Shopping carts, an electric foot massager, a PlayStation, several outboard engines, and a floor lamp are among the many items found amid two tons of marine debris pulled last week from Richardson Bay in southern Marin County.
“This is just the tip of the iceberg,” says Keith Merkel, principal ecologist leading the project with the Richardson Bay Regional Agency, a local government agency dedicated to maintaining and improving Richardson Bay. “We have had divers working in the water here for years as part of our eelgrass restoration efforts, and we’ve seen that the Bay floor is littered in this kind of debris.”
The cleanup included 300 acres of the 700-acre Richardson Bay Eelgrass Protection Zone, which the RBRA designated in October. Eelgrass supports migratory fish, reduces erosion caused by storms, and sequesters carbon. It is a crucial part of the food chain for harbor porpoises and sea lions.
In 2022, the RBRA estimated that there were more than 100 vessels in the Eelgrass Protection Zone. When anchors, chains, and other ground tackle scrape along the bottom of the Bay, they essentially act as a lawn mower for water plants, creating “crop circles” or barren areas where no eelgrass can grow, according to a statement from the RBRA.
By February 2023, the Marin Housing Authority had unanimously approved a voucher program to relocate residents living in boats on Richardson Bay into long-term housing on the mainland. RBRA had a mandate from the San Francisco Bay Conservation and Development Commission to relocate all of the vessels off the anchorage by Oct. 15, 2026. Plans also included a buy-back program, offering up to $5,200 to people willing to remove or cede their vessels.
Waiting out the last of the liveaboards
Will Reisman, spokesperson for the RBRA, said Tuesday that 13 boats remain on the Bay, but occupants from eight of those will soon be moved into housing by the end of the summer through the voucher program.
Last week’s cleanup was funded by a $2.8 million grant from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency aimed at restoring at least 15 acres of eelgrass over four years. It was awarded to the RBRA and its partners at San Francisco State University and Audubon California.
According to Reisman, the debris pulled up last week was brought to an Army Corps of Engineers debris yard, with some items being recycled. Nearly all metals removed from the Bay are recycled, he said.
“We are not accusing anyone of deliberately discarding items overboard,” said RBRA executive director Brad Gross. “That said, the type and amount of debris littering the Bay floor and preventing the healthy recovery of eelgrass reinforces the fact that an environmentally sensitive area like Richardson Bay is no place for mariners to permanently reside on vessels at anchor.”
Surf scoters, Lesser and Greater Scaup, Western and Horned Grebes, double-crested cormorants and other birds will soon be the visible occupants of the 5-foot shallow bay, as they stop each year to forage and fuel up during their long migration north.