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Humboldt Baykeeper was launched in October 2004 to safeguard our coastal resources for the health, enjoyment, and economic strength of the Humboldt Bay community through education, scientific research, and enforcement of laws to fight pollution.

Our Staff:

Jennifer Kalt, Director

Humboldt Baykeeper is a program of the Northcoast Environmental Center, a non-profit organization devoted to conserving, protecting, and celebrating terrestrial, aquatic, and marine ecosystems of northern California and southern Oregon.

Our Tax ID# is 23-7122386. Please specify that your donation is intended for Humboldt Baykeeper.

Board of Directors:

Humboldt Baykeeper Advisory Committee:

What are Coastal Resources?

Humboldt Bay is the second largest estuary in California. The Bay and the adjacent Pacific Ocean coastline give our community its unique character. The health of our waters both in the bay and along our coastline depend greatly on the functioning of the intertidal mudflats, salt marshes, and freshwater wetlands of Humboldt Bay which act as a natural pollution filter and flood plain. Clean water supports healthier fisheries, which in turn support bird and wildlife populations.

For the human community around the bay and coast this means more lucrative fisheries, better bird hunting, bird watching, and cleaner water for recreating, including boating, surfing, diving, and swimming.    

Humboldt Baykeeper's programs involve scientists, boaters, fishermen, birdwatchers, students, and other concerned citizens in the important work of protecting Humboldt Bay, its tributaries, and the near-shore waters of the Pacific Ocean.

The geographical reach of Humboldt Baykeeper's programs includes Humboldt Bay, its tributaries, and the Pacific Coast between Trinidad Harbor to the north and the Eel River estuary to the south. Baykeeper maintains an on-the-water presence throughout the area, patrolling by motorboat, kayak, and airplane, with upland areas patrolled by car and by foot.

Three months ago the fresh hauls brought ashore were purchased by distributors and shipped far away. But since COVID-19 upended the supply chains that once moved Eureka's catch far from its origin, fishermen are now selling dockside.

The fishermen connect with the local community through road signs and Facebook pages announcing fresh fish. During the increasingly popular sell-offs, the lines of masked customers often extend down the dock and into the parking lot, rain or shine. 

Such direct sales are not unprecedented. In the summer, fishermen have sold albacore tuna and Dungeness crab from their boats for years. There's a floating crab shack, Jenna Lee's Seafood, that's been selling live crab during the season since 2003.

What's changed during the pandemic, though, is the variety and quantity of fish available, and the number of people showing up to buy it. And some say the direct connection has been a long time coming. 

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Local environmental groups have begun voicing concerns about a major mixed-use development proposed for the Cutten neighborhood just south of Eureka.

Plans for the 81-acre project, which would encircle the Redwood Fields recreation facility, call for 320 new residential units — both houses and apartments — along with 22,000 square feet of commercial development.

Comments on the project’s Draft Environmental Impact Report must be submitted to the county by next Monday, and some local watchdog groups are already calling the document inadequate. 

In a letter submitted nearly a year ago, local nonprofit Humboldt Baykeeper, whose mission is to safeguard the county’s coastal resources, expressed particular concern about impacts to the riparian and aquatic habitat in Ryan Creek and its tributaries.

Executive Director Jennifer Kalt wrote, “[I]t can reasonably be argued that the area is inappropriate for further residential and commercial development,” though she notes that the decision to change the land use classification was made a quarter century ago.

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