Serge Dedina

Last updated

Serge Dedina
18th Mayor of Imperial Beach
Assumed office
December 9, 2014
Personal details
Born1964
Los Angeles, California
NationalityAmerican
Political party Democratic
Residence(s) Imperial Beach, California
Alma mater University of Wisconsin-Madison
University of Texas at Austin
University of California, San Diego
Occupation Conservationist
Website https://sergededina.com/

Serge Dedina is the Executive Director of Wildcoast, an international conservation team that conserves coastal and marine ecosystems and addresses climate change through natural solutions. He served as the Mayor of Imperial Beach, California from 2014 to 2022.

Contents

Personal life

Dedina was born in 1964 in Los Angeles, California to a French father and a British mother. Dedina moved to Imperial Beach in 1971 and attended elementary, middle, and high school there. A 1982 graduate of Mar Vista High School, he was later inducted into the inaugural class of the Sweetwater Union High School District Hall of Fame in 2001. A avid surfer, Dedina worked as an Ocean Lifeguard for the City of Imperial Beach and the State of California from 1981 to 1993.

Dedina studied at the University of California, San Diego graduating with a B.A. in political science. Dedina also earned an M.S. in geography from the University of Wisconsin-Madison and a Ph.D. in geography from the University of Texas at Austin.

Conservation

As a high school student in 1980 Dedina volunteered as part of a citizen's effort in Imperial Beach to halt the proposed development of the Tijuana Estuary as a marina. That year the estuary was declared a National Wildlife Refuge by the Reagan Administration under Interior Secretary James Watt. Dedina organized fellow surfers at Mar Vista High School in the early 1980s to oppose a proposed offshore breakwater for Imperial Beach. That campaign became the first victory of the fledgling Surfrider Foundation. Dedina later advocated for the creation of the South San Diego Wildlife Refuge at a time when a marina was proposed for the south end of San Diego Bay.

In 1996 after carrying out doctoral research on gray whale conservation in Baja California Sur, Mexico, Dedina was hired by The Nature Conservancy as Northwest Program Manager. In that position he supported the efforts of local conservation NGOs such as Pronature Noroeste, Isla A.C. and Mexico's National Protected Area Commission to develop stewardship programs for newly established Loreto Bay National Park, Isla Espiritu Santo, and Cabo Pulmo National Park.

Dedina co-founded WILDCOAST in 2000 with Wallace J. Nichols. One of the first projects WILDCOAST worked on was a successful campaign to halt the black market trade in sea turtle meat in northwest Mexico. The other focus of Dedina’s conservation efforts has been on coastal land protection in the Baja California peninsula. WILDCOAST has helped to protect more than 40 miles of the Valle de los Cirios coastline through private lands conservation as well as an additional 450,000 acres in Laguna San Ignacio, a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Dedina also helped develop the WILDCOAST conservation program in Oaxaca which is focused on the preservation of sea turtle nesting beaches such as Playa Morro Ayuta, recently established as a federal sea turtle sanctuary in Mexico.

Under Dedina’s leadership, WILDCOAST has emerged as a pioneer in the field of blue carbon based natural climate solutions work in California and Mexico. WILDCOAST is carrying out wetland restoration projects in San Diego County as well as mangrove restoration work in Baja California Sur and Oaxaca in Mexico.

Dedina received the SIMA Environmentalist of the Year Award, San Diego Zoological Society’s Conservation Medal as well as the California Coastal Commission’s “Coastal Hero” Award. He was also named a UC San Diego John Muir Fellow and honored as a Peter Benchley “Hero of the Seas.”

The author of Saving the Gray Whale, Wild Sea, and Surfing the Border, Dedina has been a commencement speaker at UC San Diego and a panelist and keynote speaker at the U.S. National Climate Adaptation Forum, UCLA Institute of the Environment, TEDx San Diego, California Coastal Resilience Conference and the International MPA Conference among others.

Mayor of Imperial Beach

Dedina was elected Mayor of Imperial Beach, California, in November 2014. He served two terms until 2022, focusing on infrastructure, economic development, civic engagement and environmental protection.

Under his leadership Imperial Beach successfully sued the International Boundary and Water Commission for violations of the Clean Water Act in the Tijuana River. Additionally, Dedina helped make Imperial Beach the world’s first city to file a lawsuit against the fossil fuel industry for causing sea level rise.

However, it was his commitment to civic betterment and engagement that marked his tenure as Mayor.

"He hit the ground running on addressing basic city tasks such as paving alleys, removing graffiti and keeping streets clean. Thanks to support from his council colleagues and partnerships with community groups and regional boards, the city has literally turned more colorful.” [1]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Tijuana</span> City in Baja California, Mexico

Tijuana is the largest city in the state of Baja California located on the northwestern Pacific Coast of Mexico. Tijuana is the municipal seat of the Tijuana Municipality and the hub of the Tijuana metropolitan area. It has a close proximity to the Mexico–United States border, which is part of the San Diego-Tijuana metro area.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Imperial Beach, California</span> City in California, United States

Imperial Beach is a residential beach city in San Diego County, California, with a population of 26,137 at the 2020 United States census, down from 26,324 at the 2010 census. The city is the southernmost city in California and the West Coast of the United States. It is in the South Bay area of San Diego County, 14.1 miles (22.7 km) south of downtown San Diego and 5 miles (8 km) northwest of downtown Tijuana, Mexico.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Gulf of California</span> Gulf of the Pacific Ocean between the Baja California peninsula and the mainland coast of Mexico

The Gulf of California, also known as the Sea of Cortés or Sea of Cortez, or less commonly as the Vermilion Sea, is a marginal sea of the Pacific Ocean that separates the Baja California Peninsula from the Mexican mainland. It is bordered by the states of Baja California, Baja California Sur, Sonora, and Sinaloa with a coastline of approximately 4,000 km (2,500 mi). Rivers that flow into the Gulf of California include the Colorado, Fuerte, Mayo, Sinaloa, Sonora, and the Yaqui. The surface of the gulf is about 160,000 km2 (62,000 sq mi). Maximum depths exceed 3,000 meters (9,800 ft) because of the complex geology, linked to plate tectonics.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Baja California</span> State of Mexico

Baja California, officially Estado Libre y Soberano de Baja California, is a state in Mexico. It is the northernmost and westernmost of the 32 federal entities of Mexico. Before becoming a state in 1952, the area was known as the North Territory of Baja California. It has an area of 70,113 km2 (27,071 sq mi) and comprises the northern half of the Baja California Peninsula, north of the 28th parallel, plus oceanic Guadalupe Island. The mainland portion of the state is bordered on the west by the Pacific Ocean; on the east by Sonora, the U.S. state of Arizona, and the Gulf of California; on the north by the U.S. state of California; and on the south by Baja California Sur.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Bahía de los Ángeles</span> Place in Baja California, Mexico

Bahía de los Ángeles is a coastal bay on the Gulf of California, located along the eastern shore of the Baja California Peninsula in the state of Baja California, Mexico. The town of the same name is located at the east end of Federal Highway 12 about 42 miles (68 km) from the Parador Punta Prieta junction on Federal Highway 1. The area is part of the San Quintín Municipality.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ensenada, Baja California</span> City in Baja California, Mexico

Ensenada is a city in Ensenada Municipality, Baja California, situated on the Pacific Coast of Mexico. Located on the Bahía de Todos Santos, the city had a population of 279,765 in 2018, making it the third-largest city in Baja California. The city is an important international trade center and home to the Port of Ensenada, the second-busiest port in Mexico. Ensenada is a major tourist destination, owing to its warm climate and proximity to the Pacific Ocean, and is commonly known as La Cenicienta del Pacífico.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Rosarito</span> City in Baja California, Mexico

Rosarito is a coastal city in Playas de Rosarito Municipality, Baja California, on the Pacific Coast of Mexico. As of 2010, the city had a population of 65,278. Located 10 miles (16 km) south of the US-Mexico border, Rosarito is a part of the greater San Diego–Tijuana region and one of the westernmost cities in Mexico. Rosarito is a major tourist destination, known for its beaches, resorts, and events like Baja Beach Fest.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Tijuana River</span> River in Mexico and California

The Tijuana River is an intermittent river, 120 mi (195 km) long, near the Pacific coast of northern Baja California state in northwestern Mexico and Southern California in the western United States. The river is heavily polluted with raw sewage from the city of Tijuana, Mexico.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Wildcoast</span>

Wildcoast is an international non-profit environmental organization that conserves coastal and marine ecosystems and wildlife.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Southern California Bight</span> Curved stretch of coastline in Southern California and northwestern Baja California

The Southern California Bight is a 692-kilometer-long stretch of curved coastline that runs along the west coast of the United States and Mexico, from Point Conception in California to Punta Colonet in Baja California, plus the area of the Pacific Ocean defined by that curve. This includes the Channel Islands of California and the Coronado Islands and Islas de Todo Santos of Baja California.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mar Vista High School</span> School in Imperial Beach, California, United States

Mar Vista Senior High (MVH) in Imperial Beach, California, United States, is a high school established in 1951.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">South Bay (San Diego County)</span> Region in San Diego County

The South Bay, also known as South County, is a region in southwestern San Diego County, California consisting of the cities and unincorporated communities of Bonita, Chula Vista, East Otay Mesa, Imperial Beach, Lincoln Acres, National City, and South San Diego.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">San Diego–Tijuana</span> Transborder agglomeration of the Californias

San Diego–Tijuana is an international transborder agglomeration, straddling the border of the adjacent North American coastal cities of San Diego, California, United States, and Tijuana, Baja California, Mexico. The 2020 population of the region was 5,456,577, making it the largest bi-national conurbation shared between the United States and Mexico, and the second-largest shared between the US and another country. The conurbation consists of the San Diego metropolitan area, in the United States and the municipalities of Tijuana, Rosarito Beach (126,980), and Tecate (108,440) in Mexico. It is the third most populous region in the California–Baja California region, smaller only than the metropolitan areas of Greater Los Angeles and the San Francisco Bay Area.

Allen "Dempsey" Holder (1920-1997) was one of the earliest surfers in San Diego, California's south county. He was one of the first surfers to ride the big surf off the coast of the Tijuana sloughs in 1937. Dempsey was also head of the Imperial Beach lifeguard services for many years. The public safety building that houses sheriff and lifeguard services is now named after Dempsey for his important contributions to surfing and public safety.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">California coastal sage and chaparral</span> Mediterranean forests, woodlands, and scrub ecoregion in Mexico and the United States

The California coastal sage and chaparral is a Mediterranean forests, woodlands, and scrub ecoregion, defined by the World Wildlife Fund, located in southwestern California and northwestern Baja California (Mexico). It is part of the larger California chaparral and woodlands ecoregion. The ecoregion corresponds to the USDA Southern California ecoregion section 261B, and to the EPA Southern California/Northern Baja Coast ecoregion 8.

The San Diego National Wildlife Refuge Complex is a series of wildlife refuges established by the United States National Wildlife Service beginning in 1972. The complex incorporates five refuges in San Diego County and Orange County in California.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Tijuana River Estuary</span>

The Tijuana River Estuary is an intertidal coastal wetland at the mouth of the Tijuana River in San Diego County, California, in the United States bordering Tijuana, Baja California, Mexico. It is the location of the Tijuana River National Estuarine Research Reserve, Tijuana Slough National Wildlife Refuge, Border Field State Park, and Tijuana River Valley Regional Park. The estuary is a shallow water habitat. Often termed an intermittent estuary since its volume is subject to the discharge controlled by the seasons of the year, the volume of the estuary fluctuates and at times there is dry land, or flooded areas. It was designated a National Natural Landmark in 1973.

The International Wastewater Treatment Plant (IWTP) is a plant developed by the International Boundary and Water Commission (IBWC) in the South Bay area of San Diego, California. Construction began on a 75-acre site, west of San Ysidro in the Tijuana River Valley. The project, authorized by the U.S. Congress in 1989 and formally agreed between the two countries in July 1990, was part of a regional approach to solve long-standing problems, particularly the flow of sewage-contaminated water into the ocean via the Tijuana River.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Goat Canyon (Tijuana River Valley)</span> Canyon in the Mexican state of Baja California and the US state of California

Goat Canyon also known as Cañón de los Laureles, begins in Tijuana, Mexico, and ends in the United States just north of the Mexico–U.S. border. The canyon is formed by Goat Canyon Creek, which receives water and other runoff from areas south of the border. Most of the canyon and its watershed lies within Baja California.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Smuggler's Gulch</span> Canyon located in the U.S. state of California and the Mexican state of Baja California

The Smuggler's Gulch is part of a steep walled canyon about 2 miles (3.2 km) inland of the Pacific Ocean. The canyon crosses the Mexico–United States border, between Tijuana, Baja California, and San Diego, California, and Smuggler's Gulch is the part of the canyon on the US side of the border. It may also be called Cañón del Matadero or Valle Montezuma in Spanish, but these names apply more generally to the whole canyon. Smuggling activities within Smuggler's Gulch have occurred since the 19th century, giving this part of the canyon its name.

References

  1. "Mayor Serge Dedina, a leading voice for the South Bay, returns to his environmental activism". San Diego Union-Tribune. November 28, 2022. Retrieved April 22, 2024.