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Supervisors Approve Letter of Opposition to Bill That Would Redefine ‘Customary Maintenance’ on Billboards

The Humboldt County Board of Supervisors on Tuesday approved a letter of “strong opposition” to a new state bill that would would dramatically expand the definition of “customary maintenance” on billboards, allowing sign companies to make substantial changes to those structures without local government review or permitting.

“No other structure of this size in the state of California gets that kind of waiver,” Third District Supervisor Mike Wilson said during Tuesday’s meeting.

The letter, which the board approved with a 4-1 vote, argues that Assembly Bill 770 would undermine local authority, compromise public safety and endanger environmental and cultural resources. It was placed on the agenda’s consent calendar, meaning it was scheduled to be adopted among a batch of items without specific deliberations, but First District Supervisor Rex Bohn pulled it for discussion.

Second District Supervisor and Board Chair Michelle Bushnell said her understanding was that existing billboards already went through the necessary permitting processes, but Planning and Building Director John Ford said that’s not necessarily true.

“A lot of the billboards that exist out there were never permitted,” he said, and he vouched for Wilson’s assertion that the bill would essentially allow billboards to be completely rebuilt without local review.

Wilson also said the bill could nullify the legal precedent that was established after Viacom Outdoor, Inc. sued the City of Arcata in 2006 after city officials red-tagged billboards that had been toppled by storms, thereby preventing them from being re-erected.

New Humboldt Dockside Market will offer fresh local fish this summer

This summer, Eureka’s Madaket Plaza will host a new bi-weekly market, connecting Humboldt County fishermen directly with customers.

The Humboldt Dockside Market, developed by the North Coast Growers Association and Ashley’s Seafood, will allow area residents to access sustainable, locally caught fish in a low barrier-to-entry venue. Attendees will be able to purchase fish from Humboldt County commercial fishermen and have their fish cut and packaged by staffers; they’ll also have the opportunity to ask questions and learn about how to prepare a variety of local fish species that might otherwise appear daunting to the casual fish consumer.

“We really want to teach people how to consume it, how to cook it and to feel comfortable and confident,” Ashley’s Seafood’s Ashley Vellis told the Times-Standard.

The first Humboldt Dockside Market will be open to the public from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. on June 7, with subsequent events every-other week throughout the summer.

“Fishermen will be able to offer fillets and whole fish to their customers,” Vellis said. “Customers will be able to purchase directly from their fishermen and ask their questions (and learn) where the fish was caught, what species it is, if (there are) recommendations for cooking. If you purchase a whole fish, you’ll be able to take it to our on-site cutting booth … you can have it cut in different ways … we can even teach you how to cook your fish whole.”

Vellis said that the Humboldt Dockside Market isn’t intended to replace direct sales by fishermen out on Woodley Island; instead, it’s a way to connect those fishermen with a different customer within walking distance of Old Town Eureka.

Vellis noted that the market has worked very closely with the local fishing community that sells their catch on Woodley Island and noted that “most if not all of them” are participating in the market. She also stressed that the market is intended to be an opportunity for fishermen, who have faced headwinds with shortened Dungeness crab seasons and closed salmon fisheries, to sell fish and recoup some of the profits that would otherwise go to a wholesaler, while also helping to educate customers about what is available this summer.

“We’ll have different kinds of rockfish, Pacific halibut, California halibut, potentially … we might see Oregon salmon … We’ll have … lingcod; we may have smelt, petrale sole,” Vellis said.

“Sanddabs, for example,” Vellis said, “You have to catch a lot of it to make a profit, and who is going to buy such a small amount (from a local fisherman)? Well, the consumer; they’re hugely popular here, especially with people who used to go and catch them with their dad during their childhood, out in the bay somewhere.”

An estimated 12 to 15 Humboldt County commercial fishermen are expected to participate throughout the season, though ongoing albacore season may mean a smaller first event on June 7.

With Its Maine Project Dead, Nordic Aquafarms is Seeking New Investors and Facing a Longer Timeline for Its Land-Based Fish Factory on the Samoa Peninsula

Three months after cutting bait on plans to build a $500 million fish factory in Belfast, Maine, Nordic Aquafarms is courting new investors and facing a longer, more complicated timeline for a similar project along Humboldt Bay.

In a recent interview, Nordic executives outlined some new permitting and environmental mitigation hurdles and said it will likely be “a few years” before the company can demolish the old pulp mill infrastructure on the Samoa Peninsula and break ground on its proposed recirculating aquaculture system (RAS) facility.

Announced more than six years ago, the land-based fish farm, as originally conceived, is expected to cost $650 million and employ up to 150 full-time workers while producing up to 27,000 metric tons of Yellowtail kingfish per year — enough to supply West Coast markets from Seattle to Los Angeles and beyond.

However, given the recent geopolitical upheaval and its impact on world financial markets, the future of any project with such a long timeline is uncertain, as the company saw in Maine. Nordic’s East Coast project, announced in 2018, received all required local, state and federal permits but faced fierce opposition from environmental groups, whose legal challenges ultimately proved too costly.

“The company exits after tens of millions of investment dollars and many years of planning and permitting in the State of Maine,” CEO Brenda Chandler said in a January press release.

Last week, Chandler and local Project Manager Scott Thompson sat down for an interview at Outpost headquarters in Old Town Eureka. They said that while the project is progressing, certain steps may take longer than anticipated.

Environmental mitigation, for example. Nordic recently committed to an extensive Marine Monitoring Survey Plan that requires up to five years of water quality sampling and marine ecosystem analysis near the business end of an outfall pipe, which will discharge treated effluent from the RAS facility into the ocean, roughly a mile and a half offshore. That monitoring plan recently received approved from the North Coast Regional Water Quality Control Board.

Even with these new mitigation measures, local environmental groups remain wary. Jennifer Kalt, executive director of Humboldt Waterkeeper, said her organization is still concerned that the nutrient discharge from the ocean outfall pipe could increase the risk of toxic algae blooms, especially during marine heat waves like the one from 2014-16, nicknamed “The Blob.”

Kalt said she’s grateful for the Marine Monitoring Survey Plan.

“All we have to go on now is modeling, so the monitoring is really important to understand what is really happening in the ocean once the project is up and running,” she said.

Trump and Newsom Find Common Ground Attacking California’s Coastal Agency

The California Coastal Commission has been under siege like never before, alarming environmentalists and raising questions about the future of the 53-year-old state agency.

“We are under complete assault,” said Susan Lowenberg, a member of the coastal-preservation commission, which was born in the 1970s from the same movement that gave rise to Earth Day and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. “We need help.”

President Trump has publicly castigated the state commission, vowing not to “let them get away with their antics.” Elon Musk has said it “should not even exist as an organization.” Mr. Trump’s administration has threatened to withhold federal aid for the Los Angeles wildfires unless the state defunds the agency.

And Gov. Gavin Newsom, a Democrat, has said the commission has too much power, and delivered a stinging rebuke in January.

The California Coastal Commission has been instrumental in preserving that stretch of the state facing the Pacific Ocean by limiting development and ensuring public access. But more than half a century later, the commission has been under siege like never before.

In 1972, California voters overwhelmingly approved a ballot measure that maximized public access to the shoreline, required extra permitting for any construction near the coast and created the commission to review development proposals. It’sa the only state agency in California created by voters. Later, in 1976, the State Legislature cemented the protections in the Coastal Act.

“The Coastal Act is a hugely important thing for all Californians and all people who come to California, and it should not be sacrificed to solve other problems,” said Jennifer Savage, California policy associate director at the Surfrider Foundation.

That’s a wrap on Tsunami Preparedness Week 2025

California’s 2025 Tsunami Preparedness Week is in the books. What did it accomplish? Three things I hope: a test of North Coast counties’ emergency notification system, an opportunity for California emergency managers to practice responding to a tsunami event, and a time to bombard you with tips and information about tsunamis and what to do when one approaches. For some of you, it did something even more important — on Wednesday, you walked your evacuation route, developing the muscle memory to do the right thing when a major tsunami arrives.

There is a reason why California chooses the last week in March to focus on tsunamis. This marks our worst historic tsunami disaster. On March 27, 1964, at 5:36 p.m. local time in Alaska, a small crack formed near the north shore of Alaska’s Prince William Sound. As that crack grew, the ground shifted around it changing the coastline of southern Alaska forever. When the rupture finally stopped more than a minute later, a 500-mile-long fault had ruptured causing the land around it to uplift and subside.

Our 2025 tsunami week focus was to flip the tables, so to speak — to pretend what happened in Alaska in 1964 was here and Alaska got our tsunami four hours later. Geologic evidence suggests more than a dozen of these earthquakes have occurred over the last several thousand years ranging in magnitude from the upper 8s to 9. The most recent was on January 26, 1700. The source is the Cascadia subduction zone extending from Cape Mendocino to Vancouver Island, Canada.

It’s much more difficult to prepare for a Cascadia earthquake and tsunami than for a repeat of what happened in 1964 or in 2011 when we had more than 9 hours before the Japan tsunami reached us. The 1964 Alaska experience from the Alaska perspective provides useful guidance on what to expect.

• There will be no official warning or guidance on what to do or what to expect. The first 30 seconds of shaking will knock out our power, trigger landslides, and make roads impassable. No internet, no phones, no one knocking on your door. You will get an alert that something is up — more than a minute of ground shaking.

Next time the ground shakes for a long time, I hope it makes you think:

1. DROP, COVER, HOLD ON or stay in one spot while the shaking lasts

2. Am I in a tsunami zone? If YES, evacuate as soon as I can safely move. If NO, stay put!

You can sign up for Humboldt County's emergency notification system to get texts, emails, and/or phone calls.

For more info aboute tsunamis safety, including tsunami hazard maps, visit the Redwood Coast Tsunami Working Group.

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