Join us for an evening at the intersection of human and ecological design along the San Francisco Bay. Together, we’ll explore this liminal shoreline through the lenses of science, architecture, economics, and food.
Time & Location
Jun 24, 2026, 6:00 PM – 9:00 PM
Spaulding Marine Center, 600 Gate 5 Rd, Sausalito, CA 94965, USA
About the event
Native oyster reefs and eelgrass meadows offer a vision for a different kind of economy—one rooted in reciprocity. The effects of these living systems ripple outward with multiplying effects: sheltering biodiversity, softening the force of rising seas, and feeding local communities. A blue economy begins in restoration, where ecology and livelihood are not at odds but symbiotic.
The story of the San Francisco Bay can be told through its native Olympia oyster reefs and underwater eelgrass meadows. As the largest estuary on the West Coast, the Bay is shaped by the meeting of fresh and salt water—rivers tumbling toward the sea, colliding with tidal rhythms and the nutrient-rich upwellings of the Pacific. This convergence has long created one of the most fertile and dynamic ecosystems on the continent.
Oysters once contoured the Bay’s edges, forming vast reefs that created habitat, filtered water, and buffered storm surges. These small but powerful bivalves were largely wiped out during the Gold Rush. Today, a coalition of scientists, oyster growers, and nonprofits is working to bring them back—restoring not just a species, but a system, through the creation of living shorelines.
As oysters filter the water, feeding on naturally occurring algae, they clarify the Bay—allowing sunlight to reach eelgrass below. These submerged meadows stabilize sediments, reduce erosion, and create vital habitat for herring, crabs, and countless other species. They also sequester significant amounts of carbon, offering a powerful, nature-based climate solution. In an emerging blue carbon economy, eelgrass is not only ecologically essential—it may also hold real economic value.
Join us for a conversation at the edge of land and water, where finance, science, design, and the culinary world converge. Together, we’ll explore what it means to cultivate a living shoreline along the San Francisco Bay—one that breathes, feeds, protects, and evolves.
Speakers
Katharyn Boyer is a marine ecologist and director of the Estuary & Ocean Science Center. She has pioneered science-informed restoration of tidal marshes, seagrass beds, and oyster reefs with a focus on creating habitats that also protect shores from impacts of rising seas.
Steve Crooks is co-founder of the Blue Carbon Initiative and co-editor of The Blue Carbon Primer, as well as a special issue of the Coastal Engineering Journal on green infrastructure and blue carbon. He works at a global scale to advance blue carbon strategies, helping coastal ecosystems become recognized as vital climate solutions.
Margaret Ikeda is co-founder of the Architectural Ecologies Lab, where architecture meets ecology. Her studios imagine regenerative floating communities—structures that grow food, generate energy, and act as living instruments, sensing and responding to the waters they inhabit.
Menu Inspired by the SF Bay to Come!
To learn more about Native Oysters and Eelgrass in the San Francisco Bay, visit The Alluring World of Olympia Oysters.