“The biggest threat to the National Wilderness Act today is the prolonged smear campaign levied against our state-owned shellfish leases in Drakes Estero. By fabricating a case of environmental harm where none exists, by denying the state’s retained rights, including mineral rights and rights to its shellfish leases in Drakes Estero, by trampling upon the forty-year collaboration between the Park Service and the state Fish and Game Commission and shredding the National Environmental Policy Act, Richard and others undermine the legitimacy of the process by which segments of our national geography are designated “wilderness.”
If Huffman wishes to ensure the future of the Wilderness Act, as well as the Bay Area’s capacity to feed itself, he should declare his support for a bipartisan investigation into the science — and policy — used in decisions affecting shellfish production capacity in Drakes Estero.”
Marin Voice: Science is on the side of open and transparent Inquiry
By Web Otis
Guest op-ed columnPosted: 06/22/2013 02:52:53 PM PDTWHY WOULD Dominique Richard (Marin Voice, May 18) or anyone, oppose an open, bipartisan review of the science surrounding the Drakes Bay oyster farm?
The National Park Service has a mandate to protect natural, cultural and historical resources and the oyster farm falls within all three categories.
Contrary to Richard’s claim, two National Academy of Sciences reports on Drakes Estero, one in 2009 and another in 2012, reveal that oyster farming there has no significant negative impacts, functionally replacing ecological services performed by the native oyster, extirpated by over-harvesting in the late 1800s.
Farming native oysters back into the ecosystem has been successful in other estuaries, but efforts by the oyster farm to reestablish native Olympia oysters in Drakes Estero, despite NOAA research funding and support, have been blocked by the Park Service.
After over 80 years of oyster cultivation in Drakes Estero, the “Precautionary Principle,” which Richard evokes, dictates the oyster farm should remain.
In his dismissal of Sim Van der Ryn’s (Marin Voice, April 28) call for a bipartisan congressional investigation, Richard shows his hand. Anyone actually interested in getting to the truth around this controversy would support the call for Rep. Jared Huffman, as a member of the House committee, representing all of California’s shellfish aquaculture production areas, to facilitate a credible congressional inquiry.
If Richard truly favors “sunlight” on the science surrounding this controversy, we have, at last, a point of agreement. We also agree that, —… scientific disagreement, even honest errors, are not misconduct.” But policy should not — must not — be based upon erroneous science.Richard may choose to believe that oyster boats located seven hundred yards from seal haul out areas cause seal pups to be separated from their mothers, but multiple reviews conducted since 2008 have found no evidence of any kind to support that belief.
Those shellfish water bottom leases belong to us, citizens of this state, and represent the majority of the Bay Area’s sustainable shellfish production capacity.
Richard and others may enjoy bullying the lessees, but it is “We the People,” as statutory owners of those leases, and consumers of locally produced shellfish, they are ultimately attacking.
If this assault against the sustainable production of shellfish on 55 percent of the state’s water bottoms is successful, our ability to produce “super green” local seafood, at a time of near collapse of other global fisheries, will be decimated.
The biggest threat to the National Wilderness Act today is the prolonged smear campaign levied against our state-owned shellfish leases in Drakes Estero. By fabricating a case of environmental harm where none exists, by denying the state’s retained rights, including mineral rights and rights to its shellfish leases in Drakes Estero, by trampling upon the forty-year collaboration between the Park Service and the state Fish and Game Commission and shredding the National Environmental Policy Act, Richard and others undermine the legitimacy of the process by which segments of our national geography are designated “wilderness.”
If Huffman wishes to ensure the future of the Wilderness Act, as well as the Bay Area’s capacity to feed itself, he should declare his support for a bipartisan investigation into the science — and policy — used in decisions affecting shellfish production capacity in Drakes Estero.
Web Otis of Stinson Beach has been active in planning issues at Point Reyes National Seashore.
Drakes Bay Oyster Company & the National Park Service. Watch the video, "THE FRAMING OF AN OYSTER FARM" at http://vimeo.com/52331881 