan on training a network of local SAS ambassadors and experts who will help protect and promote
the coastal environment, waves and beaches worldwide.

The issues:
What are some of the impacts they have managed to achieve?
They have managed to gather a lot of volunteers that helped to clean up some of the beaches around the
UK and in some sessions have cleared up to 60 tonnes of waste.
They also visited some schools around the UK to inform them about their campaigns, so they can
understand and educate them about the beaches, oceans and waves.
SAS distributed marine litter campaign materials to hundreds of businesses throughout the UK.
What are they still hoping to achieve?
Influences governments on key issues affecting oceans, beaches and recreational water users and
policies needed to deliver a cleaner and safer marine environment.
Creates volunteering opportunities for individuals and communities to be involved with activities to
safeguard our seas, coastlines and beaches.
Educates communities on the achievable, sustainable solutions, which can help protect our waves,
oceans and beaches.
Challenges industry to adopt better standards to protect our coastal environment.
Promotes scientific, economic and health evidence to support calls for a cleaner and safer marine
environment.
Informs the general public about issues affecting UK waves, oceans and beaches, and those that use
them.
http://www.sas.org.uk/about/

Facts and figures:

Use this space to highlight key facts and figures related to this project. These could be very useful later
on in your project as you try to raise awareness.
Marine Litter: Break the bag habit In Northern Ireland and Wales, the number of single-use bags has
fallen between 70-96% thats been estimated by retailers. Before the Irish introduced levy plastic bags,
the amount of litter was 5%, but has now fallen to 0.32%.
In 2013, a survey conducted that there were over 48 single-use bags for every km of beach.
Think before you flush In 2014, SRD (Sewage Related Debris) were responsible for 235,000 blockages in
the sewer system which ended up costing over 80 million to clean up.
Mermaids Tears They aim to reduce the amount of marine litter by 50% by the year 2020.
Beach Cleans SAS aim to assemble between 10,000-12,000 volunteers in 2015 across the beach,
activities and campaigns. In 2014, over 9715 people volunteered at 335 different SAS beach clean events,
in which they removed almost 60 tonnes of waste.
Water Quality: If you regularly swim in polluted seawater, you are advised to discuss a Hepatitis A
vaccination, The UK water industry estimate that there are around 150,000 sewage blockages cause by
pouring fats, oils and greases down the sink.