Mark Massara

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Mark Massara, a surfer and attorney, is the Director of the Sierra Club's California Coastal Campaign. Massara gained a reputation in the surfing and environmental communities when, as counsel for Surfriders in 1991, he won a lawsuit against two pulp-mill companies near Eureka, California that were dumping 40 million gallons of toxic effluents per day into the ocean. The penalty was the second largest collected for Clean Water Act violations. In 2007, his efforts resulted in the California Coastal Commission denial of Pebble Beach Company's plan to cut down over 18,000 trees on the Monterey Peninsula.

Massara founded Surfers Environmental Alliance and the National Association of Surfing Attorneys, and partnered with Ken and Gabrielle Adelman to create a California coastline photographic survey. He is on the board of Vote the Coast and Coastal Advocates, and serves on the advisory board of Save the Waves Coalition. He writes on coastal and environmental legal issues for surfing magazines, Coastwatcher, and other publications.

Massara started in environmental activism at the age of 7. He was living in Santa Barbara when a Union Oil offshore rig leaked 200,000 gallons of oil, and he and his father threw hay bales on the beach and collected dead and dying birds. As a surfer and activist, Massara states, "Surfers bring to the cause of protecting the coast an intimate knowledge of the California coastline and its many resources, along with a zeal for recreation."

When the California Coastal Commission held a hearing on whether to approve a Hearst Corporation proposal to build a series of resorts on one of that last untouched stretches of coastline, surfers protested. Massara and other Club activists organized aerial photos, obtained damning documents about significant Native American resources that would be disturbed by the project, and rounded up a crowd of 1,500 to show up for the hearing. Surfers provided signs for protesters and wore wetsuits to testify against the plan.

"Whether I'm working with surfers, farmers or Chumash Indians, I listen to them, go to their meetings and immerse myself in their perspective and genuinely empathize with their viewpoint," states Massara. "It helps to walk a mile in someone's shoes."

The Smithsonian has declared Massara an "ocean hero."

In May 2007, Massara was featured in Vanity Fair's Green Issue: "He is a polluter's worst nightmare: a longhaired surfer with a law degree. Now that's righteous."

In May 2008, Massara was featured in The New York Times' video entitled Planet Us: The Coastal Warrior.

Mark Massara catching a wave off the coast of California.