Joel Fogel organized and led three coastal water monitoring expeditions in the United States by kayak; 1970: NY to Florida; 1990: NY to Florida; 1991: Washington to California
COASTAL PATROL EAST, 1970: 1500 miles by kayak from New York City to Miami Florida.
In 1970, prior to the formation of the Environmental Protection Agency, Joel Fogel, the expedition leader for the Coastal Patrol, had returned from the University of Hawaii where he had worked as assistant curator for the Sea Life Park while studying marine biology. After working, surfing and sailing for 10 years in some of the world's most beautiful waters, Fogel was horrified to come back to his home in Atlantic City, New Jersey and find the coastline looking more like a sewer line.
He decided to use his talents as a scientist, photographer and waterman to paddle his 17 foot rubber-canvas kayak from New York to Miami (a total of 1,500 miles of bays, lagoons, harbors and salt marches) to test the waters and record the conditions.
He found the East Coast waters to be terribly polluted with over 35 fish kills and 8 billion gallons of dirty municipal and industrial wastewater being dumped into the Intracoastal Waterways each day.
He presented the evidence he collected to the Department of The Interior and Congress after completing his trip. Out of this testimony came the 1972 Clean Water Act which forced the states and industries to clean up the waters with regional municipal sewerage systems.
WATERWATCH INTERNATIONAL was founded back in 1970 by Captain Joel S. Fogel. It began as one individual's effort to see an improvement in the quality of our waterways.
COASTAL PATROL EAST, 1990: 2000 miles by kayak from New York City to Miami Florida. 7,000 water samples were collected by expedition members and tested at over 25 state certified laboratories.
In 1990, his 20-year old son, William came to him complaining of the dying dolphins and polluted waters he had heard about in the media. Fogel formed the Coastal Patrol and took his son along the same route he followed in 1970, paddling nearly 2 1/2 months to test and survey water conditions from New York to Florida.
The outcome of his water survey was a surprise to everyone, including Fogel. Over 70 percent of the Intracoastal Waterways along the East Coast had shown improvement for all the parameters tested: fecal coliform, nutrients, heavy metals and dissolved oxygen. Fogel's state-certified tests were coordinated by the Atlantic County Utilities Authority and presented to both NOAA and the United States Congress. Victor Maene, ACUA chemist and project director who coordinated sample testing, declared, "Our ocean is a thousand times cleaner than it was ten years ago".
In 1991, the silver-haired paddler who injured his back while making the marathon expedition, was awarded by Congress with the BEACH BILL for his efforts. The Beach Environmental Assessment Closure and Health Bill would require a uniform water testing and sampling procedure along the coastlines.
COASTAL PATROL WEST, 1991: Seattle to San Diego by kayak. 500 samples were collected and tested.
In 1991, the BEACH BILL was killed by Senator Jesse Helms of North Carolina. In order to prevent that from happening again, Fogel got back into his kayak and paddled from Seattle to San Diego to test the waters and bring the plight of the BEACH BILL to the public's attention.
During the period of September 23 through October 10, about 500 water samples were taken from various sites along the Washington, Oregon and California coastlines. Both fresh and salt water samples were taken and tested for Fecal Coliform, heavy metals and nutrients in a similar testing procedure as established during Coastal Patrol East in 1990.
THE BEACH BILL
The BEACH BILL was re-introduced several times after 1991 and was finally passed in the year 2000.
