Climate change is pushing Tomales Bay oysters out of areas where they once thrived, according to a new study by the University of California, Davis. And oysters farmers are already beginning to feel the pinch.
Published this week, the study found that estuarine and bayland habitats such as Tomales Bay where the state’s multi-million oyster farming industry has found safe harbor are also acutely susceptible to climate change impacts.
These areas rely on a delicate balance between the freshwater and marine ecosystems, which Tomales Bay oyster farmers say give their Pacific oysters their prized, sweet taste. But as human-caused climate change causes more extreme rainfall and drought periods, more upwelling of oxygen-deprived and acidic ocean waters and rising water temperatures, the oysters are being “squeezed at both sides, reducing the zone of habitat they can thrive in,” research leader Ted Grosholz said…
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