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Oyster Muscle for West Coast Shorelines?
by Sonya Bennett-Brandt
| | The mud at Giant Marsh grabs like a hungry thing, swallowing my feet whole. I walk toe-first, heel raised, lest the suction of the mud slurp off my boots. Below, quieter dramas: mud snails gliding by on their single muscular foot, bird tracks stamped into the sediment like velociraptor prints. The air smells tangy, part salt, part decay, not unpleasant. Thoroughly muddy, we reach our destination and lean over strange structures: geometric blocks squatting in the shallows. Their surfaces bristle with barnacles. And in their crevices and pools, we spy our quarry. We’ve come to see the oysters. | | |
Along the West Coast, scientists and restoration teams are betting on this humble bivalve to do more than just survive. Olympia oysters are being enlisted as ecological engineers in “living shoreline” projects, a softer approach to coastal defense. Instead of holding the ocean back with rock and concrete, living shorelines work with natural systems — oysters, eelgrass, mudflats — to protect the coast, often with the addition of a little creative human engineering.
Read this next installment in our Extremes in 3D series, Part 6, Infrastructure.
Top Photo: Sonya Bennett-Brandt. Map: Darren Campeau
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Scrutinizing the Results of a Seawall Experiment
This July, half a dozen scientists and students working for the Smithsonian Environmental Research Center removed nine tiles covered in oysters, seaweed and crabs from San Francisco's seawall where Mission Street meets the Bay. After whisking them off to labs in Marin, and examining them under a microscope, they hope to find out what's living on them that's not visible to the naked eye. The tiles are part of a three-year experiment designed to test whether texturing the concrete on the seawall invites more Bay life to colonize its nooks and crannies than smooth concrete. Photo of Corryn Knapp: Ariel Okamoto
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Uneven Foundation for Redwood Shores Redevelopment
A contentious plan to redevelop an office park at the edge of Belmont Slough is spotlighting the challenges that closed landfills can create for planners and cities trying to protect their shores from rising waters. The property is one of approximately 50 such sites ringing the Bay. Photo: Redwood Life
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Kids Quest for Justice on Oakland Shore: 24 Photos
On June 28, 2025, eleven Bay Area kids strapped on their horns, cloaks and fairy ears and led community members through an imaginary journey to fight climate change and environmental injustice along the Martin Luther King Jr. Shoreline in Oakland. The youth are interns at Mycelium Youth Network, a local nonprofit organization that empowers young people to tackle climate challenges through a blend of science, technology, engineering, arts, math, ancestral practices and play. On that sunny Saturday, more than 60 people–young and old, interns and guests, volunteers and staff from Mycelium, Save the Bay, and other partners–embarked on a quest to learn through play for the organization’s Community Day of Action. Photojournalist Florence Middleton was there to capture the intrigue.
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KneeDeep is setting up a new community reporting program in the East & South Bay with opportunities for folks who can mentor young journalists, work with CBOs, help citizen storytellers, produce Spanish language content, and more. If you think you might fit into this new team (a variety of stipends are available), send us a note.
+ Also consider the part-time editorial position.
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All applicants MUST be local to the San Francisco Bay Area and willing to occasionally travel around the region on the job.
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KneeDeep Times shares stories from the frontlines of climate change resilience and adaptation action.
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Views expressed are independent of all funders and collaborators.
Managing Editor: Ariel Rubissow Okamoto
Assistant Editor: Sonya Bennett-Brandt
Research & Social Media Editor: Isabella Eclipse
Art Director: Afsoon Razavi
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