The California Coastal Commission voted 6-5 this week in Arcata to reject Coast Seafood Company’s bid to expand what commission staff called the state’s largest shellfish farming operation.
After hearing several hours of public testimony and staff reports debating the expansion project’s potential impacts to the Humboldt Bay’s ecosystems and recreational uses, Commissioner Mary Shallenberger urged her colleagues to vote no on the 165-acre expansion because she felt it was “way too big” and had too many unknowns.
“What I heard from staff is it’s a large-scale field experiment,” Shallenberger said Wednesday inside Humboldt State University’s Kate Buchanan Room. “I heard them say it’s a leap of faith and a decent compromise. None of these things are science. This habitat, this bay is way too important a coastal resource for us to use it as a field experiment.”
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