S.F. Bay is no longer an environmental disaster. Here’s what drove incredible transformation
Full of cold, fresh rainwater and snowmelt from the Sierra, the San Francisco Bay is in a strikingly different place than it was last summer. Water gushing out of the delta is flushing out pollutants and contaminants and giving endangered baby salmon a helpful push into the ocean. Longfin smelt and yellowfin gobies are spawning in the usually swampy southern end of the bay, and sediment coming in from mountain streams is replenishing the structure of its basin. Just eight months ago, the bay was murky brown and its perimeters were piled with dead fish. Unprecedented in known Bay Area history, a harmful algae bloom that followed three years of drought killed off thousands of long-lived sturgeon and smaller fish.
Related article:
- Maven’s notebook: Ecosystem Restoration Progress Review for the Delta and Suisun Marsh