Save Drakes Bay Coalition
- Please visit the Coalition's new website here!
- The latest letters from the Coastal Commission rebuking the Drakes Bay Oyster Company for illegally operating motorboats within a seasonal harbor seal protection area can be viewed here
- The Coastal Commission, after reviewing photos such as this one, issued letters confirming the oyster company's illegal use of motorboats. For example, a November 22, 2011 letter states "As noted in our September 29, 2011 letter to Mr. Lunny, a variety of photographs document the presence of boats in the lateral channel....The presence of boat traffic in this area during these times is not allowed pursuant to..."
- TAKE ACTION!!! Draft Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) released! EIS concludes that extending commercial oyster operations within this national park
wilderness area would be damaging to national park policies and goals, and
contradictory to wilderness protection laws. Take Action HERE before 11/29/11
- Coastal Commission reprimands the Drakes Bay Oyster Company for plastics pollution and violating regulations that protect breeding harbor seals. Read 9/29/11 Commission letter here. (left photo: Amy Trainer, right photo: Tom Baty)
- The results of "scoping" are in: More than 75% of public comments support Wilderness protection over commercialization of wilderness! Thank you all for lending your voice to protect your marine wilderness!
- Read what the Marin IJ and the National Parks Traveler wrote about this overwhelming display of public support for wilderness in 2012
- Read about the negative policy and resource impacts of allowing commercial aquaculture in Drakes Estero Wilderness instead of protecting it.
- Read about the legislative history of Drakes Estero and why the public and Congress decided that the highest and best purpose for Drakes Estero in 2012 is marine wilderness protection, not commercial exploitation of wilderness.
- Wildlife camera photos corroborate volunteer records of harbor seal disturbance (zoomed in version of photos)
When asked, after reviewing wildlife camera photos showing seals moving and a boat wake, if there was harbor seal disturbance on May 8, 2007, Dr. Frances Gulland (Senior Scientist at the Marine Mammal Center) stated “yes, that is the most parsimonious explanation of seals moving when a boat goes by.”
"The Heart of the Park"
- Legal Analysis and Columns by leading environmental groups
- Management of Drakes Estero (including best available science findings)
- Organization, Foundation, and Individual Letters of Support
Drakes Estero, which feeds Drakes Bay, is a sheltered estuary located within Point Reyes National Seashore and is part of the spectacular Phillip Burton Wilderness (see maps below). The estuary is the only marine wilderness on the west coast from Canada to Mexico, and became a designated wilderness in 1976 after a full wilderness review, four years of public meetings, and a lengthy environmental impact analysis. However, due to a pre-1976 Reservation of Use (i.e. rights to operate) that allows mariculture production for 40 years, Drakes Estero has not yet reaped the benefits of full wilderness protection and status.
The entire estero is currently managed as wilderness with that one mariculture exception, which will be corrected in 2012 when the mariculture operating rights expires. However, the current oyster company has waged a campaign to expand the operation and have the operating rights extended, threatening the estero's ecology, the wilderness legislation, and decades' long effort to preserve it for wildlife and public enjoyment. In 2009, Congress passed legislation (as a "rider" to a large spending bill) which allows the Secretary of Interior to decide the fate of this estuary's wilderness protection.
The National Park Service has documented negative impacts on harbor seals and eelgrass from the oyster operation.
Learn more about the threats to wilderness, the threats to this national park's ecology, the negative implications nationwide, and take action!
(maps courtesy of Wikipedia)
