Residents of 'anchor-out' community moored permanently on San Francisco Bay say ... trends now
A community of mariners permanently anchored on the San Francisco Bay face eviction from the waters they call home under a program aiming to protect the delicate marine ecosystem.
Some three dozen 'anchor-outs' - artists, free spirits and the like - live rent-free and without the burden of permit fees on Richardson Bay, across from the affluent seaside community of Sausalito.
And while the waters were once teeming with an estimated 200 boats, that number has dropped sixfold amid a campaign by local authorities and the Army Corps of Engineers to remove all vessels from the bay.
Chad Wycliffe, 41, is one of the few mariners left. He has taken up residence on his 33-foot fishing boat, the Iron Maiden, with two mixed-breed dogs.
'The city and the people have changed,' Wycliffe told the San Francisco Standard. 'Nobody owns this water, as much as they want to enforce rules upon it.'
'Anchor-outs' living rent-free on Richardson Bay face eviction from the waters they call home under an initiative aiming to protect the marine ecosystem
Around 200 boats filled the waters by Sausalito just a few years ago, but that number has shrunk to under three dozen
Chad Wycliffe, 41, worries that he will not be able to afford rent on land in addition to a spot in a marina once his boat is towed from the bay
The San Francisco Bay contains roughly 3,000 acres of eelgrass, the second-largest habitat in all of California, and local officials are aiming to preserve it through the establishment of an 'Eelgrass Protection Zone.'
Biologists argue that the bay's marine health depends on the seagrass to provide a spawning habitat for the herring that form the bedrock of the food chain.
Around 400 acres of eelgrass are found in Richardson Bay, approximately 75 of which have been lost to chains and anchors dragging across the seafloor.
But anchor-outs insist the real culprits are fertilizer runoff from agriculture and illegal dumping from yachts.
Nevertheless, local agencies are working to relocate the mariners in phases as part of a $3 million program launched in 2021.
Under the terms, anchor-outs are eligible for a housing voucher for an apartment - typically valued at $2,500 - as well as a $150-per-foot
