The Point Reyes National Seashore removed 37,000 pounds of oysters and growing materials from Drakes Estero in January, which the park believes is the “vast majority” of bivalves and aquaculture equipment, seashore outreach coordinator Melanie Gunn said in an email to the Light. The survey of Drakes Estero, conducted by the seashore that month, found 410 hanging oyster bags, 595 hanging French tubes, 424 oyster strings on oyster racks and 162 oyster bags on sandbars, according to a park service document posted to the agency’s website. Ms. Gunn said more shellfish may be found later, but the park believes most is now gone. Drakes Bay Oyster Company, which vacated the estero at the end of 2014 after failed attempts to challenge the park’s decision not to renew its lease, agreed in a settlement with the Department of Justice that it would remove all oysters by the time it left. Despite efforts to speed up collection in the last few weeks of December, the company did not clear out all the cultured bivalves, as there were more oysters in the estero than owner Kevin Lunny originally estimated. In January, Mr. Lunny responded to park claims that he left oysters behind by arguing that he and his crew had fulfilled the spirit of the agreement. Now that the oysters, bags and strings are out, the park is using tests it conducted in February of oyster racks in different substrates of the estero to figure out how best to remove the five miles of racks. In the environmental impact statement for the farm, short-term minor adverse impacts on eelgrass, fish and wildlife—but long-term beneficial impacts—were attributed to rack removal.