Please click the words above “Sustainable Oyster Farming, DBOC style ….” to see this entire post.
Happy new year.
1 January came around and I had no choice but to go enjoy the first day of an unimproved Estero.
The first thing to catch one’s eye is the new sign out on SFD….
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Here is an image of this same spot on 24 Feb., 2013
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Driving down to the put-in, the empty parking-lot surprised me, not another boater out enjoying this auspicious new year.
There was a large truck poised to haul out another load of stewardship.
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Unloading my boat, odd specks in the water caught my eye.
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Wow, it looked as if they had destroyed one of their barges and left the shards of foam as one last gift.
After putting my boat in the water and paddling around to photograph the mess, the truck driver on-shore informed me that they had indeed crushed a barge into pieces so they could lift it out of the water.
He then asked me if I could fetch the large wooden piece of barge still floating in The Estero and bring it to him so he could take care of that. I said sure and paddled over to it, threw a leg over it and paddled to shore dragging what must have weighed a few hundred pounds. He thanked me, as did I him.
After reading the comments made by one of the managers of DBOC at the “wake” held Saturday in Point Reyes Station, “The company, which also raised Manilla clams, has removed every oyster from the water in compliance with the terms of the settlement, according to Ginny Cummings, the farm’s manager.
“We have taken anything out and with as much care as we always used in our operations,” Cummings said.”,
I can confirm that the same care was used in dismantling the operation as was used in running it.
As I returned from my short boating excursion, paddling against the strong ebb tide, thousands upon thousands of chunks of foam drifted with the tide, towards the mouth of The Estero. I picked up a few dozen of the larger pieces as I hurried ashore to meet a dear friend who was coming to visit.
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Thankfully, the variety of stewardship practiced by The Drakes Bay Oyster Company, and their workers for the past 30+ years will no longer impact a landscape that needs no improving whatsoever.
The grebes seen below can once again be grebes, unencumbered by the deep respect of DBOC.
As always, click on an image to see a larger version.
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apologies for low quality iphone video of the mess
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apologies for low quality iphone video of the mess
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