In 1996, all 50 states and more than 100 countries sponsored events to commemorate Coastweeks, the annual three-week celebration of our coasts. Only 15 years old, Coastweeks has inspired millions of volunteers worldwide to participate in events as wide-ranging and diverse as the coasts they inhabit. 

Barbara Fegan, a self-proclaimed environmentalist from Wellfleet, Mass., has been credited as the founder of Coastweeks. In 1980, Fegan was one of several people who attended the Coastal Alliance's "Year of the Coast" conference. The conference, says Fegan, was a reaffirmation of the newly enacted Coastal Zone Management Act. "It was a concerted effort among people interested in the coast-industry, labor and trade unions, environmentalists, developers, and so forth-to take a serious look at coastal issues and support some serious changes." 
 
The following year, nothing happened, recalls Fegan. But in the fall of 1982, the Coastal Society held its annual meeting in Baltimore. "At that meeting, attendees-mostly academi-cians and agency types-looked around the room and wondered, 'Where have all our constituents gone? They were here for "Year of the Coast," but they aren't here now.' I suggested, at the final session, that we needed an occasion to draw constituents in: a celebration. Something that didn't belong to anyone." Fegan calls the idea her 'two o'clock in the morning "a-ha."' 

Upon her return home, Fegan worked to promote the idea of an annual celebration of the coasts, held during the Columbus Day weekend. She decided to do a mailing, using mailing lists from environmental organizations she was involved with-Sierra Club and League of Women Voters-to generate interest. "I used my first social security check to buy stamps," she said. Sure enough, everyone who responded-over 250 people-thought it was a good idea. The "it," she recalls, was simply, "a network of people who would do something in October to celebrate the coast." 

Fegan created a four-page list of "things you can do" to celebrate the coast and circulated it to the same mailing list. Coastweek-as it was originally called-"spread throughout the whole country out of those early mailings," she said. 
 
 

From those ambitious beginnings, Coastweek expanded to become Coastweeks. The celebration has also expanded geographically, to include in-land states-where participants define "coast" to include rivers, streams, lakes, and ponds-and foreign countries. 

The tie-in with beach cleanups, known as Coastsweeps, was a natural, Fegan said. An early 1980s conference on marine debris, held in Hawaii, fueled the idea for organized beach cleanups on the West Coast, held in late September. Rather than competing for volunteers and publicity, the two concepts merged, and beach cleanups have served to "kick off" the Coastweeks celebration every year. 
 
 

The Center for Marine Conservation (CMC) in Washington, D.C., has compiled data on the annual beach cleanups since 1986, and has served as the overall coordinator for Coastweeks since 1994. According to Seba Sheavly, project director for citizen outreach and monitoring at CMC, approximately 250,000 volunteers participated in the 1996 coastal cleanup. "Volunteers," she said, "have collected everything-including the kitchen sink! 

"Marine debris is very much a people problem," said Sheavly. "We use the data to help enact legislation and to reinforce local efforts to handle solid waste more efficiently. People seem to have developed a complacency about recycling," she said. "There is a tendency for people to think of the recycling bins in their community as the solution. About 60 percent of what is collected during coastal cleanups is recyclable and approximately 80 percent is land-based in source," she said. "This means that we need to do a better job encouraging recycling, reducing pollution at the source, and reusing materials." Sheavly said the data is also used as a benchmark to view progress. 

Though there has been a gradual decline in the amount of debris collected in recent years, a large increase in participation from the dive community may cause an increase in the 1996 tally, according to Sheavly. Total numbers of participants and amount of debris collected in the 1996 cleanups will be available during the summer of 1997. For more information about these totals, contact the Center for Marine Conservation at (804) 851-6734. 

Sea Grant's role in the annual Coastweeks celebrations has a long history. In Massachusetts, for example, Madeleine HallArber, an anthropologist and head of the Center for Marine Social Science at MIT Sea Grant, served as the original Coastweeks coordinator from 1983 to 1990. HallArber started the Coastweeks events calendar for Massachusetts by contacting organizations listed in the MIT Sea Grant publication Citizen's Guide: Sources for Marine and Coastal Information in Massachusetts, and offering to publish their Coastweeks events in a flyer. It didn't take long for the flyer to become a booklet. Coastweeks events calendars are now common in states that celebrate Coastweeks. (To find out how to get a Coastweeks calendar of events for your state, see the list at the end of this article.) 

A sampling of Sea Grant's involvement in the annual Coastweeks celebration is depicted on these pages. The variety of activities, many conducted outdoors and often hands-on in nature, are meant to offer something for everyone-to instill in participants a sense of connectedness to the coastal environment, and, of course, fun! For more information about Coastweeks, or to volunteer at a beach cleanup or suggest ideas for events, contact your nearest Sea Grant program. Participate in Coastweeks '97-you'll be glad you did! 

Tracey I. Crago is Communicator for WHOI Sea Grant.