photo credit: Greta Mart
Bodega Bay commercial fisherman Dick Ogg in front of his boat. 

Sonoma County government operates a handful of marinas. Three are In Bodega Bay, Mason's Marina, built in the 1960's for the commercial fishing fleet; neighboring Spud Point, built in the 1980's;and the Sport Fishing Center on the bay's east side..

While Mason's Marina and the Sport Fishing Center have held stable reserves in recent years, closures of lucrative salmon fisheries, and restrictions on other catches like Dungeness crab have strained Bodega Bay's commercial fleet, and made finances at the larger Spud Point Marina more volatile.

That's a trend that's been years in the making says Marina Supervisor Noah Wagner

"You see that significant drop because of all of the lost fisheries," Wagner told the county board of supervisors in late September "We really had a large drag boat fishery that used to unload tons and tons of fish at a time."

A big drop---down around 10 million from the 1980's---means the three marinas face around $12 million in deferred maintenance, said Wagner.

One example Marina Operations Manager David Robinson points to is the Sport Fishing Center dock

"When we went through the pandemic, the cost to replace that dock was about five times more than we expected due to steel and all the other price increases," Robinson said. "And so right now we're doing kind of like for like, so we're maintaining it, replacing boards as necessary, replacing floats, and trying to get out there as often as possible to clean it and make sure it's safe."

Even with the financial challenges, and shrinking fishing fleet---which used to be more than a thousand strong, but now sits at 78 boats---the marinas have remained full, with occupancy at 98% - buoyed by recreational boats.

Marina managers say they are hopefully the move to group the county's marina funds into a single pot will help stabilize the finances, And the harbor economy, despite boom and bust commercial and biological cycles.