Water. It\u2019s a fact of life for all living things, but none more so than those of us who thrive in a coastal zone \u2014 especially those of us who enjoy it for its diversions, in addition to its life-giving characteristics. To honor those who devote themselves to the necessary work of protecting the waterways, San Diego Coastkeeper presented eight awards to local environmental leaders on June 8, World Oceans Day. Among those honored at the ceremony at Birch Aquarium, fittingly overlooking La Jolla\u2019s marine protected areas and areas of special biological significance (ASBS) was La Jolla\u2019s Hike Bike Kayak, owned by David Teafatiller and Angela Harrell. Recognized for building a tourism business that combines recreational activity with education about San Diego\u2019s unique marine ecosystems, Hike Bike Kayak also received the ASBS Special Recognition for its contribution to protecting the ASBS, one of the most pristine and biologically unique coastal areas in California. Hike Bike Kayak specializes in environmental education and wildlife-focused tours around San Diego, cornering the ecotourism market. Also honored at the event was County Supervisor Pam Slater-Price, who received the Lighthouse Lifetime Achievement Award for her commitment to clean water throughout her time in public office. During her 20-year career on the Board of Supervisors \u2014 which will end this year as she steps down, declining to seek a sixth term \u2014 Slater-Price has championed environmental causes, securing nearly $10 million in funding for environmental projects in San Diego and allocating a $112,000 grant for the foundation of open-air classrooms at San Dieguito River Park. She has supported stormwater regulation, water-quality testing and posting of contamination warnings, restoration of the San Dieguito wetlands, land acquisitions and construction of the San Elijo Lagoon visitors\u2019 center, making her an easy pick for the lifetime achievement award. “Having grown up in San Diego since the age of 6, I have always loved the ocean,” Slater-Price said as she accepted the award. “When I was a teacher, I?told my students we would lose our lives if we lost the oceans.” Slater-Price emphasized the importance of education when it comes to protecting resources, pointing to the particular importance of educating inland, inner city and urban youth. “Children are such avid learners, it\u2019s almost embarassingly easy [to educate them],” she said. After the ceremony, as the winners gathered on Birch Aquarium\u2019s terrace overlooking the Pacific, Slater-Price said she was thrilled with the honor. “This is the reason I ran [for office], to preserve the environment and ocean, and to educate people,” she said. “It\u2019s important to recognize these treasures so they\u2019re not destroyed.” As for what she\u2019ll do after she leaves office, Slater-Price said she has received plenty of “good offers,” but she hasn\u2019t made any decisions yet. “But I\u2019ve never believed in keeping my mouth shut and going with the crowd,” she said. “I will not abandon advocating for environmental causes when I leave office.” Others recognized for their efforts to protect fishable, swimmable and drinkable waters: \u2022 Runoff Rockstar Award<\/b>: Oscar Romo of the Tijuana River National Estuarine Research Reserve for spearheading restoration and preservation projects throughout the Tijuana River watershed. \u2022 Find and Fix Award:<\/b> The Escondido Creek Conservancy for identifying abandoned cars in the Escondido Creek and acting decisively to fix the problem. \u2022 Blue Tech Award:<\/b> Carlos Zamora of Z Data Solutions for innovation in the development of a crowd-sourcing application and website to empower community members, organizations and agencies to track and reduce pollution in San Diego County. \u2022 Water Wise Award:<\/b> San Diego Public Utilities Department\u2019s Residential Outdoor Water Conservation Rebate Program for helping more than 300 customers conserve 61.8-million gallons of water over 10 years by offering rebates for smart controllers, micro-irrigation, turf replacement and rain barrels. \u2022 Volunteers of the Year:<\/b> Beth and Bruce Hendershot for relentlessly donating their time to Coastkeeper\u2019s water-quality monitoring lab. The duo have dedicated at least one weekend a month for several years to gathering, delivering and analyzing water quality samples in North County. Winners received a handmade glass sculpture depicting one of the sea creatures their work helps to protect. James Stone of Stone and Glass designed, created and donated the award sculptures to commemorate his dedication to the ocean.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Water. It\u2019s a fact of life for all living things, but none more so than those of us who thrive in a coastal zone \u2014 especially those of us who enjoy it for its diversions, in addition to its life-giving characteristics. To honor those who devote themselves to the necessary work of protecting the waterways, […]<\/p>","protected":false},"author":726,"featured_media":267031,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"11560","_seopress_titles_title":"Coastkeeper honors the champions of the ocean","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":[],"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_social_meta":[],"jnews_override_counter":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[11560,11551],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-267030","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-la-jolla-village-news","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/267030","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/726"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=267030"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/267030\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/267031"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=267030"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=267030"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=267030"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}