Changes are coming for Hog Island Oyster Company, after the California Coastal Commission updated the company’s permits this month. Although the new permit terms mostly reflect the company’s current practices, they also authorize a possible doubling of Hog Island’s cultivated acres on Tomales Bay, and come with a series of new environmental mitigation measures.
The company, which has been operating since 1983, is the largest grower on the bay and the second local grower to update its coastal permits following a 2013 statewide initiative. Although that effort was meant to simplify and streamline the permitting process for shellfish growers, it also led to the discovery that many growers’ practices had slipped outside the terms of their coastal permits.
“Of the roughly 18 marine aquaculture operations in the state, about half were operating without one or more state and federal permits and much of the other half were operating out of compliance with the permits they had,” Cassidy Teufel, a commission staffer, said. Mr. Teufel said the commission brought four companies into compliance statewide, including Hog Island, and will bring two more during the coming months. Tomales Bay Oyster Company recently submitted an application, and Marin Oyster Company was the first company to update its permits, last May.
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