Click on the words above “Save our Tomales Bay…” to see this post as it was meant to be seen.
The boat you see in the banner above had been blown off its mooring (for a second time) and drifted south nearly two miles to the spot you see.
Moorings in Tomales Bay, as I understand it consist of very heavy things, dropped into the bay, to which one ties their boat.
Speaking one day with a gentleman who works at Hog Island Oyster Company, I mentioned the garbage you see in the two images seen below during a discussion we were having about all the oyster farming trash I find washed ashore.
Location – 38.128490° N -122.864172° W Datum WGS84
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Location – 38.125753° N -122.862869° W Datum WGS84
He mentioned all the moorings in the bay, implying that if you think oyster farming debris is trash, what about all the engine blocks littering the bottom of the bay?
He also mentioned a specific tire, stuck in the mud for many, many years just off Bivalve that can be seen from the road.
I replied that I had seen that tire several times, even photographed it. He asked me if I had packed it out. I replied no, I had been out that day to take photos, not pack out trash as I often do. He quickly shot back “Everyone has an excuse.” A few days later, I emailed him a picture of a tire, asking if this indeed was the tire in question. I also sent a picture of nine tires I had pulled out of the mud, drug ashore and packed to the trailhead.
I’ve not heard back from George.
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Even though you are about to see many pictures of trash I have picked up in the vicinity of the Tomales Bay Oyster Company, I want to say that I think they are making an effort to pick up after themselves.
Thank you Tomales Bay Oyster Company. Or whoever it is that is picking up the beaches near your business that are usually covered in plastic from your operation.
What you see below I had to really go trekking to find. Whoever is picking it up is getting the low hanging fruit, the stuff in the wrack. Which is great.
I am having to go further away from the wrack, up into the pickleweed to get the plastic that was washed up during very high tides in the past.
If these oyster farm operations sent people out more often, I suggest once a week, or at least every other week. There would be less chance of high tides pushing it further inland, or worse, pulling it out to sea, where it becomes deadly for birds, mammals and other sea life.
In an upcoming post, I’ll share more findings along the Tomales Bay shore in the vicinity of Hog Island Oysters, as well as other growers that have thousands upon thousands of bags of oysters laying in the mud or on racks.
Find out the unvarnished truth about sustainable oyster farming, West Marin Style™.
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this blue foam is wrapped in plastic and tied to the oyster bags for flotation. – I find chunks of this stuff EVERYWHERE. – If the growers regularly policed their growing areas [as I do], the sun would not degrade the plastic and this stuff would not be strewn about.
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Tags from oyster bags shipped from Washing State to Marin. Do you know your farmer? Call them at the number you see on the tags above.
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The purplish lines show locations where I gathered litter from that you see in this post. – The yellow lines show where I walked inland to find “older” trash left by the business owner. – The business site is the bright white area.
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A work area used by the busniess, one of two that I know of where tools and trash are left at all times.
Click on the words above “Save our Tomales Bay…” to see this post as it was meant to be seen.
This past weekend the weather was superb. Nearly zero wind, flat water and perfect temperatures made for a sublime day on the bay.
I’ve several posts from days gone by to publish, but time is sparse and they need more than I have just now, so this will have to do for now.
It is raining hard as I write this, the lights have flickered twice which means the salmon and steelhead are about to make their return journey to natal streams whence they emerged into being 3-4 years ago. As I paddle across the shallow Tomales Bay, with each dip of the blade into water, I look down and think of the thousands of miles these fish have traveled since they left as 100 mm smolts 1100 days ago.
Today with water so flat and tide so high, I venture to the east shore of the bay to have a look and see how the shore is being treated by local commerce. Oyster farmers in particular.
I’ve been pretty forthcoming about what I see as their shortcomings in terms of policing up the tools of the trade they have chosen. It is with pleasure I report that they seem to have gotten the message (unlike other oyster farmers in the area, see here for more on that) and are picking up after themselves.
In the past I’ve found dozens, hundreds of grow out bags littering the shore and inter-tidal region. Along with dozens of the tags from the bags they buy from Washington State and have shipped down to resell.
Hey California, call your oyster farmer. The numbers are right there on the tags. As always, click on the image to see a larger version.
That trip I only found a few bags and 8 tags. And I had to look hard for them too. Seems someone (TBOC?) is out picking up their trash. Thank you to whoever is getting it. If you do this regularly, I won’t be finding stuff washed way up high in the bushes and buried by plants for years. Or worse, it won’t be washing out to sea where it harms animals, and eventually is ingested by animals, including humans that eat said animals.
So here I am on this gorgeous day, thinking I am not going to find much mariculture debris littering the shore. I take advantage of the high tide and ride the incoming tide into an area I later learn is known by some as Tomasini Lagoon. It is a triangular shaped region just below route 1, separated from Tomales Bay by a dike.
Once inside I begin to paddle close to shore in a counter-clockwise fashion, letting the tide push me along. Suddenly the silence is broken by a shriek I know. I look overhead and a peregrine is soaring above me, letting me know whose lagoon this is. As I make my way along one side of this watery triangle, the first grow-out bag comes into view and I must beach the boat and go get it. This is repeated over and over again as I pass one vertice and begin to traverse the second side.
Soon I am greeted by a couple in a canoe. I’ve not seen them before and their first words to me as they look at my garbage covered kayak are “Thank you for doing this. We were out last friday doing the same thing up north of here.” I learn they are Bridger and Katherine and they have boated the area for years. After a brief visit, they head on their way and I continue on mine. Later, I see them outside the triangle on-shore with something. When I get close I see they’ve discovered and propped up 2 grow out bags I had missed so that I can get them on my way out, which I do.
Here you can see my path inside the lagoon and the locations of the 22 bags I found and two bags found by B&K.
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24 oyster grow out bags left abandoned on Tomales Bay. Click image to see a larger version.
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Here is a device I have never before seen. It looks expensive. Who can tell me what it is? Or whose it is and why they left it here?
Tell me whose it is and I’ll tell you where you can go get it. Click image for a larger version
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Tell me whose it is and I’ll tell you where you can go get it. Click image for a larger version
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The rest of the images show some of the garbage I picked up on my paddle through nature.
On my way back, I met another fellow, Dan, also out for a paddle on this perfect day. He too thanked me for my efforts and then paid a visit to this blog. You can read about his day on the water here. He teaches kindergarten in Sonoma and loves to get out on the water whenever he can.
The last image below, as well as the header image show the beach where I placed all the oyster gear I found. It is at Tomales Bay Oyster Company. There is little doubt where this trash came from. Have a look at the google earth image above and you can see how close to the retail operation the triangle lagoon is.
It was a busy day there, yet only a couple people came down to ask me what this stuff was and why I was dumping it on the beach. You can be sure that I explained in detail what it was and where I had found it.
Both people asked me if I worked for the oyster place. No, was my reply. Do they pay you? Again, no was my reply. One asked me why the oyster place did not pick up the trash. I don’t know was my reply, raising one hand and rubbing two fingers and my thumb together as I said so.
They took a sip of their beer and returned to the festivities.
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Dead loon in the wrack
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I found a kayak! OK, not the whole thing, only the label.
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Tags from bags of shellfish, shipped from Washington State to Marin. All found on 17 November, 2013 along the shore near Tomales Bay Oyster Company. Check out the dates on those tags… Click image for a larger version. Know your farmer, call them up!
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The earth is not so very different from the gallon wine jug with grass growing inside it.
A limited amount of space in which to grow.
When will humans figure out that we have to take good care of this vessel on which we live?
Damn it, shut the gadgets off and get outside with someone you love, look at this place we call home.
I’ve been boating the waters and walking the shore of Tomales Bay the past few months to see what the impact of oyster farming is on this body of water.
You can see what I collected over 3 years from the soon to be closed oyster farm on Drakes Estero here.
Until recently I have only visited the area around Tomales Bay Oyster Company in the southern reaches of Tomales Bay.
There was so much debris to collect, it took me a while to get to other areas. And, as I said I would, I finally got up to the Walker Creek area to have a look at how the oyster growers in that area clean up after themselves.
More than one local told me that the folks at Hog Island expended great effort to clean up the mess that is inevitable when one tosses thousands of oyster filled bags into the bay for years at a time. The wind and waves wait for no one. Gear is blown all over the place, some, who knows how much, is sucked out to the open sea for the animals to contend with.
So, after loading my boat and gear onto my car, off I went to the north end of Tomales Bay.
I’ve made three visits to this area, this post will show what I found after visit number two.
This first image is from Google Earth. Each yellow pin shows where I found one or more grow out bags or other oyster debris.
Map of Walker Creek mouth area showing oyster farming debris locations. Click for a larger image.
The next 60+ images show what I found at each yellow pinned location.
Tired of making many, many trips with my tiny boat to haul this garbage from others back to my car. Even more tired of destroying my car by hauling all of this trash belonging to those making a profit from public lands in my car, I had an idea. I was going to pile this trash where anyone driving by on route 1 could see it.
The last few images of this post will show the beginning of the monument to oyster profits for a few over a clean environment for all.
A future post will go into more details on this monument, and how it was received.
As you peruse these images, ask yourself if what I was told by a long time Hog Island worker and a parent of a Hog Island worker is true. That is, we take better care of the environment than do our colleagues to the south of us.
Did you see the monument to oyster profits for a few over a clean environment for all as you drove by? Please send me a note, or picture you made.
As always, click on an image to see a larger version.
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This first pile is what I collected as I drifted down Walker Creek. I hauled it up to the side of route 1 for collection later, where I found the following…
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Someone decided that the right thing to do with this artwork and materials was to toss it over the side of the road. Does anyone recognize that painted fabric?
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Above is what it looks like as I found it. After flipping it over to remove the eel grass camouflage is seen below.
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Above is what it looks like as I found it. After flipping it over to remove the eel grass camouflage is seen below.
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A short video showing a high density of oyster grow out bags abandoned on the shore of Tomales Bay.
The next few images of heavy machinery are, I was told by a long-time West Marin resident, from oyster farming operations of long-ago.
Leaving a mess seems to run in the DNA of oyster farmers.
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My boat loaded down with as much as I dare take on such a windy day as this one was.
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The following images are of the debris where I hauled it to make the monument to oyster profits for a few over a clean environment for all.
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As you can see in this image taken from the side of route 1, even at 200 mm magnification, the monument is too far away to make an impact on even the most unusual of tourists that may make the effort to get out of their car before taking the iconic picture of nature.
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I could move the oyster farming debris closer to the road for ease of viewing, but no, that would make it harder for the oyster farmers to come pick up their trash on their own. Even after doing the heavy lifting and long walking, I figured I needed to make this easy if they were going to clean up after themselves.
Stay tuned for the next exciting installment of “Save our Tomales Bay”, or “How to get the mess makers to clean up after themselves, or better yet, not make a mess in the first place…”
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Those of you that made it this far are rewarded with the main reason I visit the wild places of California as often as I can.
This is why we all need to do our utmost to protect the environment that many, many species besides humans call home.
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Black Turnstones on the wing. Click for a larger image.