Chad Nelsen is the head of The Surfrider Foundation, a grassroots environmental organization dedicated to protecting oceans and beaches. Its major programmatic work is carried out by sixty local chapters around America. They've more than forty thousand members, as well as affiliates in Europe, Brazil, Australia, and Japan. Its membership is made up of surfers, swimmers, divers, bodyboarders, kayakers, and beach enthusiasts who have learned to be effective advocates for the ocean environment they value.
At any given time, the Surfrider Foundation is tackling more than 100 campaigns across the country. The Surfrider network works to protect clean water, healthy beaches, ocean protection, coastal preservation and beach access for all people.
Lyrics to the song that was inspired by the interview:
PLASTIC SEA
Out there in middle of each ocean
Is a high-pressure gyres with little motion
All the rubbish collects there
Swirls in from everywhere
There they form a plastic sea
The bad news is the problems getting smaller
As the pieces become too small to collect from a trawler
Just because plastic don't break down
Doesn't mean it can't be ground
Now everywhere's the plastic sea
The process has already long begun
And soon there will be more plastic than plankton
It works its way up the food chain
And makes a home in your brain
Welcome to the plastic sea
So don't be surprised when the next time you gut a fish
And find it its stomach filled with plastic bits
All the chemicals in its flesh
That soon you will digest
As you eat the plastic sea
They're already discussing the possibility
Of how it affects our virility
They said there wasn't proof
Until nobody can reproduce
Of course it was the plastic sea
And they say there's no reversal
And it's only going to get worse so
Better keep your DNA on ice
And then as the sea levels rise
Keep your eggs and your sperm held high
Don't use an oil-based lube
Store them in a glass test tube
As you wade into the plastic sea
And then in 10,000 years time
They dig down to the plastic line
We got what we deserved
But at least we are preserved
Perfectly in the plastic sea
Perfectly in the plastic sea
Forever in the sea
Forever in the sea