The Surfrider Foundation awards honor activists and leaders for contributions to America’s coasts via its Wavemaker Awards.

This year the Washington staff nominated Arnold Schouten for its highest honor of the Coastal Impact award, given to the person or persons displaying efforts to make a positive impact on the area’s coasts and oceans.

Schouten, of Port Angeles, is a member of the Surfrider Olympic Peninsula Chapter and for more than 20 years, he has made an incredible impact on the organization and coastal conservation in Washington. He works to educate and inform the public and officials about eelgrass beds, ocean acidification and bluff erosion, and oil spill prevention.

Recently Schouten has spearheaded several large scale marine debris removal projects along a very remote section of the outer Washington Coast in partnership with the U.S. Coast Guard, Makah Nation and Olympic Coast National Marine Sanctuary.