Most people in the rest of the country know that the state of California is a strange place. Unless you live here, however, you can’t fully appreciate just how dysfunctional it has become.
A case in point is what is happening to Coast Seafoods Company, the state’s largest shellfish producer. The company has been operating an oyster farm in Humboldt Bay for the past 65 years. However, the company may cease operation because the California Coastal Commission in June voted 6-5 to deny permits for both the company’s existing 230 acres of shellfish farming as well as a proposed 265-acre expansion. Coast Seafoods has 80 employees and an annual payroll of $2 million. Doubling its capacity is a microcosm of what economic growth means and how it happens.
The commissioners who voted to deny the permit renewal and expansion asserted that the company “had not adequately addressed potential impacts to ecologically significant eelgrass beds in the bay.” Humboldt Bay covers a total of 17,000 acres. The disputed area, therefore, comprises less than three percent of the bay.
To read the rest of the story, please go to: The American Spectator
