blog

Hello! My name is Sebastian, and I’m working as a research assistant with the California Marine Sanctuary Foundation on the Ocean Access Project . During the summer of 2025, I’m based in Humboldt and Del Norte Counties, where I’m surveying California’s coastal communities - including tribal and underserved communities - to better understand how they use the ocean, what benefits it provides, and the challenges they face when accessing California’s coast. The insights from this

Hello! My name is Alexa Hernandez, and I am currently a third-year undergraduate student at California State University San Marcos, majoring in Environmental Studies with a minor in Biology. This summer, I had the opportunity to intern with the California Marine Sanctuary Foundation, where I worked on the Ocean Access Project in San Diego County conducting community surveys and talking with people across the county to better understand how people access, use, and value the oc

I came up with the idea of dressing as a shark to draw people in, and it was a hit! Hello! I’m Fernando Gutierrez, a fourth-year undergraduate at California State University, Long Beach, and a first-generation student to Mexican parents. Starting my 2025 COAST internship with California Ocean Access is my first time engaging with social science. Through this research, we aim to deepen the connection between marine conservation and the people living in the areas it seeks to se

It’s 12:30 pm on Sunday, July 13th as Fernando (a fellow intern) and I drive laps around Echo Park, Los Angeles, desperately trying to find parking in the packed streets around the 44th Annual Lotus Festival. As we spend the next hour doing so, let me fill you in on how we got here… This morning I was up by 8:30 to work on some homework for my online microeconomics class — I’m originally from Sacramento, CA, and I am now a fourth year college student at Johns Hopkins Universi