Humboldt Bay

Humboldt Bay is the only deep-water bay between the San Francisco Bay and Coos Bay, Oregon. The Port of Humboldt Bay is the only port in the region that is dredged regularly to accommodate large ocean-going vessels. Despite being the only protected harbor along nearly of coastline, the bay's location was undiscovered for centuries after the first arrival of European explorers. This is partially because the bay is difficult to see from the ocean. The harbor opens to the sea through a narrow and historically treacherous passage, which was blocked from direct view because of sandbars. Formation of such sandbars is now managed by a system of jetties. Contributing to the bay's isolation were features of the coastal mountain range, which extends from the ocean approximately inland, and the common marine layer (fog) in addition to frequent clouds or rain. The bay is approximately long but can be from wide at the entrance to the widest point at in the North Bay. Three rivers, the Mad, Elk, and Eel, drained into Humboldt Bay during the mid-Pleistocene. Subsequently, the Mad River cut a new outlet to the sea, and the flow of the Eel was diverted by tectonic uplift of Table Bluff at the southern end of the bay, but Elk River continues to drain into Humboldt Bay. In the 21st century, the bay is considered to have three regions: • the North Bay to the north of Samoa Bridge • the Entrance Bay from Samoa Bridge to South Jetty • the South Bay, which is the remainder of the bay to the south Daby, Woodley, and Tuluwat (formerly Indian) islands are in the North Bay, and all three are within the City of Eureka. Low tides reveal two more islands: Sand Island, which was formed from dredge spoils left in the early 20th century, and Bird Island. A large eelgrass bed in the South Bay, which may be exposed at low tides, is locally known as Clam Island. ==History==

Indigenous people The Wiyot people were the first to inhabit the Humboldt Bay region, including the Mad River and Eel River. It is estimated that the Wiyot arrived at Humboldt Bay circa 900 A.D. The Wiyot language is related to the Algonquian language of the Great Plains. While the old reservation is still in use, the tribe moved to the new Table Bluff reservation. The new reservation is roughly 88 acres. Their entire territory was only around 36 miles long and roughly 15 miles wide. To make the canoes, the Wiyot would fell a tree and hollow out the log with fire. The Wiyot diet consisted mainly of acorns, berries, shellfish, salmon, deer, elk, and other small game. The Wiyot name for Humboldt Bay is Wigi. Later encounters between settlers and the Wiyot people turned violent, as the settlers encroached on traditional territories. A small group of settlers perpetrated what is known as the 1860 Wiyot Massacre. Every year, around the month of February, the Wiyot people would gather for their World Renewal Ceremony on Indian Island, which lasted 7 to 10 days. Discovery and settlement at the Humboldt Harbor Historical District recalls the exploits of Winship, Gregg, and the Laura Virginia Association In the early 1800s Americans were drawn to Russian-Alaska by the maritime fur trade. They were searching for the fur of the sea-otter which could be sold for an enormous profit. The trade had been so intense that the number of Alaskan otters had greatly diminished. Captain Jonathan Winship of the Boston ship ''O'Cain'' contracted with Alexander Baranov, governor of the Russian-American Company, to hunt for otters along the coast of California. In preparation for the voyage the crew took on provisions for nearly 100 Aleut hunters, 12 native women, and three Russian supervisors. Also stowed aboard were 70 baidarkas, termed "canoes" in Winship's journal. From New Archangel, presently Sitka, the ship sailed south and closed with the coast at Cape Foulweather in Oregon. Several canoes were sent in. For the next week the ship followed the coast while canoes explored inshore. On June 10, 1806, canoes returned to the ship reporting plenty of otters. The scouts had gone ashore and after walking inland, Winship wrote, "they discovered a very spacious Sound." Five canoes went to find the entrance. They returned unsuccessful. ''O'Cain anchored in nearby Trinidad Bay. The Russians and hunters went ashore to trade for otter skins. Further exploration by small boat located the entrance and revealed the bifurcated nature of the Sound. On June 15 the chief mate and the Russian commander set out with fifty canoes for a "grand inspection." The natives reacted by threatening those who camped overnight. As the number of hostile natives increased, the hunters retreated to the ship. All of the canoes were taken aboard, and on June 21 O'Cain'' left Trinidad Bay and resumed its voyage to the south. Russians named the discovery the Bay of Rezanov after Nikolai Rezanov, a founder of the Russian-American Company. Nothing came of the Winship discovery. Decades later, California experienced the Gold Rush. Exploring from his ranch in the Sacramento Valley, Pierson B. Reading found gold on the Trinity River. News of the event drew a wave of prospectors to northern California. With winter approaching, it was apparent that their provisions would be inadequate. A group of eight men led by Josiah Gregg set off in early November to find a route to the ocean. They crossed a succession of mountains. Progress was slow and they ran out of supplies making it necessary to stop and hunt. In places, game was scarce, and they spent days without food. Having crossed the mountains, they arrived at the redwood forest where they found a great mass of fallen timber. Two axemen had to precede the others to cut a way through. Eventually they reached the coast at the mouth of a stream now known as Little River. They headed north until they found their way blocked at Big Lagoon. They returned to what is now Trinidad where they camped. Continuing south, they crossed and named the Mad River. At their next camp, a search for drinking water led to the rediscovery of what is now called Humboldt Bay, December 20, 1849. At San Francisco there was great interest in finding a sea route to the northern mines. During the first three months of 1850 many vessels sailed to explore the coast. They managed to cross the bar, enter the bay, and land on the point across from the entrance. Later they headed back out to sea, Buhne sounding the channel. Aboard the schooner they decided to send in two boats loaded with passengers, tents and supplies. They landed on the north spit, then the following morning moved to the point. Days later, Buhne met the schooner at sea, and on April 14, 1850, he piloted the Laura Virginia into the bay and anchored off the point. The members of the Laura Virginia Association named the bay and their settlement in honor of Alexander von Humboldt, a noted German naturalist. Humboldt Bay was surveyed in 1851 by the United States Coast Survey and the first detailed chart was issued. After two years of white settlement on Humboldt Bay, in 1852 only six ships sailed from the bay to San Francisco. But by 1853, on the same route, 143 ships loaded with lumber for markets crossed the bar. Of those, despite the best efforts of local pilots and tugs, 12 ships wrecked on the bar. In times of bad weather, ships could be forced to remain in harbor for weeks before attempting the crossing. ==Engineering==

The unimproved state of the mouth of the bay was a crescent-shaped bar covered by a line of breaking waves. The jetties are approximately long and apart. In 1983, 1,000 more dolosse were made at the South Spit yard and left to cure; local newspapers named the curing site "Humboldt's Stonehenge." These cumulative changes and water action have resulted in severe erosion at the bay's entrance, where approximately of Buhne Point, which had formerly visually blocked the entrance to the bay, washed away between 1854 and 1955. offers views of the South Spit Jetty. Fishermen are often seen fishing. Most of the large sloughs around the bay have been protected with levees. But because of development by residents and businesses, of the of historic intertidal marsh, only about 10% remains. Other marsh areas were lost to land reclamation for hay or pasture, and construction of the Northwestern Pacific Railroad in 1901. This reduced tidal connectivity along the eastern edge of the bay, which resulted in deterioration of large areas of marsh habitat. ==Ecology==

is a stretch of beach, dunes and tidal marsh that serves as a popular destination for waterfowl hunting, surf fishing, and clamming on the south spit of Humboldt Bay. Humboldt Bay and its tidal sloughs are open to fishing year-round. A protected area in the bay is the Humboldt Bay National Wildlife Refuge, created in 1971 for the protection and management of wetlands and bay habitats for migratory birds. The Humboldt Botanical Garden, at the College of the Redwoods near the Bay, preserves and displays local native plants. Humboldt Bay is also recognized for protection by the California Bays and Estuaries Policy. In the winter, the bay serves as a feeding and resting site for more than 100,000 birds. Among these are gull species, Caspian tern, brown pelican, cormorant, surf scoter, and common murre. The federally endangered tidewater goby is found in the bay, along with more common three-spined stickleback, shiner perch and Pacific staghorn sculpin. The bay has been invaded by the European green crab, a voracious predator that is known to prey on the young of native crab species, as well as native mussels, oysters, and clams. European green crab were first documented in Humboldt Bay in 1995 and have been blamed for a decline in clam harvesting. Scientists have not found a way to control them. located on Table Bluff Beach in Loleta, California Marine mammals are represented by harbor porpoises, harbor seal, California sea lion and river otter, with Steller sea lion and gray whale found immediately offshore. Leopard sharks have been reported inside the bay, which also provides habitat for young bat rays, feeding on clams, crabs, shrimps, worms, sea cucumbers, brittle stars, various gastropods and isopods. ==Bay settlements==

at dusk, with distant view of California Coast Ranges due east of the populated Humboldt Bay area. trees on Tuluwat Island, the largest of three islands, all of which are in the Eureka City limits. The great egret nests in these trees in large numbers each year. About 80,000 people reside on the shore of the bay in at least 20 named settlements on the coastal plain around the bay estuary. Most of these are unincorporated suburbs of the City of Eureka. Settlements located on or near the bay, listed clockwise from the north side of the bay entrance: • Fairhaven • Samoa • Manila • Arcata • Sunny Brae • Bayside (includes Hidden Valley, which is surrounded by Indianola) • Eureka • Indianola • Freshwater • Myrtletown • Cutten • Ridgewood • Pine Hill • Bayview • Elk River • Humboldt Hill • King Salmon • Fields Landing • Hookton • Loleta • Table Bluff ==Bay tributaries and sloughs==

at the northern edge of the city of Eureka. Streams and sloughs that enter into Humboldt Bay are listed north to south, clockwise, with tributaries entering nearest the bay listed first. The primary streams of major watershed areas east of the bay (draining a combined area of ) are in bold. • Mad River Slough • Liscom Slough • Janes Creek (enters the bay as McDaniels Slough) • Jolly Giant Creek (enters the bay as Butcher Slough) • Campbell Creek (partially channeled to Gannon Slough) • Fickle Hill Creek • Gannon Slough • Grotzman Creek • Beith Creek • Little Jacoby Creek • Jacoby Creek • Washington Gulch Creek • Rocky Gulch Creek • Eureka Slough • Fay Slough • Cochran Creek • Freshwater Creek • Little Freshwater Creek • Ryan Slough • Ryan Creek • First Slough • Second Slough • Third Slough • Clarke Slough • Elk River • Swain Slough • Martin Slough • Willow Brook/White Slough • Salmon Creek • Deering Creek • Little Salmon Creek • Hookton Slough ==Harbor management==

Humboldt Bay Harbor Recreation and Conservation District is the governing body of Humboldt Bay, the Port of Humboldt Bay, and the Port of Eureka. Despite the jetties and dredging, the harbor entrance remains challenging. Only maritime pilots trained and employed by the district are authorized to bring vessels beyond a certain size into the bay, unless a ship's pilot has proper certification. The Humboldt Bay District maintains a 237-berth marina at Woodley Island, serving both recreational and commercial boats and a shipping dock located in South Bay. Dangerous sand bars and shifting currents have caused many shipwrecks at the entrance to Humboldt Bay, particularly during the late nineteenth century. Forty-two ships were wrecked in and around the channel, most of them while under tow by a piloted tug boat. Fifty-four ships were wrecked on the Humboldt County coastline. Most shipwrecks occurred between 1850 and 1899. == Humboldt Bay National Wildlife Refuge ==

The Humboldt Bay National Wildlife Refuge was established in 1971 to conserve and protect a diverse habitat full of mammals, migratory birds, fish, amphibians, and plants. In total, Humboldt Bay National Wildlife Refuge is 3,000 acres including the cities and towns of Loleta, Eureka, and Arcata == Restoration projects ==

Salmon Creek Humboldt Bay has many different tributaries, such as a river or stream, flowing into larger rivers or lakes For Humboldt Bay, Salmon Creek is the third largest tributary. Just like the name suggests, Salmon Creek has historically supported large populations of coho salmon, steelhead trout, and chinook salmon. Historically, Salmon creek consisted of tidal salt marshes with many sloughs mixed in. Originally inhabited by the Wiyot people, the Lanphere Dunes were under stewardship by new landowners, William and Hortense Lanphere in the 1930s. Along with European Beachgrass, Yellow Bush Lupine (Lupinus arboreus), another invasive species, was introduced from an adjacent property nearby. Dune restoration can be quite difficult as all of the plants, animals, and organisms have evolved and co adapted to the specialized coastal conditions. Dunes are considered to be a hostile ecosystem because of environmental conditions such as low soil fertility, summer drought, ocean spray, harsh winds, and intense albedo. Due to these conditions, mechanical restoration is best suited for this type of project. Mechanical restoration began by the removal of European Beachgrass by hand or with shovels. Removal of European Beachgrass requires multiple visits over the course of several years due to the plants' tenacious rhizome. This removal technique also allows for the native vegetation to recolonize at the same rate. The first restoration project started over 40 years ago and to date, native plant and animal communities are thriving. ==See also==