Sustainable Oyster Farming, West Marin Style – part 8 crime scene video

Click the words above “Sustainable Oyster Farming…” to see this entire post.

Below you will find a video composed of 48 minutes of footage I recorded on 13 October while diving under 8 oyster racks in Schooner Bay.

Be sure to click the rectangle icon in the lower right of the video window to fill your screen with this HD footage.

Skip around to see the variety of messes left on the floor of The Estero by DBOC. Or grab a beer and some snacks and sit back to watch the whole thing. That way you can get a better idea of the scope of the damage at what truly is a crime scene.

Thankfully, next year no further damage will be done and the clean-up can begin in earnest.

The diving recorded here shows a portion of 1/10th of the racks being left in Drakes Estero by DBOC.



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Sustainable Oyster Farming, West Marin Style – part 7 Stewardship in Home Bay

Click the words above “Sustainable Oyster Farming…” to see this entire post. In particular, the banner image that shows two of the miles of racks in Drakes Estero, upon which I have placed several plastic bags filled with oyster shells that I found on the bottom, directly below the where they sit in this image.

Earlier this month I spent a few hours recording the mess left behind by DBOC under the oyster racks in Home Bay.

No surprises, simply more of the same disgraceful mess left behind by a firm that repeatedly touted itself as a steward of the land, with deep respect for the waters of The Estero.

Below is three brief minutes from hours of video I recorded.

Be sure to click the small rectangular icon in the lower right corner of the video window so you can see this HD footage fill up your screen. That way you’ll have a better idea of how the floor of Drakes Estero is filled with the remnants of a farce, foisted on us all as the model of sustainable farming.


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Sustainable Oyster Farming, West Marin Style – You think you’re doing something good….

Click on the words above “Sustainable Oyster Farming, West Marin Style ….” to see this entire post.

Lately I’ve been boating and diving various areas of Drakes Estero in order to get a handle on how enormous of a mess is being left by Drakes Bay Oyster Company. I assure you, it is a disaster out there. For them to suggest that the cleanup cost would be only $10,000 (which they did, more than once), is one mighty big whopper!

After diving under 8 long racks today, over one half mile of lineal rack space, I put up my sail and let the wind drive me back to the put in near the oyster processing facility.

As I pulled my boat out of the water, the manager of DBOC approached me, saying she had a couple questions she’d like to ask me. I said sure.

“We’ve been trying to figure out who is putting the tubes [french tubes] up on top of the racks.”

“That would likely be me.” I replied

“Well, there are live oysters on those tubes, and when you do that, it kills the oysters.”

“The tubes I’ve placed on the racks are from the mud on the bottom of The Estero.”

“We don’t want you to do that. We are still harvesting oysters, and that is like stealing from us.”

“Those oysters have been abandoned on the bottom of The Estero, they are not on the racks. I’m cleaning up the mess out there that you folks refuse to clean up.”

“What you are doing would be like me taking your boat and putting it in my car,” she said to me.

I will digress for a moment to correct her remark, given all that has transpired over the past almost two years.

She thinks that my picking up the mess that DBOC has been leaving in Drakes Estero for the past six and a half years or so, is like her stealing my kayak.

Sure, that is correct, if:

1 I signed a contract with a landlord to lease a place to store my kayak and was told that after 7 years, I could no longer store my kayak there.

2 During the lease, I enlisted the help of all manner of politicians, lobbyists and other groups to put pressure on the landlord to extend my lease.

3 At the end of my lease, the “home-owners association” that my landlord belonged to told me my lease would not be extended.

4 I sued the landlord and HOA. The court hearing the case rejected my claim.

5 I appealed my case to a higher court, they too, rejected my case.

6 I appealed my case to the entire bench of said higher court, they rejected my claim.

7 I appealed my claim to the Supreme Court of the United States, they refused to hear my case.

8 Lots of my buddies sued on my behalf, trying to get my lease to store my kayak extended. That case was tossed out, my buddies were scolded.

9 For the nearly 2 years I was fighting against the lease I signed, I continued to store my kayak, yet did not pay rent. And I earned income renting out my kayak to others.

And then, I ran my kayak through a shredder and left all the pieces scattered about the place I had leased.

Yeah, I can see how my picking up the abandoned mess left by DBOC is just like her stealing my kayak.

Now back to the conclusion of our exchange today…

“I’ll stop placing tubes on top of the racks”, I said.

“Are you going to pick up all the live oysters from off the bottom?” I asked her.

“We are still harvesting oysters and will continue to do so.”

“You didn’t answer my question. Are you going to pick up all the live oysters off the bottom of The Estero?”

“We are going to keep harvesting until they kick us out. After December 31, you can do whatever you want.”

“You still haven’t answered my question. I’m gonna stop placing french tubes on top of the racks, are you going to pick up all the live oysters off the bottom of The Estero?” I asked for a third time.

“Yes we will.”

Great! Then I won’t have to pick them up.

Her last words to me were, “You seem to think you are doing something good out there.”

Later, I thought to myself, “yeah, I’m showing some respect to Drakes Estero, something DBOC is good at talking about, and not so good at actually doing.

Below are images from what I saw today. They represent a fraction of the disaster left by DBOC on the bottom of Drakes Estero.

All images ©Richard James and may not be used or reproduced without written permission.

As always, click on an image to see a larger version.


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Sustainable Oyster Farming, West Marin Style – part 5 DBOC trash in Drakes Estero, director’s cut

Click the words above, “Sustainable Oyster Farming, West Marin Style…” to see this entire post.

Due to popular demand, a shorter version of the staggeringly popular seven minute film showing the garbage left behind by the Drakes Bay Oyster Company has been released.

See below for the distilled three minute version.

Be sure to click the rectangle icon in lower right of video window to fill your screen with the image.


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Sustainable Oyster Farming, West Marin Style – part 4 DBOC – Stewardship examined

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Sunday the 20th found me out on Drakes Estero on a superb day to enjoy this wilderness jewel. A light south headwind on my paddle out made for a light tailwind, coupled with a strong flood tide to push me back after a day diving to see what lay beneath the surface.

Having replaced my polarized glasses I’d broken two years ago, this was my first time boating on The Estero with the ability to easily see underwater. An amazing world of kelp, eal-grass, nudibranchs, bat rays, leopard sharks, fish and crabs all went about their business of eating, trying not to be eaten and reproducing.

Sadly, after years of use by a “Sustainable, respectful of the land oyster farm”, the Estero floor is now littered with abandoned plastic, oyster shells and lumber treated with toxic chemicals.

Thankfully, Drakes Bay Oyster Company has a “deep respect for the land and waters of the Estero ecostystem”.

Just imagine what the place would look like if some company without such strong morals had been running the show…..

Below is a 7 minute view of Drakes Estero, below the surface. It is High Definition, so click the small rectangle in the lower right corner of the video window to fill your screen, especially nice when the large shark comes into view.

While not the best footage (drifting with the tide holding a camera on a pole), it does give an accurate representation of what, sadly, is found under many of the oyster racks encroaching on The Estero.

As my camera skills develop, I plan to venture out to the northern part of Tomales Bay and share equally disturbing views of the side-effects from years of resource extraction in those waters.


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