Lying sheltered from the Pacific Ocean by Inverness Ridge, Tomales Bay is a pristine inland sea with water so pure that even the sensitive oyster can flourish in it. Shrouded in mist with branches overhanging its shores, it has a mysterious beauty.
Often, its glassy surface is a refuge from wild surf. At low tide it is possible to walk for miles along the shore. On a sunny day with children playing on its beaches, it is an innocent playground, but if the wind comes up and the fog rolls in, it can provide a challenging experience for all plying its waters.
Thirteen miles long and a mile wide, Tomales Bay is an expression of the San Andreas fault, which lies directly beneath it. The fault is a crack in the earth’s crust that separates the North American plate and the northward-moving Pacific plate. The great San Francisco earthquake of 1906 was centered at the end of the bay.
Tomales Bay is quite shallow, with wide expanses of mud flats exposed at low tide. The tidal wetlands near Point Reyes Station were reduced after levees were built on either side of Papermill Creek in 1945 to increase pasture lands. The Point Reyes National Seashore has received funding to buy the farmland and restore the wetlands.
The bay supports a large bird population year round and is an important winter feeding ground for 20,000 shorebirds and 25,000 waterfowl. White and brown pelicans favor the bay as a fishing ground. Both great egrets and snowy egrets are often seen fishing in the shallow waters. It is also a place of refuge for migratory birds. In January 1987 a rare Siberian brown shrike was spotted on the southern end of the bay. Bird watchers came from all over the US to observe this bird.
When the bay is quiet and we are floating offshore, the sound of the wing beats of huge flocks of birds taking off is achingly beautiful.
The bay is a major spawning ground of the Pacific herring, second in importance in California only to San Francisco Bay. The herring eggs attach themselves to sub–tidal vegetation, mostly eelgrass. Diving birds, like surf scoters and greater scaup, snip off eel grass coated with eggs, bring it to the surface and eat the eggs. More than 20 species of birds eat herring eggs. Herring have been fished commercially in Tomales Bay since the 1930’s but, in order to protect the species, a quota has been in place for the past 23 years. The eelgrass is also home to the bay pipefish, which looks like an elongated sea horse.
Coho salmon and steelhead rainbow trout use streams that flow into Tomales Bay for spawning. Both species were at one time abundant in the bay. Nowadays they are rare, though their numbers are gradually increasing as environmentalists work hard to protect their habitat.
Over the summer months, the water in the bay reaches an easily tolerable temperature for swimming. A swim with a full moon rising behind Elephant Mountain is an adventure not to be missed. If you are very lucky you might even swim alongside a seal.
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