The California Coastal Commission has granted an after-the-fact permit for Tomales Bay Oyster Company to dispose of abandoned aquaculture gear and marine debris pulled from three acres it formerly leased to a small grower. The permit, approved on Aug. 6, grants permission for multiple clean-up activities that have already occurred: towing a partially sunken 800-square-foot barge in February 2018, disposing of several hundred plastic mesh cultivation bags and over 1,000 pounds of rusted metal cultivation racks in June, and removing oyster cultivation equipment belonging to the sublessee in January, after it drifted into eelgrass habitat during a storm. The permit also requires the company—the oldest in operation on Tomales Bay—to update its practices to comply with new protections for marine resources. Commission staff said someone alerted them earlier this year about the displaced bags, which were believed to have been placed within eelgrass habitat—specifically disallowed in the company’s original coastal development permit, from 1994. The equipment—about 250 untethered, plastic mesh oyster cultivation bags—was installed by Starbird Mariculture, a company that subleased less than three acres from T.B.O.C’s parent company, Charles Friend Oyster Company. Chris Starbird, the owner of Starbird Mariculture, said he had legally installed the bags adjacent to the eelgrass bed but that heavy winds had caused them to drift into the eelgrass. To avoid trampling eelgrass in the process, a two-person crew from Starbird lifted the bags with gaffing hooks in January. Mr. Starbird has since vacated his lease because eelgrass was encroaching on the area, and the permit allows T.B.O.C. to finish the cleanup by collecting the three nylon longlines and 20 PVC marker poles that remained in the area. (The disturbance to the eelgrass from the drifted bags was small enough that the grass bed can easily recover, coastal commission staff found.) Reflecting the commission’s ongoing review of aquaculture permits across the state, the permit also mandates that Tomales Bay Oyster Company make some operational changes to reduce its impact. The coastal commission announced in May 2018 that it would be taking a closer look at the state’s roughly 18 aquaculture operations because most were operating outside of what their permits allowed. Now, the oyster company is required to mark all of its gear, anchor loose cultivation bags, provide marine debris reduction training to its employees, carry out quarterly cleanup events in the bay and document its practices in an annual report to the coastal commission. According to farm manager Heidi Gregory, the company already meets most of these conditions. “Everyone knows: if you find something, you pick it up. If something gets untethered, you tie it down. If something doesn’t belong there, you take it with you,” she said. “I’m very much into being a good steward of the bay.” Still, some new conditions are cumbersome and unnecessary, she said, including requiring the oyster company to mark all of its gear with identifying information. T.B.O.C. uses blue, orange and yellow bags, while neighboring farms use black bags. Adding tags to thousands of bags will have both environmental and fiscal impacts, Ms. Gregory said, so she is exploring affordable ways to mark bags for their entire 10-year lifespan. She added that the oyster company has tried to reduce the volume of lost gear by upgrading ropes and replacing floating gear with anchored gear. “We’re losing less, and we can only get better,” she said. The commission is awaiting another permit application from T.B.O.C. for their onshore operations and their second lease area.