Fellow Story

Recommendations for Sustainable Boating in California

Fellow(s): Colleen Callahan, Leslie Abramson, Caitlin Crain, Linwood Pendleton, Karleen Boyle Sudol
Topic(s): Coastal & Marine Conservation

Written by Collen Callahan

I would like to share the below announcement about "Soak it Up! A Briefing Paper on the Impacts of Oil Spills and Leaks with Strategies for Sustainability," made possible through a Switzer Network Innovation grant. You can read the original article here. Thank you to Lissa Widoff, Executive Director of the Switzer Foundation, who connected me with Switzer Fellows Leslie Abramson, Caitlin Mullan Crain, Linwood Pendleton, and Karleen Boyle Sudol. These Fellows provided insightful feedback and helpful advice throughout the study; I greatly appreciate their support and collaboration. I welcome other Switzer Fellow to get involved in the next phase of the project involving outreach and advocacy…

The Los Angeles Sustainability Collaborative, with support from the Switzer Foundation, is pleased to present “Soak it Up! A Briefing Paper on the Impacts of Oil Leaks and Spills from Recreational Boating and Strategies for Sustainability.” This report investigates the world of recreational boating and recommends strategies for sustainable boating in California, with applicability to other US states.

At least 96 percent of surveyed motor boaters in California report that oil leaks into the bottom of their boat’s bilge or engine compartment most of the time or every time they use their boat. These incidental leaks add up to a significant, but under-explored problem that requires solutions to protect our water resources.

LASC partnered with Model Environment volunteers Carla Houston and Nina Smidt, who had been providing boaters environmental education in Southern California with the Dockwalkers program. They found the number of daily oil spills and leaks alarming and contacted the LASC. Colleen Callahan, LASC Research Director, and LASC Fellow Matthew Christensen authored the paper, incorporating data and insights from recreational boaters, scientists and policy experts, many of whom are part of the Switzer Foundation network.

This collaboration and the resulting paper was made possible by a Network Innovations Grants from the Switzer Foundation. Another partner on the project, the organization Environment California, seeks to use the paper’s recommendations to inform a legislative campaign.

The briefing paper is available at www.lasustainability.org

Meet the Fellows in this Story

Colleen Callahan

2009 Fellow
Colleen Callahan is co-executive director of the UCLA Luskin Center for Innovation, which unites the intellectual capital of UCLA with forward-looking civic leaders to advance environmental sustainability through scholarship, research, and...
Leslie Abramson

Leslie Abramson

2008 Fellow
Leslie currently is the Advisory Council Coordinator at the Gulf of the Farallones National Marine Sanctuary in San Francisco. She is the recipient of a Switzer Leadership grant this year, to coordinate a stakeholder process focused on...
Caitlin Crain

Caitlin Crain

2005 Fellow
Caitlin Crain is a coastal ecologist, studying the dynamics of coastal ecosystems to better protect and restore resilient, functioning systems that benefit nature and people. She specializes in coastal wetlands and the multiple stressors impacting their health and function including sea-level rise and climate change. She works at landscape scales and with the diverse human communities that are impacted by coastal climate change.
Linwood Pendleton

Linwood Pendleton

1994 Fellow
I am the ED of the Ocean Knowledge Action Network and the Science Director for the Moonjelly Foundation. I facilitate a close community of people from around the world who want to share knowledge about co-designing ocean science for a healthier and more diverse ocean. At Moonjelly, I work with our Indigenous and local partners to create new ways of applying bottom-up, trust-based philanthropy to fund traditional and local knowledge collection as well as Indigenous researchers and scientists.

Karleen Boyle Sudol

1994 Fellow
Karleen graduated from UCLA with a BA in English and a PhD in biology with an emphasis in marine ecology. Karleen's research focused on human impacts in the marine environment. Her dissertation investigated nutrient cycling and the effects...