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Big Waves Meet Biodiversity: Why Surfing Paradises Could Offer a Key Opportunity for Marine Conservation
A recent mapping study examines places in northwestern Africa where coastal ecosystems overlap with surf breaks, highlighting areas that could support recreation, the environment and local economies, if protected
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It’s increasingly rare to find hundreds of miles of untouched coastline, with rolling waves that stretch nearly as far as you can see in any direction. But for conservation ecologist Grégoire Touron-Gardic, the beaches of West Africa offer one of these highly coveted places: a surfer’s paradise.
Many shorelines around the world were once surf paradises, too, but they have become inundated with tourists and upmarket development, he says. In some cases, pollution has soiled the beaches, or changes in coastal infrastructure have affected the waves. But countries like Senegal and Liberia offer the kind of pristine landscape that many surfers crave. Touron-Gardic sees these places as having limitless conservation potential—by partnering surfers with conservationists, he hopes, these beaches can remain relatively pure.
“Protecting the waves might have cascading benefits for the whole coastal area,” says Touron-Gardic, who is a surfer himself. It offers “a new angle for marine conservation.”
Touron-Gardic came across the idea of wave conservation several years ago, when he saw a French documentary about wave reserves, or protected areas for surfing. He was struck by the fact that they resembled marine protected areas meant to preserve aquatic resources, which he had been studying in northwestern Africa. The similarities made him wonder whether strategically protecting surfer spots might also conserve diverse ecosystems in Africa. In 2022, as a PhD researcher at the University of Portsmouth in the United Kingdom, he and a colleague published a paper addressing the importance of wave reserves.
Waves themselves, they wrote, promote gas exchange between the oceans and the atmosphere, enrich beaches with sediment, and provide habitat for aquatic species. But surfable waves can be vulnerable to environmental change and human activity. The best surfing areas are located near surf breaks, or obstacles that block the force of incoming waves. These obstructions—often reefs or sandbars but sometimes an artificial block like concrete—cause the incoming water to push upward, curl up and break in a way that’s ideal for surfing.
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Breaks can be subject to “threats that compromise, even eliminate their ability to produce surfable waves,” says Michael Blum, executive director of Sea of Clouds, a nonprofit organization focused on preservation of landscapes, including surf spots. In his master’s thesis on surf protection, Blum named impaired water quality and industrialization as threats to surf sites. Kelp harvesting, offshore wind energy projects and sediment shifts caused by changes in how inland waterways flow into the ocean can also change the shape of or eliminate a surf break, he adds, and the obstacles can also be damaged by erosion, pollution and coastal development.
Even as surf spots are put at risk, research has revealed that many of these areas are found near protected sites for biodiversity. This proximity highlights their potential as effective places to conserve—extending protection to these areas not only could safeguard their recreational value, but it might also increase protections for diverse species, according to a paper from 2021.
This year, after Touron-Gardic completed his PhD, he and his colleagues published a paper in Conservation Letters to highlight specific opportunities for conserving both waves and biodiversity in one fell swoop. They used geospatial mapping to identify beaches in 15 African countries where great waves crash upon biodiverse coasts or near thriving marine ecosystems. They examined 146 surf spots in West Africa and the Atlantic Maghreb, a region in North Africa, and found that 96 of those spots, or nearly two-thirds, are located in or near an important area for biodiversity. Fifty-nine of those were in or near a marine protected area, which offers some legally enforceable protection measures. The rest were not.
Expanding protected areas to include these surf spots or creating new protected areas for these sites could help surfers, local economies and the environment, his team argues. Legal protections for surf sites, such as those offered by marine protected areas, might establish environmental monitoring, restrict coastal development, promote enforcement against illegal activities and pollution, or even support conservation initiatives, from mangrove replanting to coral reef restoration.
“Surfing in West Africa and Atlantic Maghreb can represent much more than just a recreational activity; it can act as a catalyst for conserving coastal and marine ecosystems,” the authors write.
By the numbers: Surfing areas and carbon sinks
Seagrass beds, mangroves and other natural areas found within 0.6 miles of surf breaks store 88.3 million metric tons of carbon around the world.
To conduct the study, the team gathered data on the locations of wetlands—such as marshes, mangroves, coral reefs and rivers—of international importance, recognized by the 1971 United Nations Ramsar Convention, an international treaty for conservation and sustainable wetland use. They also recorded the locations of marine protected areas and Key Biodiversity Areas in the region.
The researchers then came up with a list of good surfing spots, including well-known breaks and those recorded in Stormrider surf guides, a popular resource among traveling surfers.
Touron-Gardic mapped out all these locations and looked for sites where important areas for biodiversity overlapped with prime surfing conditions. This work revealed regions like southern Morocco; Dakar, Senegal; Ghana’s Gold Coast; and Robertsport, Liberia. At some sites, “you have pristine coastal rainforest areas with world-class surf spots,” Touron-Gardic says.
Liberia presented a special opportunity, because it has great waves, he adds, but political instability has scared away most surf tourists. Its civil wars ended in 2003, and as the country stabilizes, he believes “it will grow in the future” as a surf destination. Robertsport, on the nation’s coast, has a vibrant surfing community and is increasingly drawing tourists.
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Places like these represent great targets for creating surf conservation projects, Touron-Gardic says, before mass tourism takes over in the area. If a conservation framework is created early, the surfing site is more likely to develop sustainably.
“There is not a lot of that [mass tourism] infrastructure in West Africa,” says Nik Strong-Cvetich, CEO of Save the Waves Coalition, an international nonprofit that works to protect surfing ecosystems. By promoting surf sites for recreation, “There’s an opportunity where locals benefit further from the tourism.”
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Surfers and conservationists haven’t always seen eye to eye. A prominent dispute occurred in Malibu in the 1990s and 2000s, when runoff from onshore development was trickling out through Malibu Creek and polluting one of California’s most storied wave areas, the Surfrider point break. Ecologists argued for restoring coastal wetlands, which act as natural water purifiers, to absorb some of the pollution and improve habitat for marsh-dwelling wildlife. But the local surfers—and many famous Malibu residents—passionately opposed the plan, fearing that changes to the outflow of Malibu Creek would alter the underwater dynamics offshore and alter the waves. The project ultimately happened, and it reportedly improved water quality, according to the state’s Resource Conservation District tracker. But for years, local surfers say, the waves were affected.
For Touron-Gardic, the example reveals a cautionary tale of overprotective locals who put surfing at odds with conservation, but it shouldn’t be taken to represent all surfers. “There is a spectrum of attitudes within surfing communities, ranging from highly engaged environmental stewards to full exclusionary and self-centered persons,” he says.
Unsustainable surfing, meanwhile, may cause problems in the ecosystem. In Gold Coast, Australia, surfers can be packed in nearly shoulder to shoulder, which could disturb marine environments, says Strong-Cvetich. A similar situation in Bali, Indonesia, has resulted in big crowds around well-known surf spots like Kuta Beach. There, waters have become polluted due to the unchecked development that emerged as the area became a wildly popular tourist destination, he says. “It runs the risk of being a victim of its own success.”
In other cases, unscrupulous surfers may trample coral reefs, and Strong-Cvetich notes that the chemicals used to wax surfboards—as well as broken surfboards themselves—can pollute the environment. More tourism typically generates more waste, and surfers who travel around the world to get to remote surf spots also contribute carbon emissions.
“Surfing has the power to create these new incentives for conservation, but it also has the power to be a destructive force for coastal ecosystems,” he adds.
Protecting surf reserves is meant to address some of these problems. “It’s about management and carrying capacity,” Strong-Cvetich says. “It’s an interesting and intriguing challenge and opportunity.”
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Strong-Cvetich, who wasn’t involved in Touron-Gardic’s paper but worked on the 2021 paper about surfing and conservation, lists several examples where Save the Waves has helped protect sensitive surfing spots. Establishing Arroyo San Miguel State Park in northern Baja California in Mexico, for example, safeguarded a beloved surfing break. In 2017, the organization helped to protect Punta de Lobos in Chile, which hosts an iconic surf break as well as an important coastal ecosystem with imperiled species like the Leucostele bolligeriana cactus. Malibu became the organization’s first world surfing reserve in 2009.
Other groups, including Conservation International, have also been working to establish protected surf areas; one such program has instated 22 across Indonesia. The world’s first wave reserve dates back to the early 1970s, created at Bells Beach in Australia.
For Touron-Gardic, safeguarding these sites doesn’t just benefit surfers and the environment. Protecting surf areas can also support local economies, especially if it’s done before sites blow up as major travel destinations. If the planning and protection process is conducted with the involvement of community stakeholders, stricter rules and regulations can give local businesses the opportunity to benefit from surf tourism. Rather than leading to new, large-scale development, protected surf reserves can benefit sustainable local hotels, surf shops, instructors or even small-scale fishing fleets that sell their catch to local restaurants catering to tourists. “You can make livelihoods from surfing,” Touron-Gardic says.
He likes the idea of using ICCAs, or Indigenous and community conserved areas, rather than marine protected areas when possible. These set-ups give the community more control over the coastal regions they often have a close relationship to and the resources they depend on, whether for fishing, surfing or other purposes.
Touron-Gardic now wants to put some of these ideas into practice in places like southern Ghana and Senegal. Publishing this paper was only the first step, he says. Establishing pilot projects in key areas—which would set up surfers, local communities and authorities as environmental stewards—could pave the way toward national networks of wave reserves protected by law.
For Strong-Cvetich, this partnering of ecosystem and surfing conservation answers a long-term problem in which many countries only focus on protecting coasts and inland areas, ignoring everything offshore.
“The ocean and waves aren’t seen necessarily as a resource to be managed,” Strong-Cvetich says. But while waves are important for marine life, they are also important for people who derive physical and mental well-being from surfing and other water sports. “There’s a human component to that ecosystem,” he says.
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