Click the words above “Respect Tomales Bay – Stakeholders meeting…” to see this entire post.
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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