Pressure is mounting on the Humboldt Bay Harbor, Recreation and Conservation District to reconsider its relationship with Crowley Maritime, its partner in the rush to develop a marine terminal to serve the proposed offshore wind farm, or at least to hold off on consummating the partnership.The first official salvo came Aug. 20 in the form of an op-ed Yurok Tribal Chair Joseph James published in a local paper calling on the district to “reconsider” its exclusive right to negotiate agreement with the international maritime industry giant due to a “rotten company culture” evidenced by two federal lawsuits. The latest, meanwhile, hit Aug. 31, with news that Crowley Wind Services Vice President Jeff Andreini had left the company amid sexual harassment allegations with ties to Humboldt County, as first reported by the Lost Coast Outpost.Read More
A top Crowley executive working on offshore wind and port development efforts on the North Coast parted ways with the company this week. Crowley, a private marine services and logistics company, has faced increased scrutiny in recent months – both locally and nationally – following allegations of sexual harassment and assault within the company.The company recently received a complaint against Andreini alleging sexual harassment of “a subordinate Crowley employee” at a bar during an offshore wind conference in Sacramento earlier this year.In an email correspondence between Redwood Coast Energy Authority Executive Director Matthew Marshall and Crowley’s Chief People Officer Megan Davidson, which was obtained by the Outpost through a Public Records Act Request, Marshall states Andreini’s behavior “was egregious enough that [he] felt compelled to personally intervene and stop the behavior.”Read More
Mike Wilson, Humboldt County 3rd District Supervisor and California Coastal Commissioner, was interviewed on KINS Talk Shop. Discussion includes updates on construction along the Highway 101 Safety Corridor between Arcata and Eureka, including the "Final Four" miles of the Humboldt Bay Trail, the Indianola overpass, and plans to convert the former Arcata Redwood Co. lumber mill into a fence board factory.Tune In
On Thursday, July 26th, the Eureka Times-Standard reported allegations of sex trafficking by employees of Crowley Marine Services, the parent company of the prospective leaseholder of Humboldt’s wind terminal, Crowley Wind Services. While the troubling history of Crowley’s workplace culture has been known for some time, the publicly available evidence suggests that high-level executives within Crowley were aware and complacent in allowing misconduct to thrive. These allegations, which picture a rotten company culture, are concerning and worthy of further investigation given the historical and present-day crisis of sex trafficking and Missing and Murdered Indigenous People (MMIP) in California and the United States. They also give necessary reasons to consider reopening negotiations regarding port development.As an elected body, the Humboldt Bay Harbor, Recreation and Conservation District’s responsibility lies with the people, community, and environment it represents. Native American Tribes are a vital constituent in this community, and the safety of our women, girls, and people is paramount. While offshore wind port development could benefit the community through jobs, an influx of money, and by fighting climate change, these potential benefits must not come at the expense of our people.Read More
Thousands of small, self-cloning sea anemones native to the Southern Hemisphere are rapidly spreading in Tomales Bay, an event researchers say could be the first recorded sighting of the species above the equator.After the anemone was reported last year through a citizen science app, iNaturalist, researchers at the University of California at Davis’ Bodega Marine Laboratory confirmed the species to be Anthopleura hermaphroditica, known as the small brown sea anemone. The striped anemone, which is less than an inch, is native to New Zealand, Australia and Chile.UC Davis researchers, led by doctoral student Keira Monuki, are contemplating how the species could affect the bay’s ecosystems.One of the reasons the anemones have spread so successfully in Tomales Bay is that they can reproduce asexually, said Eric Sanford, a UC Davis biology professor. A single sea anemone could make thousands of clones of itself.“They can proliferate rapidly because they don’t need another individual to reproduce. They can just spit out these genetically identical clones of themselves,” Sanford said. “So in a lot of ways, it’s something out of a science fiction movie if you’re thinking of what would be the perfect invader from outer space.”Sanford said genome sequencing will allow researchers to estimate how many anemones first colonized Tomales Bay. It is possible, he said, that the thousands of anemones matting the intertidal areas in eastern Tomales Bay came from just one or two individuals.The anemones also host a symbiotic algae that will be researched to determine if it influenced the species’ successful proliferation in Tomales Bay.Read More
