Save our Tomales Bay – Request for boaters to remove ice plant from Tom’s Point

Hello all,

In my travels around Tomales Bay monitoring and removing the trash (most of it new and legacy oyster farming trash), I have come across several large plots of invasive ice plant (Carpobrotus edulis) that need to be removed.

Plan to put your boat in at Nick’s Cove (AKA Miller Boat Launch) and paddle north a little over 2 miles to the southern shore of Tom’s Point.

Folks from Audubon Canyon Ranch will meet us there with bags and gloves and lunch!

We’ll spend a few hours pulling out as much of this plant as we can, break for lunch, then work a little longer to wait for the flood tide to help us back to Nick’s.

Date TBD, it will be on a weekend. Likely late June or July after the 4th.

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Bring

$5 to pay for your parking permit
Clothing to wear while onshore, pulling plants
– long sleeve shirt, long pants, hat
light hiking shoes
sunscreen
water
snacks

Please write to express interest [richard@coastodian.org].

Once a firm date has been selected, I’ll contact all interested parties with details.

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Birds of Tomales Bay – Bald eagles build affordable housing in West Marin

Click on the words above “Birds of Tomales Bay – Bald eagles…” to see this entire post.

It is not known whether the California Coastal Commission, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, National Park Service, United States Geological Survey, Fish & Game Commission, County building permit office or any other acronym was consulted prior to this coastal construction.

Though, I don’t think these eagles give a hoot.

Enjoy.

As always, click on an image for a larger version, then click again for even larger.

Female on nest

Female on nest

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Male returning with plush nest floor covering

Male returning with plush nest floor covering

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Female on patrol

Female on patrol

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Female on patrol

Female on patrol

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Female on patrol

Female on patrol

See this pair of eagles copulating here.

Save our Tomales Bay – Part 23 Bullshitter caught in the act!

Click on the words above “Save our Tomales Bay – Part 23 Bullshitter caught in the act!” to see this entire post.

On 16 May as I walked the shore near Tom’s Point and the oyster leases operated by Hog Island Oysters picking up zip-ties, grow out bags, discarded lumber and the occasional piece of non-oyster related trash, I was startled as this large bull burst forth on the hillside above me.

He snorted and stared at me, making sure I knew whose beach this was.

Then he sauntered off into the water, defecated, continuing on around this very long fence jutting out into Tomales Bay.

When the scent of lady cows in estrus is in the air, no string of wire will keep this bull from his appointed rounds.

Maybe that brownish/yellowish stuff is what give the local oysters their shittoir.

Off in the distance in this video are strings of hundreds of bags of oysters filter-feeding in the nutrient-rich waters of Tomales Bay.

It is not just the guys pooping in our local waters.

Have a look at these ladies that regularly relieve themselves in and around Drakes Estero (image from a few years ago)

RJames.IMG_4541.CC.cwRJames.IMG_4560.crop.cc.cwIs this the secret ingredient of the non-native oysters that were once raised in Drakes Estero?

 

Speaking of bullshit, stay tuned for more images of the steady supply of plastic left in Tomales Bay by oyster farmers of present and past.

Local growers are making efforts to reduce the debris abandoned to the watershed. I applaud and encourage these and more efforts.

Enough of an effort?

Perhaps when the Fish & Game Commission hosts the public meeting in West Marin they promised me is coming, we’ll all find out.

Until then, let the chips fall where they may.

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Next related post may be found here.

Previous related post may be found here.

See the first post in this series “Save our Tomales Bay” here.