The Save The Waves App empowers the global surfing and beach-going communities to crowdsource key data on the most pressing issues facing our coastal communities. Users document threats they encounter in surf ecosystems such as plastic pollution, impaired water quality, loss of coastal access, and sea-level rise where it is immediately displayed on the global coastal threat map. We connect this data with partner organizations and with the projects we are implementing around the globe. The primary goal is to harness the power of the global network of surfers and beach-goers to inform, educate and develop solutions to coastal threats.
The app works by Users snapping a photo of the impacted site, select a threat category from the menu and include a brief comment. The photo is geotagged by the phone’s GPS and then synched with a mapping function to display on the app. We then share with partner agencies and take action as a coalition.
Users can go beyond providing critical data and take action by responding to the threat. Through the “Take Action” function, users can select personal steps they can take to respond to threat, connect to ongoing stewardship projects in the area or create their own, and make requests to local agencies and organizations that can most effectively respond to the particular category of the threat.