2001–2002 - California Sea Grant - UC San Diego

extension program…
The Sea Grant Extension Program
mission is to increase the understanding,
development, and conservation of
California’s coastal and marine resources.
This is accomplished through research and
the application of science-based information
to solve problems involving natural
resources of the coast and ocean. This
mission is carried out by a talented team of
seven Marine Advisors with a broad range
of expertise operating in coastal counties
from San Diego to Crescent City, and one
marine fisheries specialist based at the
University of California, Davis.
SEA GRANT ASSISTS OYSTER RESTORATION IN
TOMALES BAY
Sea Grant Interim Director of
Extension Paul Olin is
collaborating with scientists at the
University of California, Davis and
San Francisco State University on
a pilot project to restore native
oyster populations in Tomales Bay
in Marin County, just north of San
Francisco. The group has built and
deployed 12 pilot reef structures
made of bagged oyster shell and
will position another 12 in 2003.
Sonoma & Marin Counties
PAUL OLIN
Interim Associate Director for
Extension
Sea Grant Extension Program
2604 Ventura Avenue, Room 100
Santa Rosa, California 95403
pgolin@ucdavis.edu
Phone: (707) 565-2621
Fax: (707) 565-2623
The goal is to have native oysters and other fish and invertebrates
recruit to the complex three-dimensional habitat provided by the shell,
and eventually create a sustainable living reef ecosystem. Much of the
hard-bottom substrate historically found in the bay, and used by oysters to
settle, has been covered in sediments resulting from erosion and runoff
from the surrounding watershed.
Olin reports that a major purpose of this research is to document the
extent to which the oyster reefs enhance fish and invertebrates on the
reefs and in surrounding waters. If the reefs prove to be viable means of
enhancing native species, more expansive reefs could conceivably be built
as part of a larger restoration effort, or as mitigation for development
projects, such as the proposed expansion of the San Francisco International
Airport.
ASSESSING FISHERY RESOURCES
University of California researchers place an array of bagged oyster shell in
Tomales Bay to enhance settling substrate and recruitment for larval native
oysters. Photo: University of California
In the last decade, catches of many fish species along the Central California
coast have greatly declined, due both to decreases in fish populations
and to new regulations enacted to conserve or rebuild fish stocks.
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