Humboldt Bay - Ecology

Ecology

Humboldt Bay and its tidal sloughs are open to fishing year-round, and the bay is home to the Humboldt Bay National Wildlife Refuge, created beginning in 1971 for the protection and management of wetlands and bay habitats for migratory birds. In the winter it is not unusual for the bay to serve as a feeding and resting site for more than one hundred thousand birds. Humboldt Bay is recognized for protection by the California Bays and Estuaries Policy. The Humboldt Botanical Garden is now under construction at the College of the Redwoods near the Bay, to preserve and display local native plants.

The bay is a source of subsistence and sport fishing for a variety of salt-water fish, crustaceans, and mollusks. Dungeness Crab are fished commercially, and oysters are commercially farmed in the bay.

The bay itself 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.