Hidden behind Chevron's tank farm and built on the bones of condemned ships, Point San Pablo Harbor feels like a place that shouldn't exist. In this episode, we explore the history, characters, and unlikely revival of one of the last truly eccentric waterfront communities on San Francisco Bay.

"KEEP YOUR EYES ON THE BAY!" Baykeeper Executive Director Sejal Choksi-Chugh unveils new citizen watchdog campaign with a banner ad at the Lafayette BART Station (Photo: Baykeeper) Episode Highlights How it Started. Research scientist Michael Herz launched San Francisco Baykeeper in 1989 with a boat, a hotline, and deep anger about the polluted state of the Bay. He based his new organization on the Hudson Riverkeeper and two other keeper organizations then in existence. Herz

Segment of the San Francisco Bay Model representing San Pablo Bay. (Photo: U.S. Army Corps of Engineers) Back in 2024, Mike and I spent a day with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers in Sausalito. First at the gigantic working hydraulic Bay Model, with Park Ranger Linda Holm, and then with the Hazard Removal division, which operates the Dillard and Raccoon debris collecting boats. It was a fantastic day and we met some committed Bay heroes, but first I just have to say one thing

Episode Highlights "Gold Prospector" by Tony Oliver, pen & ink, 2007. Licensed under an Attribution 2.0 International License. How the Bay Became a City. San Francisco Bay was once a vast, living estuary, home to thriving ecosystems and thousands of Ohlone people. In just a few generations, it was transformed into the foundation of a global city. This episode explores how that transformation happened, and what it cost. The Gold Rush Was an Environmental Event. We often pictur

The Buried Ships of Yerba Buena Cove by Michael Warner et al., 2017. San Francisco Maritime National Historical Park, National Park Service. Vessels in Yerba Buena Cove (now the Financial District of San Francisco), 1852. San Francisco Maritime National Historical Park, National Park Service. The remains of the General Harrison, found in 2001 under 425 Battery Street at Clay. Photographer unknown. The steamship City of Chester at dock; sunk following a collision with a Chine

Mike Herz, founder of San Francisco Baykeeper, 1989 Depending on how you count, this 21-minute episode took 3 1/2 years from start to finish. That's because we spent the first year and half finding a boat 3,500 miles from home and figuring out where to put it. Then we had to figure out how to execute our shroom-fueled idea. Then, we collected enough material for at least 21 episodes and I realized I needed to learn a few things. After that we argued over content, style, story

Mike assembling his wicked cool boat Living on a trawler is not enough marine immersion for Mike, not by a long shot, so in the past 18...

Mike's son Nat is visiting from Alaska. He went to the farmer's market and is making breakfast. It was delicious.

We interviewed Carl Nolte, legendary 90-year-old columnist for the SF Chronicle, to do a story on him and he turned the tables and did...

Yard sale bounty! Mike and his son Nat (visiting from Alaska) unload the kayak and SUP board we scored at a neighborhood-wide garage sale in Bel Marin Keys for the princely sum of $50. Huge thanks to Dave and Nat for getting up early and scouting the neighborhood on bikes. Even better, as I headed down the dock, our neighbor Gary asked how life was treating us and I told him the news. "And the only thing we need to buy now is a kayak paddle," I added. "Well, I have two taking

Mark Rauzon and Meredith Elliott on the Baykeeper boat yesterday, counting double-crested cormorants under the SF Oakland Bay Bridge....

Mike and Kate contemplate their lack of boat repair skills from dockside thrones, following their 7th trip to the marine hardware store....

...and within 5 minutes of arrival, is inside the engine room. He is figuring out our malfunctioning water system, a very welcome...

We spent today with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers in Sausalito. First at the gigantic working hydraulic Bay Model, with Park Ranger Linda Holm, and then with the Hazard Removal division, which operates the Dillard and Raccoon debris collecting boats. It was a fantastic day and we met some committed Bay heroes, but first I just have to say one thing. Holy shit the Reber Plan. From "Report on the Reber Plan and Bay Land Crossing," L.H. Nishkian, 1946 This scheme, first dre

When you discover that your harbormaster, a former opera singer, has for 20 years been conducting a men's chorus called the Conspiracy of...

Here's Mike trying out a donated SUP board this sunny Sunday morning. Also, we have running water as of last night. The salon carpet is...

No dog, no sun, no joy, no fun photos. Without Georgie, we discovered, all the joy leached out of our cross country trip. It was our 16th...

It kills me to write this, but we lost our darling Georgie today. She was 14. She began failing last Thursday, the day before we were to...

"The photograph shows me on the very tip of the iceberg facing forward straddling stupid Gibble..." I recently opted for cheap transcription software, switching to Otter Ai from the Sonix I had been using. Big savings, given the volume of sound files we have to transcribe. But that's only if you count my time as worth nothing, because the new transcription quality is much poorer and it's way more work on my end. Otter seems to have an impoverished vocabulary and not much unde