Sailboats and trawlers bobbing in Tomales Bay must now pay for moorings and abide by stricter guidelines for how and where their boats can be moored, following the launch last Friday of an interagency mooring program that puts the final touches on a larger vessel management plan for the bay.
A collaboration of the Greater Farallones National Marine Sanctuary and the California State Lands Commission, the Tomales Bay Mooring Program will allow boat owners for the first time to have their moorings legalized through state-issued, 10-year leases. Those leases require moorings to be inspected by an independent contractor and to be located outside of sensitive eelgrass beds, the spread of which in recent years spurred agencies to shrink some of the acreage allotted for moorings. A total of 165 moorings are authorized among nine zones in the bay, which includes 35 moorings for Lawson’s Landing. Mooring leases are prohibited from being sold, rented or sublet.
Private mooring owners and waterfront property owners—in other words, anyone who already has a bay mooring—have first dibs to apply for the leases through a three-month advance opportunity. On Monday, mooring owners received laminated tags hooked to their moorings that, if green, detailed how to begin the lease application process or, if yellow, signaled that the mooring must be removed at the owner’s expense because it is outside one of the designated zones.
Though it’s too early to tell what, exactly, the program’s total price tag will be, securing a mooring lease from the state will entail an assortment of costs and fees. Despite concerns that the program may be cost-prohibitive for some owners, others are pleased by the prospect of having legal status for their moorings.
“We’re no longer outlaws,” said George Clyde, a 17-year Marshall resident who helms a Grady-White named “Kingfisher.” “Now we know it’s legal and I can keep it and pass it down to my children. But for a number of people, it’s going to be a hardship.”
To lease seafloor lands under state jurisdiction, mooring lessees will have to pay $1,225 for applications and filings fees, as well as a rent payment predicted to cost around $250 each year. Additionally, lease authorization requires annual inspections from a contractor at the lessee’s expense, which, according to local contractor Mark Sutton, is a cost currently unknown.
“We haven’t worked up any kind of fee schedule yet,” said Mr. Sutton, whose Inverness-based Dixon Marine Services, Inc., provides mooring installation, maintenance and inspection services for several oceanographic and engineering firms.
Mr. Clyde noted that he does not expect the number of moorings to reach the 165-capacity anytime soon. Drawing from a survey he recalled being done several years ago, he estimated that between 80 and 100 moorings exist in the bay, though that number, he said, is hard to pin down accurately.
“It’s hard to know what’s a mooring and what’s not,” he said. “A lot of them are just kind of ‘place keepers’ that aren’t actually used.”
In Tomales Bay, most moorings consist of a series of heavy chains connecting from a boat to one or two 55-gallon drums filled with concrete, which hold the boat in place due to both the weight and by the suction effect that’s created when the muddy seabed swallows a drum. This type of anchor will be allowed to stay, while others will have to go, such as used engine blocks, tires or “other found materials that could harm the Bay,” said Karen Reyna, the resource protection manager for the Greater Farallones, in an email.
Because of the new annual inspections, Mr. Clyde felt optimistic that the program would foster safer mooring practices. Sometimes, he said, an insecure anchor may drag slowly across the seabed, causing its boat to drift and threaten to damage not only the surrounding benthic habitat but also other boats, docks and homes.
Of particular concern to the Greater Farallones is the protection of eelgrass, a type of seagrass that grows in beds along shallow waters and hosts an array of marine life including algae, invertebrates, seabirds and endangered coho salmon. Coastlines across the country have lost over 50 percent of their seagrasses over the last century, predominantly due to land development, increased sedimentation, use of fertilizers and anchors and moorings. Recent 2013 data from the California Department of Fish and Wildlife that showed an increase in eelgrass beds in mostly the southern part of the bay even prompted the Greater Farallones to reduce the size of two mooring zones in Inverness, though both remain large enough to accommodate more vessels than are currently moored there, the national sanctuary stated.
“We would love to shine a light on this habitat and also bring interest to the community about how protecting eelgrass has both environmental and economic benefits,” Ms. Reyna said.
The mooring program wraps up efforts between the Greater Farallones and the State Lands Commission to finalize the Tomales Bay Vessel Management Plan, which was established in 2013 after work began in 2007. The Greater Farallones took the lead on the program’s policy minutiae, and the lands commission is tasked with its implementation.