YOU are Invited to #ToastTheCoast on Your Social Media, Sept. 20-27

Tomorrow we’ll all be doing our part to cleanup the coast...volunteering somewhere, picking up trash!

But if you live, work, or recreate anywhere between the Ventura county line and Palos Verdes Peninsula in the 266 square miles of coastline and ocean, you are part of a celebration of the Santa Monica Bay next week!

Starting September 20 and running through September 27, The Bay Foundation (TBF) invites everyone to celebrate Santa Monica Bay as part of National Estuaries Week. Estuaries are the vibrant coastal areas where rivers meet the sea, and people all around the U.S. will be participating. Santa Monica Bay, our estuary, is the birthplace of surf culture, supports fisheries, and is visited by tens of millions of people every year. TBF hopes each of you will share your own special connection with the Bay through your social media of choice during this week, and posts pictures of or relating to Santa Monica Bay, tagging all posts with #ToastTheCoast.

Another easy option is to follow The Bay Foundation’s Facebook, Twitter (@SMBRF) or Instagram (@thebayfoundation) and “share”, “like” or repost/re-Tweet any of our #ToastTheCoast items.

During National Estuaries Week—which coincidentally launches on international Coastal Cleanup Day—TBF encourages everyone to visit your favorite coastal places including the beaches, creeks, and ocean of Santa Monica Bay, as well as the Ballona Wetlands Ecological Reserve (limited access, check for tours), to celebrate our shared estuary. The week provides a great opportunity to learn more about these special places and how everyone can help protect them.

NEW is the nation’s largest volunteer event for estuaries in our country, and this year marks the 26th anniversary of the first National Estuaries Day. This year’s NEW is focusing on the connections between our estuaries and our economy. With growing concern about our nation’s financial health, it is important to recognize the value that protecting and restoring our estuaries delivers to our national economy. In fact, coastal counties provide more than half the nation’s gross domestic product and support more than 69 million jobs—that’s about 40% of US employment!

National Estuaries Day is supported by Restore America’s Estuaries, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, the Environmental Protection Agency, the National Estuarine Research Reserve Association, the Association of National Estuary Programs, and countless other associations and agencies.

More information can be found at http://www.estuaries.org/national-estuaries-day.html, and http://www.santamonicabay.org/ .  See you online!