News

Sea Level Rise at the Arcata Marsh

“Sea Level Rise: North Unit of the Arcata Marsh,” an exhibition of photographs by Aldaron Laird, is on display through February at the Arcata Marsh Interpretive Center, 569 South G St. in Arcata. Hours are Monday from 1 to 5 p.m. and Tuesday through Sunday from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m.

Waterkeeper Alliance

The international Waterkeeper Alliance connects local Waterkeeper programs to provide a voice for waterways and their communities worldwide. To champion clean water and strong communities, Waterkeeper Alliance advocates for issues common to Waterkeeper programs.

Each Waterkeeper program is an independent organization that reflects the needs of the waterbody and community it represents. The common thread for each Waterkeeper program is a person who serves as the public advocate for that body of water.

Waterkeepers are part investigator, scientist, lawyer, and advocate who represent all the users of the watershed who rely on clean water. All Waterkeepers also have a boat ranging in size from canoes to research vessels, but sometimes a pair of hip boots is more important than a boat. Sometimes a legal brief is more important than either. Each waterbody has its own unique challenges requiring a distinct and well-defined strategy.

Contact Humboldt Waterkeeper

Humboldt Waterkeeper

Mailing Address:

600 F Street, Suite 3 #810

Arcata, CA 95521

Physical Address:

145 G Street, Suite A

Arcata, CA 95521

707.499.3678

Jennifer Kalt, Executive Director

707.499.3678

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Jasmin Segura, Bay Tours Coordinator

707.601.1142

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Sylvia van Royen, GIS and Policy Analyst

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To receive occasional email updates and action alerts, send an email to:

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Humboldt Bay Harbor District hosts public meetings this week; Comments solicited for Offshore Wind Heavy Lift Marine Terminal project environmental review

The Humboldt Bay Harbor, Recreation and Conservation District is hosting two scoping meetings this week on the Humboldt Bay Offshore Wind Heavy Lift Marine Terminal Project. Those meetings, along with a public comment period lasting through Dec. 7, will offer community members a chance to inform the project’s Draft Environmental Impact Report and CEQA process.

The first of those meetings takes place at the Eureka Veterans Memorial Hall located at 1018 H Street in Eureka at 5:30 p.m. on Wednesday. The second will be held at the Samoa Cookhouse at 908 Vance Avenue on the Samoa Peninsula at 5:30 p.m. on Thursday. Both meetings will provide an opportunity to make brief in-person comments. Attendees can observe the proceedings virtually, though comments are restricted to in-person input.

“The thing that we’re really looking for here is to hear from people,” Harbor District Executive Director Chris Mikkelsen told the Times-Standard Monday afternoon. “I think we cannot forget that, we, the Harbor District, are government, and we act in the public trust, so it’s our first order of business to hear from the public, and so we invite them out to be part of that process.”

Mikkelsen told the Times-Standard that public comments would become enshrined in the eventual DEIR, scheduled to come as early as spring of 2027.

“It allows us to inform the community or those in attendance about the proposed project and really give an update on the areas that have environmental effects or that have potential impacts to the environment and what studies should be conducted to address that,” Mikkelsen said.

Humboldt Waterkeeper is urging residents to attend the meetings online or in-person, familiarize themselves with the project as it’s currently envisioned and make written comment by 5 p.m. Dec. 7. To that end, the local nonprofit aimed at protecting water quality has prepared an informative summary of the project available at https://tinyurl.com/n7xtkb9b.

“There have been several years of meetings behind closed doors to discuss the project, learn about what’s being proposed and to express concerns,” Humboldt Waterkeeper Executive Director Jennifer Kalt told the Times-Standard Monday morning. “And this is the first time the public has had a chance to do that, so it’s really important for people to get familiar with the project, which is why we developed the summary of the project, so people know what’s being proposed and understand what the potential impacts would be, so that they can make informed comments about what needs to be studied.”

Kalt, who in her capacity as director, serves on four advisory committees for the project, noted that she shares a number of concerns with other members of the community regarding the project — which has grown and changed significantly since 2023 when a public comment period had previously been opened.

“It’s quite a bit larger, and there’s a lot more specifics than were included in 2023,” Kalt said.

People, should show up and give input, Kalt said, on making sure impacts to the bay — including areas like aquaculture that could be adversely affected by increased vessel traffic.

“The top line ones (for me) are the impacts to Tuluwat from dredging over 100 acres adjacent to for the temporary wet storage,” Kalt said, “and then also dredging the whole area on the other side of the peninsula, on the other side of the bay. There’s going to be a huge amount of dredging, 6 million cubic yards, which, for most people, that doesn’t mean anything, but that’s six times what the Army Corps dredges out of the navigational channels every year.

“The project now has increased in size to the point where it’s proposing pile driving 5,000 175 to 200-foot-long steel pipes, 36 inches in diameter. It would bring in a million cubic yards of fill to raise the elevation of the site to accommodate sea level rise, and that would be to, I think, 14 to 20 feet above sea level, is what they’re saying. … Now what they’re proposing is a 1.2-mile-long, four-foot-thick stone wall that would be 10 feet above the mean tide line.”

Online attendees can observe each meeting via Zoom at https://us02web.zoom.us/j/ using the meeting ID 691 793 4402 and passcode 351214. Public comments will only we accepted in person.

Written comments can be submitted by email at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. or by U.S. mail sent to: Chris Mikkelsen, Humboldt Bay Harbor, Recreation and Conservation District, P.O. Box 1030, Eureka, California 95502-1030. The comment period ends Dec. 7 at 5 p.m.

Recreational Dungeness Crab Fishing Begins in Most Areas Nov. 7 with Trap Restrictions, Commercial Season Delayed

The California Department of Fish and Wildlife has announced that the recreational Dungeness crab season will open under trap restrictions beginning November 7, 2026, except where it has been delayed due to domoic acid (from Cape Mendocino to the Ten Mile State Marine Reserve). The California Department of Public Health is warning consumers not to eat any part of sport-harvested Dungeness crab from Cape Mendocino south to Ten-Mile State Marine Reserve due to dangerous levels of domoic acid.

Domoic acid is a potent neurotoxin produced by Pseudo-nitzschia, a naturally occurring single-celled, marine alga under certain ocean conditions. Domoic acid can accumulate in shellfish, other invertebrates and sometimes fish without the organism becoming ill themselves. At low levels, domoic acid exposure can cause nausea, diarrhea and dizziness in humans. At higher levels, it can cause persistent short-term memory loss, seizures and can in some cases be fatal.

To reduce your chances of domoic acid exposure:

Follow the state's latest Marine Biotoxin Quarantines and Health Advisories
Check out these Safety Tips for Cooking and Cleaning Dungeness Crabs

On October 30, the California Department of Fish and Wildlife delayed the opening of the commercial Dungeness crab season from the California/Oregon border to Point Conception until at least January 1, 2027. The commercial season delay and recreational trap restriction is required due to the number of humpback whale entanglements during the 2026 calendar year. In aerial surveys done in mid-October over fishing areas 2 and 3, more than 70 humpback whales were spotted between Pigeon Point and Cape Mendocino.