17 Bay Area beaches closed due to oil spill (Berkeley, Richmond: home, safe)

[18Montclair]

What a horrible accident. Beaches in Marin, SF and the East Bay report oil washing up in globs and clumps. Dead birds are washing ashore as well. The ecosystem of the Bay is already fragile.

Tragic.

abc7news.com: Oil spill takes hit on Bay Area wildlife

[Mach50]

Sadface

[Hobart]

Before the oil spill, was the Bay really clean? I just returned home from a 10 day trip to Marin County, but I never got a chance to find out these questions.

Do people fish the bay? Were the fish clean enough to eat? What kind of fish do they catch in the bay? What about shellfish, like Oysters, Crabs and Clams? Did people eat those form the bay before this oil spill?

I only got really close to the water briefly and it seemed extremely clear and clean. Whenever I drove over the Golden Gate my wife would comment on how Blue the water was, I couldn't look because of how narrow the lanes on the bridge are, and I was traveling fast with lots of cars around me. Is it really blue? Like the Caribbean or close to it? The East coast waters is nothing like that near the Middle Atlantic states where I am from.

Is the water always cold even in the summer and even in the shallows. My wife was theorizing that maybe in the shallow waters it would heat up, but I thought I heard otherwise that is always cold even in the shallow water. Who was correct?

[18Montclair]

Well,
it was a body of water surrounded by millions of people, and with them comes commerce and the pollution associated with that.

As far as fishing...Ive never fished on the Bay but I know its done cause the Berkeley Pier always has folks with their fishing poles sitting on the dock waiting for a bite.

The problem with this spill from what I saw on the news is that it puts sea lions, birds and other animals at risk-even whales that are found just outside the Golden Gate are in a direct path of the spilled oil that now seems to be spreading out over the bay.

Just hope they clean it ASAP.

[fromthebay]

baykeeper.org

sign up to be a volunteer when they start getting it together... I did and I don't volunteer for anything

[Milliano]

How often does this stuff happen?

If anyone is in a musical mood, Moon Over Marin by the Dead Kennedys:
YouTube - dead kennedys
A song about an oil spill in the Bay.

[ImRandy]

Originally Posted by Hobart

Before the oil spill, was the Bay really clean? I just returned home from a 10 day trip to Marin County, but I never got a chance to find out these questions.

Do people fish the bay? Were the fish clean enough to eat? What kind of fish do they catch in the bay? What about shellfish, like Oysters, Crabs and Clams? Did people eat those form the bay before this oil spill?

I only got really close to the water briefly and it seemed extremely clear and clean. Whenever I drove over the Golden Gate my wife would comment on how Blue the water was, I couldn't look because of how narrow the lanes on the bridge are, and I was traveling fast with lots of cars around me. Is it really blue? Like the Caribbean or close to it? The East coast waters is nothing like that near the Middle Atlantic states where I am from.

Is the water always cold even in the summer and even in the shallows. My wife was theorizing that maybe in the shallow waters it would heat up, but I thought I heard otherwise that is always cold even in the shallow water. Who was correct?

The Bay isn't as polluted as it once was but that isn't saying much. There's fairly high concentrations of mercury in the water/sediment as well as PCB's, DDT, and other nasty chemicals. The fish in some areas of the Bay are considered safe-ish to eat every once in awhile but in other areas like the Richmond harbor area (a super fund site) it's unsafe to eat any amount of fish. There are signs posted in most of the popular fishing areas that tell the public to limit their ingestion of fish and that pregnant women shouldn't eat any. Unfortunately, these signs often get torn down or graffitti covered. Personally, my desire to limit my mercury intake is enough to overwhelm my desire for cheap crab or other seafood. Add in all the other chemicals and it's a no-brainer, for me at least, not to eat anything caught in the Bay.

In answer to your question though, yes, people fish there and there's plenty of marine life: crabs, various shellfish, halibut, gobies, striped bass, sturgeon, sharks, perch, croakers, .... the list goes on and on.

The color of the Bay really depends on the sky and the tide. It can look anywhere from grey to green to blue all depending on cloud cover, time of day, and which way the tide is going.

As for temperature, your wife is correct. The Bay does warm up during late summer and especially in the shallow areas. Though what is "cold" and "warm" are relative.

[18Montclair]

Originally Posted by fromthebay

baykeeper.org

sign up to be a volunteer when they start getting it together... I did and I don't volunteer for anything

Awesome. Thanks.

[lindseyjames010]

which beaches were shutdown?

[BayDude]

Hopefully not beaches in santa cruz included in this.