Richardson Bay ‘eelgrass protection zone’ goes into effect

The Richardson Bay Regional Agency has officially launched the “eelgrass protection zone,” a milestone in a long effort to restore the ecological resource.

The move is part of an initiative to remove the number of illegally anchored vessels that have damaged the plants. The agency will begin enforcing the zone, which comprises more than 700 acres, next week.

Agency representatives and various officials gathered at the Bay Model Visitor Center on Wednesday to mark the occasion.

“Celebrating the environment wins is an interesting challenge, because success is often defined by the thing that didn’t happen, the species not lost, the habitat not destroyed, water not polluted,” said agency consultant Rebecca Schwartz Lesberg, president of Coastal Policy Solutions. “We get to stand here today and celebrate something that did happen, a community coming together and saying the environment matters and we will do what we need to protect it, to save it.”

The bay has attracted boat residents for decades despite a law prohibiting boats from anchoring there for more than 72 hours. In 2016, there were 240 of these boaters, known as “anchor-outs.”

In 2021, the agency reached a settlement with the San Francisco Bay Conservation and Development Commission that stated the vessels would be removed by October 2026. The agreement came after threats of enforcement by the commission.

Eelgrass plays an essential role in marine ecosystems, and many species are dependent on it. It provides shelter for young fish, sequesters carbon, improves water quality, produces oxygen, protects shorelines, forms the base of a food web and supports tens of thousands of migratory waterbirds. It is federally designated as an essential fish habitat, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

U.S. Rep. Jared Huffman, whose district includes Marin County, said the eelgrass zone is a feat of collaboration among local leaders and various levels of government. He said he is pleased that the zone is now past the planning stage and heading to implementation.

“I wish we could put eelgrass everywhere because it’s even more powerful than those redwood trees when it comes to sequestering carbon, but one place it definitely belongs is the ecosystem behind us,” Huffman said at the event. “I think it’s just a really exciting and positive development for this part of Sausalito and for everyone who cares about a healthy San Francisco Bay environment.”

As of Wednesday, 20 vessels remained in the protection zone.

“It was a huge effort, but the carrot was always the eelgrass restoration that was ahead,” Marin County Supervisor Stephanie Moulton-Peters said. “That’s always been the carrot for me personally, is to work to open up the space so that we can get into the business of restoring the protection zone.”

Brad Gross, the executive director of the agency, said a “grace period” will be extended to those left in the zone as the agency works to get them enrolled in housing programs and working with community services. He said the agency is offering to tow vessels that are not operational to the authorized anchorage zone. However, any new vessel coming will face immediate enforcement.

Technically, the zone went into effect on Oct. 15, but harbormaster Jim Malcolm said the agency won’t begin enforcing it until five buoys are placed next week. Four buoys will mark the boundaries of the zone and one buoy will be a notice sign for incoming boats.

“We hope for the best. With the eelgrass protection zone in place it adds a layer of enforcement,” Malcolm said. “The bay is still open to all traffic, you just can’t anchor.”

With the zone in place, experts can work to regrow eelgrass at locations scraped barren by anchor chains and gear.

In 2023, the agency, along with Audubon California and San Francisco State University, got a $2.8 million grant from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency for eelgrass restoration and protection. The grant will help restore at least 15 acres of eelgrass in the zone over four years.

Katharyn Boyer, the director of the Estuary and Ocean Science Center at San Francisco State University, said the next steps are to ramp up the restoration efforts. Boyer is part of the group that has been working on the restoration.

She said the science of restoring eelgrass — where to get it, and how to plant it and monitor it — has been in the works for around 20 years and took experimentation.

“A lot of it we know from other regions but we don’t necessarily know it locally, and that’s in part because San Francisco’s bay is a really unique place,” Boyer said. “It’s a place where we’ve had to do a lot of learning. Now we’re in a place with this eelgrass protection zone to put some of these lessons to work in a new place, and this is a spectacular eelgrass bed.”