Eelgrass is an integral part of the food web within a coastal wetland, and the Bay supports one of the three largest stands within the Pacific Northwest region. This and other habitat in the Bay make it an important spawning and nursery ground for numerous fish and other aquatic species, hosting albacore tuna, green and white sturgeon, Pacific herring, lingcod, Dungeness crab, rock crab, and many species of rockfish, salmon, oysters, and clams. For this reason, the Bay is a critical link for migrating and wintering water birds in the chain of coastal wetlands from the Arctic Circle to South America, and it annually supports millions of waterbirds, shorebirds, raptors, and songbirds.
Until very recently, the Bay also supported large commercial and sport fishing, clamming, and other seafood industries. In fact, of California’s twelve shellfish reserves set aside for public clamming and oystering, seven are located within Humboldt Bay. More than 30 species of mammals can be found in and around the Bay.
 |
In the 1850’s, merchant ships began entering the Bay to supply the gold mines of Trinity and Siskiyou counties, and the resident Wiyot Indian population of about 1,000 people was quickly annihilated. The logging industry soon developed along the edges of the Bay, and the nearby redwood forests were felled and shipped to San Francisco and other developing cities.
In 1881, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers began dredging the Bay for ship passage, and shipping facilities were soon constructed in Arcata, Eureka and Fields Landing. The commercial fishing industry was also in full gear at this time, annually taking millions of tons of salmon, rockfish and other species from the Bay. Problems from over-fishing, sediment, petroleum, bottom paints, and untreated human and fish processing wastes began taking their toll on the Bay.
The construction of the Northwestern Pacific Railroad and Highway 101 caused most of the marshlands east of the bay to be drained and diked by the late 1920's. Today, the Bay is reduced in size by one-third by diking, draining, and filling, with its former wetlands now the location of such places as Arcata Redwood Company and the Bayshore Mall.
With the advent of tractors and other logging equipment, the liquidation of the old growth forests on the North Coast greatly accelerated during the 1950's. The Bay's tributaries, Freshwater Creek, Elk River, Jacoby Creek, and Salmon Creek, are all primarily industrial timberlands, and are all currently plagued with extremely high loads of sediment. Logging rates have increased even more in these areas during the last two decades, and landslides and other erosion problems are pervasive throughout the Humboldt Bay Basin. Even without the additional sediment that continues to bleed into these streams and rivers every day, these impacts will persist for decades as the high volumes of sediment eventually make their way into Humboldt Bay.
The Army Corps has deepened the channels of Humboldt Bay several times over the years to allow larger and larger ships into the Bay, causing several areas of the Bay to become severely degraded and "species poor." This dredging is primarily carried out to accommodate the forest products industry, which relies more and more on the importation of foreign logs as they deplete the forests on the North Coast. The Corps most recently dredged the Bay in 1999, at which time the channels of the Bay were both widened and deepened at a taxpayer cost of $15 million. The Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) expressed concern that this dredging could have serious implications on the Bay's flushing patterns, allowing more waves into the Bay and causing erosion problems.
This most recent dredging also had the added impacts of two oil spills. On September 7, 1999, a ship operated by Bean Styvesant and Bean Dredging was carrying out dredging operations just before dark, when the arm of the dredging vessel punctured its hull and spilled more than 2,000 gallons of oil into Humboldt Bay. This incident devastated populations of crabs, fish, birds and other aquatic life. More than 500 birds were found dead as a result of the spill, including many endangered marbled murrelets, and another 80 species of birds that are protected by the Endangered Species Act and/or the Migratory Bird Treaty Act. During the massive clean up, the same dredging boat spilled an additional 200 gallons of petroleum into Humboldt Bay.
Many toxic pollutants are regularly washed into the Bay from industrial facilities, storm water systems, and ships, including pentachlorophenol ("PCP's"), petroleum hydrocarbons, furans, dioxin and others. The California Department of Fish and Game recently cataloged 177 pollution outfalls that may affect the Bay, and, together with the indirect discharges from industrial facilities and agricultural runoff, these chemicals are causing serious impacts to human and non-human animals that depend on the Bay. Some of these chemicals are known to accumulate in the tissues of humans, steelhead and shellfish, with the level of compounds carried in a body increasing each time fish or shellfish are ingested that also carry these compounds. As these chemicals accumulate, a person risks developmental, reproductive and immunological problems.
Unfortunately, there is a great lack of research on Humboldt Bay, and activities that adversely impact its beneficial uses continue to be authorized. The City of Eureka has big plans for the area to become a major port in the growing Pacific Rim trading, putting the Bay at increased risk of catastrophic oil spills and other pollution problems. Further development, logging and increased industrial pollution also loom in its future. These and other problems make it a crucial time for Humboldt Bay, and EPIC intends to ensure that all efforts are taken to ensure its protection and recovery.
