Dunes and shorebirds at Point Reyes. Photo: Jocelyn Knight.

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Being the only National Seashore on the Pacific Coast, Point Reyes holds an amazing array of marine and coastal species and habitats. 

Manure water pollution may be harming marine life in the Point Reyes National Seashore area, including elephant seals, sea lions, harbor seals, dolphins, porpoises, and whales. Snowy plover nesting beaches are at times still trampled by cattle.

Besides harbor seal (Phoca vitulina) and Northern elephant seal (Mirounga angustirostris) beaches that might be impaired by cattle herds and nonpoint -source water pollution, the Point Reyes National Seashore area harbors an extremely high diversity of listed species, more than most public lands in California for such a small local geographic area. These marine and coastal federally Threatened and Endangered species, and state listed species, may also be impacted by coastal livestock operations in Point Reyes National Seashore:

• Black abalone (Haliotes cracherodii) – federal candidate species for listing under the Endangered Species Act.

• Tidewater goby (Eucyclogobius newberryi) – Federally Endangered.

• Chinook salmon (Oncorhynchus tshawyrscha) – Federally Threatened.

• Central Coast population of Coho salmon (O. kisutch) – Federally Endangered.

• Steelhead trout (O. mykiss) – Federally Threatened.

• Green sturgeon (Acipenser medirostris) – Federally Threatened.

• Leatherback sea turtle (Dermochelys coriacea) – Federally Endangered.

• Green sea turtle (Chelonia mydas) – Federally Threatened.

• Loggerhead sea turtle (Caretta caretta) – Federally Threatened.

• Marbled murrelet (Brachyramphus marnoratus) – Federally Threatened.

• Western snowy plover (Charadrius alexandrines nivosus) – Federally Threatened.

• Short-tailed albatross (Phoebastria=Diomedea albatrus) – Federally Endangered.

• Brown pelican (Pelecanus occidentalis) – Federally Endangered, California state Endangered.

• Least tern (Sterna antillarum) - Federally Endangered but recently delisted, California state Endangered.

• Ashy storm-petrel (Oceanodroma homochroa) – Species of Concern.

• California Ridgway’s (clapper) rail (Rallus obsoletus obsoletus) – Federally Endangered, California state Endangered.

• Saltmarsh common yellowthroat (Geothlypis trichas sinuosa) – Species of Concern.

• Southern sea otter (Enhydra lutris nereis) – Federally Threatened.

• Salt marsh harvest mouse (Reithrodontomys raviventris) - Federally Endangered, California state Endangered.

• Guadalupe fur seal (Arctocephalus townsendi) – Federally Threatened.

• Northern fur seal (Callorhinus ursinus) – Species of Concern.

• Steller sea lion (Eumetopias jubatus) – Federally Threatened.

• Sei whale (Balaenoptera borealis) – Federally Endangered.

• Blue whale (B. musculus) - Federally Endangered.

• Finback whale (B. physalus) - Federally Endangered. 

• Gray whale (Eschrichtius robustus) – Delisted, but still at risk.

• Humpback whale (Megaptera novaeangliae) - Federally Endangered.

• Sperm whale (Physeter catodon) - Federally Endangered.

Subzoning ranchlands will not decrease livestock water pollution runoff into streams and the ocean when the same beef and dairy activities will be ongoing with very similar numbers of livestock, and year-long grazing without rest. Management Activities and mitigation measures have been mere band-aids on chronic problems of erosion and manure runoff.