Mission

Sea Hugger® is a nonprofit organization focused on protecting and healing the marine environment from plastic pollution through action and education to drive systemic change that addresses the root cause of the issue. Our mission is to educate the public to reduce plastic dependency, while focusing on protecting the marine environment, ensuring the intrinsic rights of aquatic life, and helping create sustainable communities that are no longer affected by plastic pollution.

Mama Ocean needs your help—will you join our Community?

Grantee Winner

There are no plastic collectors and no infrastructure in many of South African and Mexican communities. Litter is dumped everywhere and unemployment is at 40%. We are happy to award our microgrant to Litter4Tokens in South Africa and Trash4Tokens in Mexico, so that this devastation is turning into action.

Participants of Litter4Tokens and Trash4Tokens collect bags of recyclable and non-recyclable items and bring them to their given collection point. Each bag is exchanged for one token, which can then be used to purchase basic needs items in the Litter4Tokens shops. This South Africa and Mexico-based NGO helps feed, clothe and employ the community while preventing plastic from entering the ocean’s ecosystem.

Litter4Tokens was launched in 2015 by Clare Swithenbank-Bowman at one school in Ballito, South Africa. It has since grown to another country, eight schools, 8,200 jobs have been created, over 129,600 people have been fed, and through our microgrant program, we plan to help Litter4Tokens expand to other cities in need in South Africa and North America. Your donations to Sea Hugger also make a global impact with our grantees!

learn more about t4T

Photos by: Leticia Cox

Since 2019, we have helped t4t & l4t:

Your donation sponsors meals and supports empowered communities

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Core Team

**Maimoona Block, Executive Director**
Maimoona previously advocated for video game and SAS partners in the tech industry. Now, she is excited to transfer this experience and work with Sea Hugger as an advocate for reducing plastic dependency and cleaner beaches. She loves hanging out with her family on Half Moon Bay beaches and Lake Tahoe shores.

Aubry Casey, Digital Marketing SpecialistAubry Casey joined Sea Hugger in 2019 as our Digital Marketing Specialist. For the past 4 years, her passion has been to encourage others to make small changes with big impacts as it relates to environmental activism. She is stoked that her passion for creating fun, effective graphics, educating others, and love for the ocean collides with her work. She’s lived all over the US, including Iowa, Colorado, and Hawaii, and continues to enjoy exploring what each area has to offer. In her free time, you can find her camping, hiking, or doing flips in the ocean waves. — **Aubry Casey, Creative Marketing Director**
Aubry is a passionate ocean advocate who has spent the past several years of her career marketing for the planet. Focused on messages of positivity and encouragement, she works with Sea Hugger to be a voice for Mama Ocean. She is stoked and fortunate that her passions collide in her work. In her free time, you can find her thrifting, dancing with her toddler, or doing flips in the ocean waves.

**Claire Lacy, Program Coordinator**
Claire is an advocate for the natural world and has spent most of her professional career as a wildlife biologist, working to preserve critical habitat and endangered species throughout California. This field has alerted her to the importance of listening to the rhythms of the seasons and minimizing our overall footprint. Together with Sea Hugger, she hopes to work within the community to lessen our dependence on plastics and educate the next generation about ways to live in harmony with all living creatures. She lives with her family in Montara, CA and spends her time gardening, exploring and chasing hot pink sunsets.

Ambassadors

Dayton, Gene Lindsey & family

Emma Stone

Jason, Joana, Jade, & Arrow Stark

And of course, we wouldn’t be Sea Hugger without our community of volunteers!

volunteer!

Shell Cleave and friends surfing in Half Moon Bay, CA

“Earth is an ocean planet. We cannot have a healthy planet, without healthy oceans. Will you join us?”

— Shell Cleave | Founder

THE BOARD + Scientific Advisor

Shell Cleave is our Founder and Board Chair. She founded Sea Hugger in 2018 after years of seeing increased plastic pollution under the water, on the surface of the water, and on the beaches. Shell and her family live in Half Moon Bay and are beachcombers, surfers, scuba divers, and SUPers. After a successful tech career and raising three daughters with her husband, Shell was able to shut down her business and pursue her passion - ensuring the ocean and sea creatures are safe and healthy. Shell is the author of an environmental children's book, frequent speaker, A Jefferson Award winner, and life-long optimist - she believes anything is possible with a vision and action.

David Casentini, a Bay Area native, has lived in Half Moon Bay since 1988. After graduating from San Francisco State University, David began his career in 1981 with Pacific Gas and Electric Company. After holding various customer service positions a… — David Casentini, a Bay Area native, has lived in Half Moon Bay since 1988. After graduating from San Francisco State University, David began his career in 1981 with Pacific Gas and Electric Company. After holding various customer service positions at the utility, he spent most of his career there in various energy efficiency management positions before transferring to the utility’s deregulated utility company in the early 2000’s. After four years working as an energy efficiency consultant, David joined his wife’s energy efficiency consulting company and eventually they ventured off with two other partners to build their own energy efficiency consulting firm, Resource Solutions Group. After they successfully grew and sold the company, David left his career behind him in 2014 and became a stay-at-home dad. At this time David also joined the board of the Cabrillo Education Foundation and focused his remaining volunteer time on student and community events and activities.

David and Lauren have two grown children, and two teenage girls. In addition, they have four grandchildren. David and his family split their time between Half Moon Bay and Truckee and love and appreciate the beauty of both. David enjoys writing, singing and playing the guitar, running, tennis and mountain biking.

Kirsten Hagen has enjoyed coastal life in Half Moon Bay and El Granada since 1996. She is a residential Real Estate broker with COMPASS, and enjoys helping people find their place, whether it’s Coastside, Bayside, or anywhere in the US! Prior to delving into Real Estate 20 years ago, she enjoyed a challenging career in the software field. Kirsten graduated Magna cum Laude from Southern Methodist University in Dallas, TX with degrees in business and in psychology. She is active in community leadership roles with San Mateo County Association of Realtors, Half Moon Bay Coastside Chamber of Commerce, and Community United Methodist Church, to name a few, and she supports many local coastal non-profit organizations.
Kirsten has 3 grown children, all married to wonderful spouses, and 2 grandchildren. Her happy place is when all the family is together, which increasingly is a big accomplishment. In her free time, she enjoys paddleboarding, backpacking, hiking, biking, traveling, and cooking. She never tires of the coastal beauty and the multitude of sparkling blue colors of the ocean.

Chris Wirth has dedicated his career to climate tech and sustainability startups. He currently serves as a VP at The Recycling Partnership, a mission-driven NGO committed to advancing a circular economy by building a better recycling system. Prior to that, he was the VP of Corporate Affairs and Policy at AMP Robotics, a startup innovating AI-driven recyclable material recovery, as well as a number of startups in the renewable energy sector. Chris serves on the Advisory Board for Mycocycle, a startup applying mycelium to break down and detoxify various waste construction materials. Additionally, he is a Board Member of the Recycle Right Coalition, a group of leading startups in the solid waste and recycling industry advocating for policies to help California achieve its waste reduction and climate change goals. Chris also mentors startups for the Cleantech Open and the Sustainable Ocean Alliance. A Bay Area native now residing in Montara, Chris enjoys all things outdoors and the ocean with his family.

Jeremy Brown is the Founder of Social Impact World, a global community of social impact leaders. He also hosts the Behind the Impact podcast where he explores how companies use their people, products, and capital for good. With a decade of experience in the tech industry and almost just as much time in social impact, Jeremy has spent most of his career helping startups grow while encouraging them to contribute meaningfully to society.

Jennifer was born and raised on the peninsula and feels blessed that she gets to call the Coastside her home. She feels a deep responsibility to take care of this magnificent place, which led her to heed Shell's call to join the Sea Hugger Board. Sh… — Jennifer Dill was born and raised on the peninsula and feels blessed that she gets to call the Coastside her home. She feels a deep responsibility to take care of this magnificent place, which led her to heed Shell's call to join the Sea Hugger Board. She is a mom of two boys, an Integral Coach, and Personal Trainer. Nothing makes her happier than being outside near the water with her dog.

Autumn Ross is our Scientific Advisor and is a Pollution Prevention Specialist with the San Francisco Public Utilities Commission, where she works to protect water quality through implementing water pollution prevention programs for the city of San Francisco. She is also the Chair for the Bay Area Pollution Prevention Group. She has previously worked with the National Marine Fisheries Service, the California Department of Fish and Wildlife, and the Monterey Bay Sanctuary Foundation. Autumn provided data on single-use plastic litter that was used in a proposed piece of legislation to ban single-use plastics in San Francisco. She brings a wealth of knowledge of the challenges humans pose to aquatic life and their ecosystem, and ways the public and public agencies can protect and even restore them. Autumn likes to open water swim and lives in Half Moon Bay with her family and golden retriever, Honey.

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