Boating on Tomales Bay – We don’t need no stinking life jackets

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Memorial Day weekend was gorgeous in West Marin.

The bay was covered with boats, fishing, crabbing, zooming north, zooming south.

How many life jackets can you see in the following images?

Living on the coast as I do, I read about more drownings each year than I care to.

Yet, most people do NOT wear life jackets when out boating.

Please wear a life vest.

12 April, 2019 – 5 Rescued From Tomales Bay – 0 deaths, all were wearing life vests!

9 April, 2019 – Sacramento man drowns in Tomales Bay swimming for shore, sergeant rescues second swimmer

3 April, 2017 – Tomales Bay – 1 dead

26 October, 2015 – Tomales Bay – 2 dead

1 November 2014 – Bodega Bay – 4 dead

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Children have vests, adults do not

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Everybody has life vests! We have a winner.

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Children have vests, adults do not

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Children have vests, adults do not

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One vest in the bunch

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Respect Tomales Bay – Stakeholders meeting to discuss Best Management Practices for aquaculture

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NOTE: the meeting has moved to a bigger room, see here for details.

The public is invited to a meeting hosted by the California Fish and Game Commission and California Department of Fish and Wildlife

Date: 17 July, 2017

Time: 1 pm

Location: Marconi Conference Center, McCargo Room

New location is Buck Hall

Please RSVP by sending an email to aquaculturematters@wildlife.ca.gov

map below

Here are a set of proposed Best Management Practices (BMP), most of which were submitted to the Fish and Game Commission on 8 April, 2015.

Proposed best practices for Tomales Bay Oyster Farmers

These BMP shall be an integral part of each lease. Mandatory practices meant to ensure Tomales Bay and the ocean in general is kept free of lost plastic from aquaculture practices.

 

1. Growers shall uniquely and clearly identify all of their gear with company name and phone number. Possible means of uniquely marking gear include: unique colors of bags, wires, PVC pipes, rope, “branding info into gear”.

2. Growers shall train all employees in concepts of Leave No Trace,
see https://LNT.org, or similar training about environmental stewardship

3. Growers shall continually improve gear in a quest for zero loss of gear.

4. Growers shall replace single use items (zip-ties, copper wires) with more durable items such as stainless halibut clips.

5. Growers shall NOT use floats that are easily degraded by UV, pecked by birds birds in search of food.

6. Growers shall securely tie large groups of non-floating bags together when deploying bags for future securing to anchor lines lines to ensure they don’t drift.

7. Growers shall remove tools each day after working on lease areas, including: fencepost drivers, gloves, water bottles, PVC pipes, wires, ropes.

8. Growers shall promptly (within 60 days) remove culture structures and other items comprising a method that did not work as desired desired or is no longer used.

9. Growers shall patrol lease areas and eastern shore of Tomales Bay on a bi-monthly basis, twice monthly during windy or heavy surf times. Patrols must occur at both high and low tides to ensure gear buried in the mud is collected.

10. Growers shall uniquely and clearly identify all of their boats and barges.
Boats should be clearly identifiable with binoculars from a distance of 1 mile.
Unique color, large letter or number or combinations of these may work.

 

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