Shuckers and Slurpers Take Note
Local Oyster Farm Fights Closure
By Linda Hunter
It's like a little bite of the ocean washing down your throat. Add some Champagne or a nice Sauvignon Blanc and it's a vacation to someplace tropical. Given Bay Area dwellers' appetite for oysters and support of sustainable farming, who wouldn't welcome an oyster farm that is only about an hour from downtown San Francisco? To answer that question, just ask the folks who live in West Marin about the controversy that has pitted the National Park Service against the sustainable farming community. At issue is Drake's Bay Family Farms in Drakes Estero, a protected part of the Point Reyes National Seashore.
Drakes Estero has been in commercial oyster production for nearly one hundred years. Originally farmed by Johnson Oyster Company, the farm changed hands in 2005 when it was purchased by the Lunny family. The Lunnys incorporated the oyster farm into their Drake's Bay Family Farms, which includes an organic beef ranch in operation for three generations. The company holds more than half of the total area leased out for shellfish farming by the state Department of Fish and Game and accounts for eighty-five percent of Marin County's aquaculture. Drake's Bay Family Farms has maintained the bay's recognition as having the cleanest water of any of the state's leases.
However, the pearly white reputation of these farmed oyster shells has been tarnished. The National Park Service claims that if the farm continues to operate, it will have a negative environmental impact on the Drakes Estero ecosystem. Based on this claim, they have threatened to shut down the farm after its lease ends in 2012. This move to end oyster farming in the estuary is motivated by congressional legislation that directs the Parks Service to remove commercial activities from potential wilderness tracts.
The Lunnys are protesting the Parks Service's plan. On their side are food advocates who worry about the carbon footprint of importing 300,000 pounds of oysters each year to feed the Bay Area's appetite should the oyster farm close. Despite the Lunnys' status as luminaries of the Marin ecological agriculture movement, some contend that extending the lease could encourage further commercial development of other natural areas. Conservationists argue that privatization of public resources is corrosive and unethical.
The plot thickened last week when word came that the National Park Service misused data in their reports about the environmental impacts of the oyster farm. In fact, National Academy of Sciences findings show that the farm has no demonstrable negative impacts on the bay's ecosystem or marine wildlife. Despite support for the oyster farm from the scientific community, National Parks Service regional director Jon Jarvis says he does not intend to extend the farm's lease in 2012. His decision, he says, is a "policy and law issue, not a science issue."
The closing of Drake's Bay Family Farms would be sad for oyster aficionados and sustainable food systems stalwarts alike. Native oyster habitat restoration projects will take a hit as well. The Lunnys have been donating oyster shells to build reefs where the native species can be revived. Previously, scientists had to import oyster shells from Washington State. Because of the possibility of invasive insects or microorganisms hitchhiking to California on foreign shells, the import must be carefully inspected. By using Lunnys' local shells, the biologists save weeks of time peering through microscopes, looking for anything that might be alive, and then carefully segregating inspected shells.
The Lunnys' shell donations, worth about eight dollars a bag, have helped restoration projects accomplish more on tight budgets. The gift is in keeping with the Lunnys' passion for sustainable oyster farming. "We produce ten times the amount of protein per acre in water than we can on land," says Kevin Lunny. "We don't use fertilizers, we don't till our land, and we don't have to feed the animals."
United States Senator Dianne Feinstein held a meeting in San Francisco two months ago to discuss relocating the oyster farm from Drakes Estero to Tomales Bay, the site of another operating oyster farm. However, there remain many obstacles to making this move a reality. In the face of an uncertain future for Drake's Bay Family Farms, it seems the days of locally farmed oysters could be waning. No matter what side of the debate you're on, if you have a taste for these savory shellfish you may want to get out your shuckers and slurp one down while you still can.
