The plan to remove 470 tons of wooden oyster racks and roughly an acre of aquaculture debris in Drakes Estero was approved last week by the California Coastal Commission, opening the doors for a restoration project outlined by the Point Reyes National Seashore. The projected cost of removing the racks—the biggest part of the seashore’s efforts to clear out the remains of Drakes Bay Oyster Company—will be released once a contract is awarded, seashore outreach coordinator Melanie Gunn said. The park estimates the removal will take about five months, though work will not begin until after harbor seal pupping season ends on June 30, and the estero will remain open to recreators during that time. Rack removal, which will employ the use of divers, hand tools and a mechanical excavator, is expected to damage about a half-acre of eelgrass. But the park service believes that 2.8 acres will grow in places where it says aquaculture debris—brought to life for commissioners last week with footage from an underwater camera—previously inhibited growth. “We feel pretty confident about the cleanup of the sea floor providing a lot of good habitat for eelgrass to come back on,” Cicely Muldoon, the seashore superintendent, told the commission. (The C.C.C. requires that projects in the coastal zone cause more eelgrass to grow than they remove or damage.) Three oyster farm advocates—scientist and Marshall resident Corey Goodman, biologist and former coastal commissioner Phyllis Faber and former state senator Bill Bagley—objected to the project in separate letters. Among other things, they argued that the work would disturb eelgrass and that there should have been greater environmental review, such as an environmental impact report. (The commission staff responded that “consistency determinations” with the federal government do not require E.I.R.s.) The park will monitor the impacts and “continually refine its operations during the project to further reduce eelgrass impacts and protect eelgrass,” the staff report said. Three other groups—the Environmental Action Committee of West Marin, Save Our Seashore and the National Parks Conservation Association—voiced their support for eliminating oyster racks in what is now a marine wilderness. Steve Kinsey, the chair of the commission, acknowledged the protests before the vote. “I do want to point out one last thing, though,” he said. “There’s a reason why so many people cared so deeply about Drakes Bay…It had to do with the fact that it was a long, historic operation and that it was included in [Marin’s] Local Coastal Program, as a priority [use].” But Commissioner Kinsey also thanked the park service for taking responsibility for the removal project, considering the enormous expense it would have been for Kevin Lunny, who owned the farm.