January 28, 2014 — An oyster farm at Point Reyes National Seashore can stay open while its owner makes a last-ditch attempt to get the U.S. Supreme Court to extend its lease in waters that Congress has designated as a marine wilderness.
The Ninth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals has upheld the federal government's refusal to renew the lease of Drakes Bay Oyster Co., but on Monday it granted the company a 90-day stay to allow time for a Supreme Court appeal. The high court could grant further extensions while it decides whether to take up the case.
Drakes Bay operates California's only oyster cannery. Its owner, Kevin Lunny, bought the company in 2005, seven years before the scheduled expiration of a 40-year lease in federal waters.
A 1976 federal law set aside 2,500 acres of offshore land, including the oyster farm, as a wilderness area free of commercial activity once the lease expired.
Read the full story at The San Francisco Chronicle