Fishing Vessel American Challenger runs aground on Marin coast

Posted on March 8, 2021 by Coastodian

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Saturdy 6 March the 31 meter long FV American Challenger ran aground on the Marin coast between Estero Americano and Estero San Antonio.

So far the ship remains intact. An unknown amount of petroleum product has leaked out, though it is not known how much diesel was in the 7000 gallon capacity tanks.

The latest information may be found here

Below are images I made showing the wreck site, as well as efforts to protect the commercial oyster/clam/mussel beds in Tomales Bay, just 6 miles SSE of the wreck site.

Those of us who spend considerable time and energy cleaning up after the many shipwrecks that happen along our coast sincerely hope that the authorities will track down those responsible for this avoidable situation and ensure they pay the bill to clean up this mess. Simply pumping the fuel and lubricants off the ship and walking away, leaving the HUGE debris pile to come is NOT adequate.

All images and video are ©Richard James and may NOT be used or linked to without written permission by the photographer (info@ocastodian.org).

Air tankers scooping water from Tomales Bay to drop on Woodward fire – Day 2

Posted on August 23, 2020 by Coastodian

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Saturday 22 August, another glorious day of support from these amazing planes and their crews.

Thank you.

All images and video ©Richard James

Air tankers scooping water from Tomales Bay to drop on Woodward fire

Posted on August 21, 2020 by Coastodian

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oday Friday (21 August) and Saturday (22 August) for over an hour two planes skimmed the surface of the bay, filling their tanks. Each then wheeled east, then south to head towards the Woodward fire.
These images and video recorded from Chicken Ranch Beach.

All images and video ©Richard James

Jellyfish attack Bodega Bay Boat House Restaurant

Posted on July 3, 2020 by Coastodian

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We all know the ocean is in trouble these days, warming water, algal blooms, acidification, and now a swarm of plastic jellyfish have invaded long time favorite The Boat House.

These jellies were made from Korean made plastic fishing net floats that washed ashore on Point Reyes National Seashore beaches. The tentacles are fashioned from crab fishing rope that washes ashore constantly as well.

Since all the plastic trash we humans fill the ocean with (9 million metric tons each year and growing) is deconstructing the ocean as we know it, I decided to deconstruct some of the marine trash and build some plastic reminders of what we are doing to the planet.

You can make one of these jellies yours with a donation of $40 or more.

Stop by The Boat House any day from 11:30 – 7:00 for some of their famous fish & chips, clam chowder, coleslaw or any of their other delicious dishes. Lots of cold beverages to choose from as well.

They offer take out or dine in service with appropriate mask and distancing protocols to ensure your safety.

The Boat House is located on route 1 in Bodega Bay at – 1445 CA-1, Bodega Bay, CA 94923, across the road from Bodega Bay Grange building.
You can also book a fishing trip aboard the world famous New Sea Angler.

Commercial crab season (and crab gear season) in full swing

Posted on January 7, 2020 by Coastodian

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For several weeks in October and November I walked 10 Mile beach and Drakes Beach often to pick up all the crab gear I could find.

I wanted to clear the beaches of gear from past seasons so that I could be sure that once this season started, I’d be fairly certain that any gear washing ashore was from this season.

Crab should cost twice what it does, with half of it going to pay those that clean up after the commercial (and sport) fishing fleets.

Such stewardship. Sigh.

Everything you see below was collected from Point Reyes Beaches from 16 December, 2019 – 3 January, 2020.

More here, and here.

Click an image to see a larger version

Support clean beaches by donating

Municipal Regional Stormwater NPDES Permit – Oakland

Posted on December 10, 2019 by Coastodian

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The images below are a small selection of the images I have recorded over the past three years in Oakland that show the huge problem of municipal trash. Much, not all, of this trash originates at homeless camps around Oakland. Much of this debris is plastic and ends up in San Francisco Bay.

Since 2009 I have collected nearly 7 tons of trash off the beaches of West Marin and from Tomales Bay.

Each winter I collect a few dozen, sometimes more, dirty syringes that have washed up on the beaches of Point Reyes National Seashore, including but not limited to Limantour, Drakes, South, North, Kehoe and McClures beaches.

Since 2016 I have been visiting Lake Merritt and other locations in and around the western edges of Richmond, Albany, Berkeley and Oakland in search of the source of these needles.

I’ve collected thousands of needles from in and around the homeless camps in these communities. I’ve also learned that needle exchanges are not actually exchanges. For example, The Berkeley Needle Exchange will hand out 600 needles to anyone that asks, with no need to turn in a single dirty needle. I believe this is wrong and is responsible for the horrid amount of syringe litter that blights our cities and waterways.

Here is a short video recorded during the heavy rain on 7 December, 2019 at Lake Merritt.
One can see the failing containment boom at Glen echo allowing debris to slip past in the high flows.
At Trestle Glen, the smell of oil / gas on the water was nauseating and very noticeable on the surface.

Click on an image to see a larger version.

2016

2017

Street trash washed into Lake Merritt on 16 November, 2017

2018

2019

Broken boom leaks debris at Glen Echo

Municipal Regional Stormwater NPDES Permit – Berkeley

Posted on December 10, 2019 by Coastodian

Click on the words above “Municipal Regional Stormwater NPDES Permit – Berkeley” to see this entire post

The images below are a small selection of the images I have recorded over the past three years in Berkeley that show the huge problem of municipal trash. Much, though not all of this trash originates at homeless camps around Berkeley. Much of this debris is plastic and ends up in San Francisco Bay.

Since 2009 I have collected nearly 7 tons of trash off the beaches of West Marin and from Tomales Bay.

Since 2016 I have been visiting Lake Merritt and other locations in and around the western edges of Richmond, Albany, Berkeley and Oakland in search of the source of these needles.

Click on an image to see a larger version.

Codornices Creek – Border between Albany and Berkeley near Interstate 80

Gilman at 80

SeaBreeze / University camps area at 80

Ashby Beach – where Ashby intersect West Frontage at SF Bay

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Whales off Point Reyes send message to delay crab season

Posted on November 21, 2019 by Coastodian

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While recreationally crab and rock fishing off the Point Reyes beach this past Monday the 18th of November I was witness to some amazing whale activity I’d never before seen.

At least three whales (Humpback?) were repeatedly and rapidly slapping the surface of the sea with their tales.

Maybe they could sense that soon, many thousands of heavy traps with ropes and buoys were about to be dropped into the sea where they feed.

Maybe they were letting us recreational crab fishermen know that human activity takes a huge toll on whales and other marine life.

Whether it be from the millions of pounds of plastic humans dump into the sea each year, or, the deep cuts into their flesh when they and their relatives get tangled up in the ropes used to tether traps to buoys.

I tend to think they were sending a message to us. Are we listening?

Thankfully the CDFW and commercial crabbers got the message and pushed back the day when up to 170,000 traps with thousands of miles of plastic rope and hundreds of thousands of buoys are repeatedly dropped in the sea in search of dungeness crab.

Support clean coasts and oceans by supporting your coastodian.

Click on an image to see a larger version.
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Whales slap the surface of the sea off Point Reyes on 18 November, 2019. ©Richard James – coastodian.org

Protecting the planet
one beach at a time

Posted on October 17, 2019 by Coastodian

I love our coast. The Northern California coast soothes my soul and makes me a better person. And sadly, I see the results of humans dumping eight million metric tons of plastic debris in the planet’s ocean each year. So I walk the beaches from Muir Woods to Jenner with my cameras and trash bags. I always find interesting subjects to photograph and trash to collect. Lots of trash, so far I’ve packed out nearly seven tons. Reducing all trash, especially plastics in the ocean has become my mission.

My passion for the environment draws me closer to her, nourishing my desire to protect habitat and reduce our impact on the coast, especially priceless Tomales Bay. In the past 10 years of combing this coast on foot and by boat, I’ve learned about the devastation of plastics on birds, fish, marine mammals, and of course humans. Plastic trash on the beach arrives mostly from the sea, though visitors and locals also contribute to the mess. Sun, waves and wind grind this plastic mess into tiny particles that bind with other petroleum based toxins. These particles are eaten by fish and birds, and enter the complex food web of which we are a part of.

Trash washes up 24/7/365. My volunteer efforts include collecting trash, leading beach cleanup groups, public education and weaving together businesses, government and non-profit agencies with shared information to mitigate our impact. Our annual Beach Clean-ups and local individual efforts are dwarfed by the wave of new trash arriving every day.

This website is a culmination of my effort to bring the problem to the forefront, discuss solutions and share the beautiful, surprising, often times sad and maddening discoveries. You’ll find reports of my findings going back to 2010, from Beijing 2008 Olympics water bottles that continue washing up, the America’s Cup AC-72 boat pieces, the regular arrival of dirty hypodermic needles at Point Reyes National Seashore beaches, flushed by heavy rains from the streets of Berkeley, Oakland and elsewhere into San Francisco Bay and to the sea.

Silent gratitude comes from my board of directors and occasionally a human. I don’t have sponsors apart from the individual donations to this website.

To take an active role, come walk the beach with me. Join the effort: buy less plastic, reduce your use of single-use items, pick up trash wherever you may be, help spread the word and educate others, support those who promote public policy to bring fundamental change. And, if you can help my efforts, I would be thankful for your donation.

Click on image to see it larger

Some of my tracks from hundreds of visits to this beach to remove marine trash.

Board of Directors

Crab season is approaching – would you hire a contractor that leaves a mess in your home?

Posted on October 9, 2019 by Coastodian

Click the words above “Crab season is approaching – would you hire a contractor that leaves a mess in your home?” to see this entire post.

Commercial crab season is fast approaching. Without any issues causing a delay (domoic acid or other problems) it will open mid-November.

When you hire a contractor to work on your home, one of the criteria in making that hiring decision is how they leave your home once the work is done.

You talk to other customers, ask questions about quality of work, attention to detail, staying on budget and on schedule, right?

You also take into consideration how well they clean up after themselves each day, as well as at the end of the project, right?

If a contractor regularly left their worksite (your home) a mess, scrap wire, lumber, sheet rock laying about, food and drink containers scattered all over your yard and in the street, you’d likely talk to them about it, right?

If they did not correct the situation, you might even fire them and find another crew to finish the work.

You’d certainly be sure to tell anyone that asked about the mess this crew made and to be wary about hiring them.

OK then.

Crab fishing is hard work, no question about that.

But that is no excuse for leaving the ocean and coastline a complete mess each season.

Why do we expect contractors, gardeners, doctors and mechanics to clean up after they do a job, yet, we give a pass to the commercial (and sport) crab fishery each and every year? Even though they dump tons of plastic into the ocean, some of which is ground into fine plastic powder every year.

Recently I walked the southern portion of South Beach at Point Reyes Seashore. The first time I’d been to that area in many months.

I found the usual water bottles, food wrappers, lighters, shotgun shell shot-cups, forks, straws and lots and lots of crab fishing buoys, rope and only one Scotty’s bait jar. Six months since the last season closed and still crab fishing garbage is washing ashore, just like it does each and every day here at Point Reyes.

Crab fishermen, you either need to clean up after yourselves, or pay someone else to do it.

Along the California coast you lose thousands of buoys and traps each year, miles of rope, thousands of bait jars and other items.

This stuff is ground into powder by the waves and rocks and then it enters the food chain of which humans are a part.

Please clean up after yourselves. I’ve asked the Bodega fishermen to clean up the mess they and others leave at Point Reyes.

Their reply was NO, we will not help clean up the mess we make.

My efforts to rectify this situation will increase until marked progress is made.

Images below are from a week ago on South Beach. Links to previous posts on this topic are also below.

Dungeness Crab Season is here – How do I know?

Commercial fishermen are extremely conscious of their impact

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