Most of the key data implicating Drakes Bay Oyster Company (DBOC) in the decline of harbor seal populations was dismissed last Monday after a long-awaited debate between National Park Service (NPS) scientists and oyster farm owner Kevin Lunny. Volunteer Sue Van Der Wal, whom Lunny calls an unreliable and biased source, collected two of the four remaining records. Seashore officials say that although the records hinge on the testimony of a few individuals, the integrity of the data is sound.

“While I can’t speak to something that happened before my watch, I’ve known these scientists for a number of years and greatly respect them,” said Point Reyes National Seashore Superintendent
Cicely Muldoon.

1982—1983

Before Lunny purchased the farm from Johnson’s Oyster Company, former senior science advisor Sarah Allen recorded six seal disturbances. Allen’s records show a boat flushing seals into the estero’s main channel. New protocols closed this channel to motorized boats during pupping season starting in 1992. The NPS has dropped all disturbance records from these years.

1996

There are six records of disturbances from 1996, most of which involved boats collecting water and shellfish samples from the mouth of the estero to test for red tide—a safety measure the farm is required to perform each week. The six points were thoroughly vetted, according to NPS. However, in the past few years, the six data points were reduced to four, then to three.

2006

In 2006 a volunteer noted a blue and yellow boat speeding through the main channel and wrote a question mark beside the note, unsure whether it was an oyster boat. Although Lunny does not own a boat matching that description, NPS claimed that the only motorized boats allowed in the estero belonged to him, so it must have been his. This disturbance record was dismissed on Monday.

2007

On April 5, 2007 former Point Reyes National Seashore Superintendent Don Neubacher told Marin County Supervisor Steve Kinsey he had proof of the oyster farm’s harm to harbor seals—enough to press civil and criminal charges. Three disturbance records were recorded between that day and the May 8 Board of Supervisors hearing.

On April 26, Allen allegedly saw DBOC employees throwing oyster bags into the water and disturbing seals; she did not record the incident in the database until nine months later. Lunny’s records show that the oyster boat was broken that day, and that his workers had clocked out before the time of the disturbance. Allen also described workers using a pole to push the boat; Lunny said on Monday that his workers use neither poles or oars. The NPS has not discounted this record.

On April 29, volunteer observers reported that oyster workers were again throwing bags into the water and flushing seals. However, it was a Sunday, and the only DBOC employee to clock in was Lunny’s daughter, Brigid, who was selling oysters to visitors.

The NPS has argued that oyster workers could have been fishing recreationally, but Lunny says the boat was reported in shallow, eelgrass-ridden waters unsuitable for fishing. Also, the workers would not have been handling oyster bags, a difficult job that requires at least six people, on their day off. The NPS has not discounted this data.

On May 8, the morning of the hearing, volunteer Sue Van Der Wal recorded employee Jorge Mata driving a boat recklessly down the main channel, disturbing seals on several sandbars. Mata was collecting water and shellfish samples to test for red tide, and Lunny believes he would have been driving especially slowly that day, since he was aware of the hearing. Mata trains workers in seal protection protocol, and knew his job depended on compliance. The NPS has not discounted this record.

2008

In the only disturbance record of 2008, Van Der Wal reported that oyster workers, along with a mother and children, were picking up oyster bags and flushing seals into the lateral channel at 12:22 p.m. Company records indicate that the only boat trips that day were in the morning between 8 and 10 a.m., and traveled to a completely different region of the estero.

The NPS released a photograph this week taken by a hidden camera on that day. The photograph shows a boat in an area that Lunny says his workers do not place oyster bags. He hopes that further examination of photographs from that day will show that the vessel did not belong to him. The NPS has not discounted this data.

2009

In the single oyster farm-related seal disturbance record from 2009, volunteers Debbie Winters and Donald Loeffler spotted an inflatable raft driving erratically in the estero. Although they did not report that it belonged to the oyster farm, NPS recorded it as an oyster-related incident.

“It is our opinion after observing these persons that they were not Drakes Oyster employees, nor did they leave in a direction which would indicate any association with the farm,” Winters and Loeffler wrote in an email to Lunny. “We have been monitoring in the past when the employees were out among the oysters and never were they in an inflatable boator did they ever come near the Harbor Seals (sic).”

Allen ceded that she cannot personally verify the information collected by volunteer observers: “I can’t respond to those specific data points. I don’t know all the details of volunteers’ activities,” she said. The 2009 record was recognized as unrelated to DBOC this week, and dropped by NPS.

Each year observers see recreational anglers, hikers and kayakers flush thousands of harbor seals into the water during pupping season. The four disturbances possibly related to DBOC amount to less than one percent of annual seal disturbances.