Talk:San Francisco Bay

Untitled
The caption "Aerial panorama of the northern Bay, the new Bay Bridge, Golden Gate, and Marin Headlands on a clear morning" is not quite accurate; the NEW span of the Bay Bridge is the eastern span, not visible in the photograph. The span visible in the photograph was built in 1937. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 50.197.166.49 (talk) 19:11, 11 March 2015 (UTC)

hello there. what is the depth profile of the sf bay? tks.

Re: Depth profile
SF Bay's profile changed dramatically in the late nineteenth century and again with the initiation of dredging by the US Army Corps of Engineers in the twentieth century. Before about 1860 most bay shores (exception: rocky shores such as those in Carquinez Strait, along Marin shoreline, Point Richmond, Golden Gate area) contained extensive wetlands that graded nearly invisibly from freshwater wetlands to salt marsh and then tidal mudflat. A deep channel ran through the center of the bay, following the ancient drowned river valley.

In the 1860s and continuing into the early twentieth century, miners dumped staggering quantities of mud and gravel from hydraulic mining operations into the upper Sacramento and San Joaquin Rivers. GK Gilbert's estimates of debris total more than eight times the amount of rock and dirt moved during construction of the Panama Canal. This material flowed down the rivers, progressively eroding into finer and finer sediment, until it reached the bay system. Here some of it settled, eventually filling in Suisun Bay, San Pablo Bay, and San Francisco Bay, in decreasing order of severity.

By the end of the nineteenth century, these "slickens" had filled in much of the shallow bay flats, raising the entire bay profile. New marshes were created in some areas.

In the last years of the nineteenth and first decades of the twentieth century, at the behest of local political officials and following Congressional orders, the US Army Corps began dredging the Sacramento and San Joaquin Rivers and the deep channels of SF Bay. This work has continued without interruption ever since, an enormous federal subsidy of SF Bay shipping. Some of the dredge spoils were initially dumped in the bay shallows (including helping to create "Treasure Island" on the former shoals to the north of Yerba Buena Island) and used to raise an island in the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta. The net effect of dredging has been to maintain a narrow deep channel--deeper perhaps than the original bay channel--through a much shallower bay. At the same time, most of the marsh areas have been filled or blocked off from the bay by dikes.

So, the bay profile has gone from a kind of saucer shape (extensive tidal marshes, much shallow bay, a deeper area) to an even flatter profile with a very deep nick in the center (little marsh, extensive very shallow mudflats, a very deep sheer channel in the center).

Sources: Goals Project, Baylands Ecosystem Habitat Goals (US EPA, 1999, 2000); San Francisco Estuary Institute, EcoAtlas (online resource); Grove Karl Gilbert, Hydraulic Mining Debris in the Sierra Nevada Prof Paper No. 105 (USGS, 1917)


 * I'd love to see this incorporated in the article. Article is long enough that it needs subheads already; this could be another one, extending what I originally added about dredging & filling. I spent about half an hour yesterday on the web trying to find a public domain, clearly readable map showing how much has been filled over time (and when), but didn't succeed. Found very small, hard to read, outdated, probably (c) one only.  Elf | Talk 22:45, 23 Mar 2004 (UTC)


 * I would like this sentence to be rewritten. It's not very clear in the current format.

The San Francisco Bay is a shallow, productive estuary in which water draining approximately forty percent of California, flowing in the Sacramento and San Joaquin rivers from the Sierra Nevada mountains, enters the Pacific Ocean.

Thanks. --Sennaista 00:24, 17 December 2005 (UTC)

Bay
San Franciso Bay is a bay not an estuary. It is not the mouth of a river. I was wrong sorry about that. User:Mrld


 * It's a bay and estuary both. Numerous streams flow into it.  In winter and spring, fresh water regularly mixes with brackish water in the Bay. Tmangray 18:40, 7 May 2007 (UTC)
 * most marine biologists and other ecologists ive talked to say it is not a bay and that people just call it that out of simplicity not accuracy --71.131.30.178 (talk) 05:14, 15 November 2008 (UTC)

"See also"
Some of the articles represented in the list as "see also" may contain material that should be here in concise summary, with a Main article... hatnote. --Wetman (talk) 21:23, 2 January 2008 (UTC)

Bay Model
Can we get a section on this please? It's unique enough to be historically significant. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 76.28.72.87 (talk) 14:12, 3 April 2010 (UTC)

Cargill Advertising
I just deleted a couple of paragraphs that extolled the virtues of Cargill, which is currently on a public relations blitz to promote its image and prevent any government controls on the addition of salt to food. These paragraphs contained irrelevant assertions about Cargill selling (mostly submerged) land to the government (i.e. the only logical purchaers of such land) at "greatly reduced prices" as though they are great benefactors to humanity. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 84.153.123.129 (talk) 10:23, 30 May 2010 (UTC)

Cost of living/ average income
Maybe for those looking to move to the bay someone could make a section on the average cost of living(rent, utilities, etc.) and the average income of households in San Francisco. Obviously there are vast differences from area to area but I think something can be done. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 98.246.142.14 (talk) 17:32, 11 July 2010 (UTC)

Meaning a demographics section or something like that. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 98.246.142.14 (talk) 17:34, 11 July 2010 (UTC)

Actually, this demographical information can be found in the San Francisco Bay Area page. The region is generally known as the bay area, this article is about the bay specifically.98.210.246.205 (talk) 23:47, 5 July 2015 (UTC)

shipwrecks
Ships lost in San Francisco — Preceding unsigned comment added by 76.126.141.89 (talk) 03:41, 18 February 2012 (UTC)

pollution
Could use a section on pollution, sources of pollution and remediation efforts over the years -- a major topic. -- phoebe / (talk to me) 21:54, 4 November 2014 (UTC)

External links modified
Hello fellow Wikipedians,

I have just added archive links to 4 one external links on San Francisco Bay. Please take a moment to review my edit. If necessary, add after the link to keep me from modifying it. Alternatively, you can add to keep me off the page altogether. I made the following changes:
 * Added archive https://web.archive.org/20041030120227/http://www.response.restoration.noaa.gov/cpr/watershed/sanfrancisco/sfb_html/sfbenv.html to http://response.restoration.noaa.gov/cpr/watershed/sanfrancisco/sfb_html/sfbenv.html
 * Added archive http://web.archive.org/web/20140201215704/http://www.industryintel.com/news/read/1857920424/Port-of-Oakland-California-completes-50-foot-deepening/uR/0 to http://www.industryintel.com/news/read/1857920424/Port-of-Oakland-California-completes-50-foot-deepening/uR/0
 * Added archive http://web.archive.org/web/20050813082232/http://www.spn.usace.army.mil:80/bmvc/ to http://www.spn.usace.army.mil/bmvc/
 * Added archive http://web.archive.org/web/20110226043751/http://gotoes.org:80/put-ins/ to http://gotoes.org/put-ins/

When you have finished reviewing my changes, please set the checked parameter below to true to let others know.

Cheers.—cyberbot II  Talk to my owner :Online 13:58, 27 February 2016 (UTC)

External links modified
Hello fellow Wikipedians,

I have just added archive links to 1 one external link on San Francisco Bay. Please take a moment to review my edit. If necessary, add after the link to keep me from modifying it. Alternatively, you can add to keep me off the page altogether. I made the following changes:
 * Added archive https://web.archive.org/20041030120227/http://www.response.restoration.noaa.gov/cpr/watershed/sanfrancisco/sfb_html/sfbenv.html to http://response.restoration.noaa.gov/cpr/watershed/sanfrancisco/sfb_html/sfbenv.html

When you have finished reviewing my changes, please set the checked parameter below to true or failed to let others know (documentation at ).

Cheers.—cyberbot II  Talk to my owner :Online 15:28, 22 March 2016 (UTC)

Semi-protected edit request on 15 October 2017
Reza.ctrl (talk) 12:00, 15 October 2017 (UTC)
 * Red question icon with gradient background.svg Not done: it's not clear what changes you want to be made. Please mention the specific changes in a "change X to Y" format. DRAGON BOOSTER   ★  14:56, 15 October 2017 (UTC)