Oil drilling interests threatened the Central California coastline in the late 1970's.  The Santa Cruz community came together to fight the placement of oil rigs off shore.  When that battle was won in 1978, the all-volunteer grassroots efforts decided to create a citizen action organization to protect the Monterey Bay from future threats.  This is the story of how Save Our Shores was born...

A Timeline of Save Our Shores' History

1978

• Save Our Shores is founded as an all-volunteer grassroots organization dedicated to marine conservation throughout California's Central Coast.

1981

• SOS organizes the first coastal cleanup along the North Coast of Santa Cruz County.

1985

• Having a successful 7 year history of organizing citizens, the City of Santa Cruz partners Save Our Shores and hires Dan Haifley to generate public support for a statewide ban on Offshore Oil Drilling

1985 - 1988

• Save Our Shores staff travel all over California getting Cities and Counties to not let Offshore Oil Drilling have onshore facilities approved for construction. This culminates in 26 Cities and Counties from San Diego to Humboldt passing anti-oil zoning bans.

1987

• The City of Santa Cruz along with some other municipalities and counties survive a lawsuit from the Western Oil and Gas Association, for its laws pertaining to offshore oil drilling facilities.

1988

• Leon Panetta secured congressional authorization to start planning a National Marine Sanctuary in the Monterey Bay Area. The momentum against Offshore Oil Drilling that SOS helped generate becomes support for a marine sanctuary
• Dan Haifley represents SOS on the Environmental Working Group (EWG) as Co-Chair, to advocate for the best boundary for the proposed Monterey Bay National Marine Sanctuary

1988 - 1992

• SOS and the EWG build a ecological case and public support for the best boundary for the proposed Marine Sanctuary, by giving over 300 slide-show presentations to local governments, school classrooms, and service clubs.

1988-1992

• 4,000 citizens to attend public hearings and submit comments of support for a marine sanctuary

1992

• President George H.W. Bush in an attempt to appeal to moderate Republicans, and Independents in the 1992 election creates the Monterey Bay National Marine Sanctuary with the boundary supported by SOS and EWG.

*President George H.W. Bush would not have created the Sanctuary had there not been such a large support and public mobilization for it*

• SOS launches the Sanctuary Watch Hotline and it begins ringing on Day One.

1994

• The Association of Monterey Bay Area Government's MBNMS Award is given to SOS as "Organization of the Year."
• SOS set a state-wide legal precedent by requiring that the City of Santa Cruz control illegal sewage outflow into the Sanctuary.

1995

• SOS launches the first Sanctuary Stewards course. 
• SOS prevented the highly controversial Acoustic Thermometry of Ocean Climate (ATOC) experiemental project from being implemented in the MBNMS.

1996

• SOS helped strengthen the Magnuson Fishery Conservation and Management Act.
• SOS mobilizes the community to renew the Outer Continental Shelf Moratorium on offshore oil development.
• SOS opens an office in Half Moon Bay to serve northern communities of the Monterey Bay, Gulf of Farallones, and Cordell Bank National Marine Sanctuaries.
• SOS received the 1996 Sanctuary Currents Award from the MBNMS in honor of our ongoing support of the Sanctuary.

1997

• SOS initiates a volunteer program called "DockWalkers” to provide information and tools to help boaters safely discard their oil and waste products. To this day, DockWalkers serves as a model for harbors and marinas throughout California.

1998

• In colaboration with NOAA, the U.S. Coast Guard, the shipping industry, and other stakeholders, SOS co-authored the recommended vessel traffic management system for Central California.

1999

• SOS expands its educational activities in Spanish for Santa Cruz and Monterey Counties.

2000

• In collaboration with NOAA and key stakeholders, SOS begins participation in an extensive Sanctuary Management Plan Review to identify and address a variety of vital issues that affect Monterey Bay, Gulf of the Farallones, and Cordell Bank National Marine Sanctuaries.

2001

• SOS chairs the Conservation Working Group (CWG) for the MBNMS Advisory Council. CWG makes 13 consensus-based environmental recommendations to the Sanctuaries Joint Management Plan Review.

2002

• SOS hosted the first Central California Fishermen’s Forum on Marine Protected Areas in March, 2002. Attended by 170 local fishermen, marine scientists, environmental organizations, marine resource managers, and government decision-makers, this premiere conference equipped central coast fishermen to better participate in the region’s ongoing MPA decision-making processes.

2003

• 1,641 students (grades K-12) and 168 parents from five surrounding counties participated in Save Our Shores Sea Lion Steward Marine Education Program. In this unique program a trained (rehabilitated) sea lion serves as ambassador for the ocean teaching students the importance of marine protected areas, adaptations of marine mammals, impacts of plastics and marine debris on wildlife, importance of recycling and what they can do to help protect our local and global oceans.

2004

• Save Our Shores was instrumental in achieving the installation of permanent bilge-pump facilities at each of the regional harbors. The pumps are offered free of charge to boaters to pump oily bilge water and dispose of it appropriately, thus preventing a serious pollutant from entering Sanctuary waters.

2005

• Save Our Shores expanded its work with the Spanish speaking population by making presentations on marine policy issues to youth and adults at central coast community centers, promoting and delivering an interactive, bi-lingual puppet show with ocean conservation messages and sponsoring interpretive beach clean-up activities.

2006

• SOS forms the Clean Beaches Coalition with Surfrider Foundation, Ecology Action, and Pack Your Trash to conduct joint monthly beach cleanups and encourage year-round stewardship for clean beaches.

2007

• SOS coordinates 3,100 volunteers on Annual Coastal Cleanup Day at 39 sites in Santa Cruz County. Over 10,000 pounds of trash were collected by volunteers on beaches and rivers, kayakers on kelp beds, and divers under the Santa Cruz Wharf.
• SOS Marine Visitors Center opens at the Santa Cruz Harbor.
• SOS supports efforts to encourage the Department of Fish and Game to approve 29 new Marine Protected Areas along the California Central Coast. The MPAs were made official on April 13th.