Drakes Estero

Posted on July 4, 2013 by Coastodian

Click on the words “Drakes Estero” above to see this post as it was meant to be seen.

Today I had hoped to record some video of life on the estero.

The wind and the chop said otherwise.

I did get a heck of a workout. Picked up a little trash too.

Saw the largest bat ray I have ever seen, nearly four feet from tip to tip.

Only one shark.

Many loons.

What follows are some scenes from the day.

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Oyster racks with eel grass

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Hmmmm, this is not food, only oyster spacers and discarded plastic water bottles.

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Save our Tomales Bay – Part 2

Posted on June 29, 2013 by Coastodian

Click on the words “Save our Tomales Bay” above to see the related banner image.

Today and last week I boated across Tomales Bay with the intention of seeing what sort of plastic debris I could find and haul out.

Given my last post about the oyster farming debris I dug out of the shore of Tomales Bay and packed out, I did not think I’d find nearly so much.

How wrong I was.

Last week, a little north of the area of my last visit on the SE shoreline of Tomales Bay, I beached my boat and began to walk the wrack.

I stopped counting oyster grow-out bags after 20.

There were so many, I had to make 3 trips back across after loading my boat as tall as I dare. Digging the heavy bags out of the mud high on the beach was exhausting. Lack of energy and daylight prevented me from making another 3-4 trips that I figured were needed to remove all the bags littering the sand, plants and water.

Today I went back to the same area with photography in mind. I wanted to be sure to record the impact of mariculture on our shared bay. To be honest, I also did not want to feel like I’d been hit by a truck, as I felt the day after 8 hours of picking up trash last week.

In four trips across Tomales Bay in a small sit on top kayak, I hauled out 160 grow out bags, along with lots of other bottles, wrappers, foam etc. There is easily twice that many more in this one area. I wonder if the farm(s) that leave this mess there will begin to clean-up after themselves? If not, I am going to need lots of help.

Commerce makes a profit, consumers enjoy a meal. The earth pays a steep price never to be compensated.

When will humans learn that the unpaid compensation will be recovered one day in the form of a dead planet, no longer able to sustain humans as well as many other life forms?

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What follows are images that to me, are proof positive that the decision to let the oyster lease in Drakes Estero expire was the right choice. These same scenes repeated themselves throughout The Estero, though I never personally saw this many bags washed ashore on one boating trip in The Estero. I did see dozens of them that had been pulled out by the tides into Drakes Bay and deposited on Limantour and Drakes Beaches, as well as other nearby beaches. How many escaped unnoticed?

See earlier post about the nearly 6000 PVC pipe spacers I collected from Point Reyes beaches.

All of the images can be clicked on to see a larger image.

160 polyethelene oyster grow out bags left to the elements in Tomales Bay

Nudibranch dining on a grow out bag

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160 polyethelene oyster grow out bags left to the elements in Tomales Bay

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Been there so long, pickleweed is growing through it.

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Nudibranch dining on a grow out bag

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been there so long it is buried

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NOT good!

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In West Marin of all places!

Calling this sustainable mariculture would be as crazy as saying The Inverness Garden Club sprayed Roundup® in a public area near Tomales Bay, without permits, telling no one.

Next related post may be found here.

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

Save our Tomales Bay

Posted on June 9, 2013 by Coastodian

Over the past few weeks signs have popped up all over West Marin stating
“Save our Drakes Bay Oyster Farm”.

I am reminded of a young child that wants a puppy. Really wants a puppy.

Begs and pleads to her/his parents to get a puppy.

Days and weeks of begging for a puppy.

The parents engage in the sort of dialog you might expect.

“Puppies are a lot of responsibility honey.”

“I’ll take care of him” is the reply.

“You have to feed the puppy and make sure it has clean water.”

“I will, I’ll feed it every day.”

“And you have to pick up the mess from the puppy too.”

“I will, I will pick up after him.”

And so a puppy is purchased and brought home.

At first, all is well and the child does indeed do as promised. After a few weeks, soccer practice gets in the way and the dog poop is not picked up regularly. Then homework is too burdensome and the morning walk is not doable anymore. Soon, even feeding the dog is forgotten by the child.

Everywhere around us we see signs asking for an oyster farm. An oyster farm that has been shitting in the estero for as long as it has been there. See a previous post for a image showing a tiny subset of what an oyster farm does to a pristine seascape.

You’d think that with all the scrutiny on the Drakes Bay Oyster Company and the environment, the other oyster farmers in Tomales Bay would be super-vigilant, keeping a close eye on their operations, making sure they clean up after their gear is ripped out and strewn about by wind and wave.

Well, think again. I boated across Tomales Bay yesterday from my place and spent a few hours walking the shore, digging oyster grow-out bags, blue foam, rope, floats, trays etc out of the wrack.

Collected from SE shore of Tomales Bay on 8 June, 2013 in a few hours by one person.
Click image for a larger version

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Drakes Estero is situated in a National Seashore and has been defiled by human commerce for 70 years or more.

Tomales Bay is designated a state park if I am not mistaken. And, as you can see is clearly not very well respected by local commerce.

Both of these places are situated on earth, the only earth we have. And unless your head is in the sand, or some other place, you can see that we have been trashing it at an ever faster pace since we learned how to use our opposable thumbs.

We can feed ourselves without trashing the planet. We all have to share the burden a little bit, but we can do it.

West Marin prides itself on local, sustainable…….in light of local practices, add blah, blah, blah to the mantra.

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I’m sorry, no puppy for you. And no oyster farm in Drakes Estero.

Kehoe Beach – 27 January, 2012, 3:58 pm looking south, status quo.
Click image for a larger version

Next installment may be found here.

Oyster farm expansion begins on Drakes Beach

Posted on May 12, 2013 by Coastodian

Click on the title of this post to read it and see a related header image.

Sustainable oyster farming, West Marin style.

Posted on March 17, 2013 by Coastodian

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Sustainable oyster farming, West Marin style.
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Nearly 6000 HDPE (high-density polyethylene) tubes used in the production of oysters in Drakes Estero. One person picked up every one of these by hand over a period of 3.5 years. All were found as far south as Slide Ranch, just south of Stinson Beach, and as far north as the tip of Tomales Point, as well as all points in-between.

Those black (and one green) grow-out bags are a fraction of the bags I recovered. The green one was found in Tomales Bay and is likely from one of the growers that raise oysters in that body of water.

Read about HDPE here.

NOTE: It has been pointed out to me a number of times that these tubes are made of high-density polyethylene (HDPE), not poly-vinyl chloride (PVC). I am finally getting around to correcting that error. [2014.03.30]

See the next post in this series here

What price convenience? Plastic, the gift that keeps on giving.

Posted on January 23, 2013 by Coastodian

Click on the title of this post to read it and see a related header image.

After Thanksgiving 2012 I made six visits in quick succession to the beaches of Limantour, Drakes, and South within Point Reyes National Seashore as well as one visit to Slide Ranch.

What you see in the images below was what I collected. It is by no means all that had washed up. I packed out what I could carry. And I do mean everything, all the items the smaller pieces are displayed upon were packed out as well.

All of these images can be seen larger if you click on them.

Human trash collected from Point Reyes beaches during six visits

Tampon applicators – known as beach whistles in the beach-walking community. I am told by a female friend that if women were not taught to be afraid of their own bodies, these would not exist. They wash up by the hundreds when conditions are right, err wrong.

Toys, pill containers, cheese-like-substance spreaders, deodorant applicators. All part of the fast-paced human life of convenience.

I recently purchased a toothbrush where I can replace the brush part when needed, keeping the handle which may never wear out. See below this image on where you can buy one and reduce the amount of plastic crap we humans inject into our ecosystem.

One company that makes a sensible tooth brush is Ecodent

Toxic beverage containers, also known as disposable cups. See below this image for where to purchase a reusable coffee mug.

One company that sells a nice spill-proof coffee-cup is contigo

There is nothing smart about Smartwater. See below this image for where to purchase a metal water bottle you can use forever. Imagine not wasting oil to make a bottle that most people toss aside. Imagine…..

One company that makes a reusable water bottle is Klean Kanteen.

Learn something you likely did not know about Fiji Water.

Oyster grow-out bags, crab trap bait bags and many, many tennis balls. The bag on the bottom is definitely from Drakes Bay Oyster Company. The upper bag is used by all the local oyster farmers. I find them all the time.

Crab fishing residue. What if the price of crab in the market reflected the true cost to the planet of growing and harvesting it?

Could that bottle of mouthwash have belonged to D. Lee?

Oyster spacer tubes made from PVC pipe used by Johnson’s Oysters which was purchased by Drakes Bay Oyster Company. I found 490 of them in less than a week. My one day record is 722. Many are clearly very old. Though many are like new, not a bit of ocean growth on them.

Disposable lighters, also known as fake-albatross food. See the link below this image for images made by Chris Jordan showing dead albatross on Midway Atoll whose bellies are full of plastic bits and lighters.

See a previous post showing the harm done to wild birds by our selfishness, here.

Packaging for non-food that is killing the human race. This stuff washes up by the truckload. That is, if it is not devoured by turtles first.

Oyster spacer tubes from Drakes Bay Oyster Company

Packing straps fill the oceans, strangling turtles and seals. NOTE: Marine Mammal Center, contact me before using my images.

Oil, cottage cheese, yogurt, tapioca, yogurt, oysters, jumbo red worms and more oysters. All framed by an oyster grow-out bag from Drakes Bay Oyster Company

Foster Farms Value Pack Combo, no added hormones or steroids. Wash some down with Capri Sun high fructose corn-syrup. Unsustainable petroleum-based packaging? Ahhhh, who gives a damn? Please pass the pastrami!

Am I shoveling shit against the tide by picking up all this human trash from our beaches? Like Sisyphus, I’ve cheated death more than once. Like Sisyphus and his boulder, I’ve been walking the earth picking up after my species.

Shoes and hat brims by the hundreds

Tyvek suit, made in China. Most everything pictured in these images was fashioned there and shipped to the US. What a waste of energy. We can do better. We must.

Commercial crab trap tags. Recognize anyone you know? I do.

shuttle-cock, binkies, fish, flowers, lip-balm, and what day would be complete without a syringe or two? Oh yes and a toy star trek phaser cartridge bottom center. Brad Campbell taught me at a very young age that I could use those as a coin in a gumball machine. Thankfully the statute of limitation has likely expired on that crime.

Organic energy shots are the best for washing down Easy Cheese. A pouch of emergency water is nice to have on hand too, as a chaser.

Larry Ellison had a little trouble with his 9 million dollar America’s Cup boat (AC72). I have been finding pieces of it washing up all over the place. That is aluminum or paper honeycomb sandwiched by carbon fiber you see.

Human trash collected from Point Reyes beaches during six visits

Fishing is hard on the sea, living is hard on my heart

Posted on November 14, 2012 by Coastodian

Click on the title of this post to read it and see a related header image.

The debris shown in the images below was collected after the first big storm of 2012 in early February.

Over two days I spent 10 hours and covered about three miles of Drakes Beach and South Beach. Just imagine what all the beaches of Point Reyes were covered with from just one storm!

The plan was to have posted these images in February. Due to painful distractions, I am finally getting around to sharing what I hope you find are compelling images. That is, I hope they compel you to give some thought to all that happens in order to bring seafood to your table.

Tomorrow is the commercial crab opener of 2012. Thousands of crab pots have been dropped in the sea attached to miles and miles of petroleum based rope, foam floats and plastic bait jars. Much of this gear will be lost due to storm, propeller strike or other activities. While scraping and grinding along the bottom of the sea, or abrading on the beach sand, many thousands of pounds of plastic will be pulverized and deposited into the food chain.

Does society have any idea what is undertaken to put seafood on their table? The time, expense and effort of the fishermen, the vast amount of gear lost at sea each season, or stolen by unscrupulous crab fishermen? A local fishermen once told me, after sharing with me the many ways in which fishermen “do unto others” in not such golden ways, “Crab fishing makes ya crabby!”

Be sure to have a look at the last picture. There you will get a close look at about 75 oyster spacer tubes from Drakes Bay Oyster Company (DBOC) in the foreground. I have found well over 5000 of these in the last five years. From as far north as the tip of Tomales Point and south to Slide Ranch.

Click on image for bigger picture – Debris recovered over two days work, about ten hours effort

Click on image for bigger picture – Should the price of crab reflect the cost to the planet?

Click on image for bigger picture – Maybe some of this is yours?

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Click on image for bigger picture – Heroin, nicotine and caffeine….slower, faster, anywhere but here and now…

Click on image for bigger picture – If all dogs at the seashore are on leash….how come I find 100’s of tennis balls and ball tossers each year?

Click on image for bigger picture

Click on image for bigger picture – Each one of those orange tags represents about $200 in lost gear for a crab fisherman. What if they paid a deposit on each trap set? To offset the cost of picking up after all their gear that litters the ocean and beaches.

Click on image for bigger picture – Black PVC pipe oyster spacers used by Drakes Bay Oyster Company. You see 75 or so here. I have found over 5000 of these on Point Reyes beaches, as well as dozens oyster grow-out bags and the foam from inside grow-out bags.

All forms of commercial fishing take a huge toll on our planet.

Is it asking too much to set aside portions of the planet as areas we tread upon lightly, or tread upon not at all?

Many say we must do all we can to produce food locally, sustainably to feed the 7 billion humans on earth.

Others say we need to slow the growth of the human population, keep it more in line with the carrying capacity of earth.

This planet is fragile. Humans, only one of the many species on this blue sphere, have developed the means to do great good and great harm. As we ever more quickly modify our nest, it is less able to feed an ever growing population. Does this make sense? Does a growing family move into ever smaller and smaller housing?

I think The Dude said it best:

The Coastodian

Tag Archives: DBOC

Drakes Estero

Save our Tomales Bay – Part 2

Save our Tomales Bay

Oyster farm expansion begins on Drakes Beach

Sustainable oyster farming, West Marin style.

What price convenience? Plastic, the gift that keeps on giving.

Fishing is hard on the sea, living is hard on my heart