Serge Dedina and his son Daniel in Baja California.
Serge Dedina is the author of Wild Sea: Eco-Wars and Surf Stories from the Coast of the Californias and Saving the Gray Whale ( University of Arizona Press. He is the co-founder and Executive Director of WiLDCOAST/COSTASALVAjE, an international organization that conserves coastal and marine ecosystems and wildlife.
Since 1980, Serge Dedina has dedicated most of his time to protecting the coastal wildlands of the Californias. He has successfully worked with fishing communities and grassroots organizations on both sides of the Mexico-U.S. border to preserve more than one million acres of globally significant coastal and marine habitats.
He is the former founding director of The Nature Conservancy’s Baja California and Sea of Cortez Program. Serge was instrumental in the development of two national parks along Baja’s Sea of Cortez coastline and a research and educational center in Magdalena Bay. He also initiated an international campaign that successfully stopped the Mitsubishi Corporation from destroying San Ignacio Lagoon—the world’s last undeveloped gray whale lagoon.
Serge Dedina surfing Imperial Beach. Photo: Jeff Wallis.
Serge Dedin and Laird Hamilton at the 2003 Waterman's Ball.
The Surf Industry Manufacturer’s Association named Serge the “Environmentalist of the Year” in 2003 for his work to protect the coastline of Baja California. In 2009 he received the San Diego Zoological Society’s Conservation Medal. The California Coastal Commission and Sunset Magazine awarded Serge the “Coastal Hero” award in 2009 in recognition of his conservation work. He is also a member of the Sweetwater Union High School District Hall of Fame.
Serge helped broker a deal to protect 140,000 acres (570 km2) at Laguna San Ignacio, a UNESCO World Heritage site. He also helped to stop plans by Mexican government agency FONATUR, to build mega-resorts in some of the most isolated coastal regions and national parks in Northwest Mexico. The “Don’t Eat Sea Turtle Campaign” carried out by WiLDCOAST reached more than 300 million people and was called the “best ocean campaign in human history” by Shifting Baselines Director Randy Olson.
Serge is currently leading an effort to preserve Baja’s central Pacific coastline, a project that was featured in the October 2009 issue of Surfer Magazine and has resulted in the conservation of close to 20 miles (32 km) of pristine coastline.
Serge Dedina about to surf the frigid waters of the south island of New Zealand 2009.
In 2004, Serge launched a “Clean Water Now” campaign along the San Diego-Tijuana portion of the U.S.-Mexico Border that led to the construction of a new sewage treatment plan on the U.S. side of the border in the Tijuana River Valley. Serge also helped to initiate a new program to support the restoration and conservation of the Otay Valley Regional Park.
Serge is directing a new initiative to preserve endangered shark populations in Mexico. In 2009 Serge worked with a national coalition of environmentalists and fishing groups, Senator Tom Coburn, and the Obama White House to kill plans by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to spend hundreds of millions of dollars to carry out destructive pork-barrell dredge and fill projects nationwide.
The Wall Street Journal, PBS, The Today Show, NBC Nightly News, New York Times, CNN, CBS-News, USA-Today, the Washington Post, The Economist, Los Angeles Times, Newsweek, Boston Globe, Christian Science Monitor, and the San Diego Union-Tribune have reported on Serge’s conservation activities.
Serge has published articles on the environment and surfing in the Los Angeles Times, Grist, VoiceofSanDiego.org, San Diego News Network, Surfline, The Surfer’s Journal, San Diego Union-Tribune, The Surfer’s Path, Journal of Borderlands Studies, and California Coast and Ocean. He writes a weekly column, Southwest Surf, on surfing and the coastal environment for Imperial Beach Patch and Coronado Patch, owned by AOL.
He holds a Ph.D. in Geography from the University of Texas at Austin. He received his Master’s degree in Geography from the University of Wisconsin and a Bachelor’s degree in Political Science from the University of California-San Diego.
Serge Dedina surfing Imperial Beach. Photo: Alan Jackson.
Serge Dedina and family (left to right--Israel, wife Emily, and son Daniel) on Baja's East Cape, 2010
An avid surfer, Serge is a former State of California Ocean Lifeguard. He has lived, surfed, worked and studied in El Salvador, Mexico, Peru, Spain, England, France and Morocco. Serge currently lives in his hometown of Imperial Beach with his wife Emily and sons Israel and Daniel.
