Shuck You

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To oyster grower Kevin Lunny, the battle over his Drake’s Bay Oyster Farm on the Pt. Reyes National Seashore isn’t one of those classic showdowns between industry and environmentalists. It’s a battle for the future of the environmental movement, he says.

“This is a very interesting environmental crossroads,” says Lunny. “We need to consider whether it’s a good idea to protect wilderness at the expense of the environment.”

Lunny wants to continue to operate his oyster farm past 2012 when the bay that is its home is slated to become an official wilderness area. He claims his farm is an environmentally clean and sustainable operation that supplies much-needed food to the locals. Without it, local restaurants and residents would rely on shipped oysters, which is an environmentally bad practice, he says.

But to environmentalist Gordon Bennett, vice chairman of the Sierra Club Marin Group, it’s a straightforward case of environmental preservation. Lunny wants to operate his oyster farm past an agreed-upon deadline when Drake’s Bay is scheduled to return to pristine status within the federally protected wilderness area of the Pt. Reyes National Seashore. According to the 1976 federal Wilderness Act that created the Pt. Reyes National Seashore, Bennett and other environmentalists contend Lunny’s business is not allowed in the wilderness area after that time, whether it is environmentally clean or not.

“We support all kinds of sustainable activities, including sustainable agriculture, but none of those would be supported by the Sierra Club in a wilderness area,” says Bennett, who is quick to point out that the entire Sierra Club — not just his chapter — voted to oppose any extension of the oyster farm’s lease.

The saga over the fate of the oyster farm  has drawn in Marin County supervisors, U.S. Sen. Dianne Feinstein, environmentalists of varying persuasions, federal and state agencies and tourists who sport “Save The Drake’s Bay Oyster Farm” T-shirts.

LOSE-LOSE PROPOSITION?

Meanwhile, Lunny’s 25 to 30 employees continue to harvest and shuck the oysters from the quiet bay, working against the backdrop of the rolling Marin hills and a huge mound of oyster shells. Lunny points out that the oyster shells are high in calcium carbonate, which actually removes excess carbon from the air — another example of how he believes his farm helps, not hurts, the environment. “It would be a tragedy to lose from an environmental standpoint,” Lunny says of his farm.

The estuary is an environmental wonderland, home to kelp beds, eelgrass, bat rays, leopard sharks, osprey and white pelicans. Kayakers regularly take off from land adjacent to the oyster farm.

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