Oyster tags | The Coastodian

Click on the words above “Save our Tomales Bay…” to see this post as it was meant to be seen.

The boat you see in the banner above had been blown off its mooring (for a second time) and drifted south nearly two miles to the spot you see.

Moorings in Tomales Bay, as I understand it consist of very heavy things, dropped into the bay, to which one ties their boat.

Speaking one day with a gentleman who works at Hog Island Oyster Company, I mentioned the garbage you see in the two images seen below during a discussion we were having about all the oyster farming trash I find washed ashore.

Location – 38.128490° N -122.864172° W Datum WGS84

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Location – 38.125753° N -122.862869° W Datum WGS84

He mentioned all the moorings in the bay, implying that if you think oyster farming debris is trash, what about all the engine blocks littering the bottom of the bay?

He also mentioned a specific tire, stuck in the mud for many, many years just off Bivalve that can be seen from the road.

I replied that I had seen that tire several times, even photographed it. He asked me if I had packed it out. I replied no, I had been out that day to take photos, not pack out trash as I often do. He quickly shot back “Everyone has an excuse.” A few days later, I emailed him a picture of a tire, asking if this indeed was the tire in question. I also sent a picture of nine tires I had pulled out of the mud, drug ashore and packed to the trailhead.

I’ve not heard back from George.

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Even though you are about to see many pictures of trash I have picked up in the vicinity of the Tomales Bay Oyster Company, I want to say that I think they are making an effort to pick up after themselves.

Thank you Tomales Bay Oyster Company. Or whoever it is that is picking up the beaches near your business that are usually covered in plastic from your operation.

What you see below I had to really go trekking to find. Whoever is picking it up is getting the low hanging fruit, the stuff in the wrack. Which is great.

I am having to go further away from the wrack, up into the pickleweed to get the plastic that was washed up during very high tides in the past.

If these oyster farm operations sent people out more often, I suggest once a week, or at least every other week. There would be less chance of high tides pushing it further inland, or worse, pulling it out to sea, where it becomes deadly for birds, mammals and other sea life.

In an upcoming post, I’ll share more findings along the Tomales Bay shore in the vicinity of Hog Island Oysters, as well as other growers that have thousands upon thousands of bags of oysters laying in the mud or on racks.

Find out the unvarnished truth about sustainable oyster farming, West Marin Style™.

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this blue foam is wrapped in plastic and tied to the oyster bags for flotation.
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I find chunks of this stuff EVERYWHERE.
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If the growers regularly policed their growing areas [as I do], the sun would not degrade the plastic and this stuff would not be strewn about.

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Tags from oyster bags shipped from Washing State to Marin.
Do you know your farmer? Call them at the number you see on the tags above.

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The purplish lines show locations where I gathered litter from that you see in this post.
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The yellow lines show where I walked inland to find “older” trash left by the business owner.
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The business site is the bright white area.

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A work area used by the busniess, one of two that I know of where tools and trash are left at all times.

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A clean wrack. What it should always look like!

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Plastic free eel grass!
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Yes please

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Next related post may be found here.

Previous related post may be found here.

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

Click on the words above “Save our Tomales Bay…” to see this post as it was meant to be seen.

Oyster bags, oyster tags, what a drag!

Not only do the oyster farmers of Tomales Bay leave the tools of their trade all over the environment, they leave the tags from the bags shipped here from Washington State.

Let’s have a closer look at those tags

It says, “This tag is required to be attached until container is empty or retagged and thereafter kept on file for 90 days.”

90 days from May 21st would be August 21st. Yet, I found these tags littering the shore (along with hundreds of grow out bags) in June, July and August. Does keeping tags on file in the oyster business mean scattering them to the winds to be deposited on the shores of Tomales Bay and Point Reyes Seashore?

There is so much to learn about this local, sustainable, easy on the land business of growing, er shipping from Washington, oysters.

Do you know your oyster farmer? Call them, all the Washington numbers are there on those tags you can see better below.

Does it make sense to ship oysters so far to sell them? Maybe farming what local, non-protected waters can support is the wiser course in the long run. If the local waters can only support X pounds of oysters per year, harvest X pounds.

Either way, picking up after yourself is a given. Why is it accepted that these mariculture operations can leave such a mess in the waters and on the shore? The Leysan Albatross and other pelagic birds that scoop up all the plastic garbage humans dump in the sea, and feed it to their chicks who then die, they have no seat at the table where decisions are made by those in power, those extracting a profit. Who speaks for the animals of the sea?

West Marin oyster farmers want to greatly expand the number of acres in Tomales Bay where they can practice their trade.

From what I have seen so far in my many days on the water and along the shore picking up after them, they don’t deserve to farm the acres they mis-use now. If these farmers sent two people out one day each week, or even every other week to clean up THEIR mess, I’d have nothing to write about. More importantly, the animals of the sea would be less likely to die by ingesting our waste.

This farming can be done responsibly if the farmers are willing to act in a manner many talk about. Are short-term profits going to fog the eyes of these business people such that they are blind to the damage being done?

I hope not.

As always, to see a larger version of the following images, click on it.

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Next related post may be found here.

Previous related post may be found here.

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

The Coastodian

Tag Archives: Oyster tags

Save our Tomales Bay – part 9

Save our Tomales Bay – part 6