A Unique San Francisco Bay Marine Lab Faces Closure. It Has Days to Raise Millions
https://www.kqed.org/news/12036970/unique-san-francisco-bay-marine-lab-faces-closure-has-days-raise-millions
Anna FitzGerald Guth, KQED
April 24, 2025
Katharyn Boyer, interim EOS executive director and professor of biology, looks into a seagrass nursery, at San Francisco State University’s Estuary and Ocean Science center, in Tiburon on April 23, 2025. SFSU, which operates the Estuary and Ocean Science Center, has said it can no longer afford to keep the doors open, but $10 million could avert its closure. (Gina Castro/KQED)
Ecologist Katharyn Boyer must shutter the beloved marine research center she manages on the San Francisco Bay’s shores — unless she can raise millions of dollars by next week.
Scientists, conservationists and community members statewide have rallied to save the Estuary and Ocean Science Center since San Francisco State University announced earlier this year that it could no longer afford to keep the doors open on its 53-acre Tiburon campus.
University representatives told KQED this week that $10 million would allow them to keep the lab open at least in the short term. Boyer, the center’s interim executive director, is still scrambling to convince donors to pledge the money before the start of May. Otherwise, San Francisco State will start phasing out the center’s operations over the next six months.
“It’s very little time and a lot of money, and I am starting to lose hope,” Boyer said. “There are some folks that are interested in supporting us. Whether that can happen fast enough is a really big question.”
The center’s turmoil is a result of San Francisco State’s deep financial troubles. With dropping enrollment and new reductions to state university funding, San Francisco State is facing a budget shortfall of $23 million to $28 million. The university put the Estuary and Ocean Science Center on the chopping block in February, after years of uncertainty.
Sebastian Garcia, a research technician, looks and sorts through amphipods, shrimp-like invertebrate, at San Francisco State’s Estuary and Ocean Science center, in Tiburon, on April 23, 2025. (Gina Castro/KQED)
“Ten million is what we’re hoping for, though of course we’ll still consider a multimillion-dollar gift that’s less,” said Carmen Domingo, dean of the College of Science and Engineering. “My hope is that those who have the resources, believe in climate change and understand the good work that the center is doing will help us during this interim time.”
The university began research at the bayside property, once a U.S. Navy base, in 1978. Although many of the defunct military structures are in disrepair, the university’s main lab buildings serve as a regional science hub. The site is also home to the San Francisco Bay National Estuarine Research Reserve and the Smithsonian Environmental Research Center.
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Making use of the spot’s deep-water port and ample space, the San Francisco State center works on eelgrass restoration, water quality monitoring, endangered species rehabilitation, sea-level rise adaptation and more.
“It’s the only marine biology center in San Francisco Bay, and it’s leading the innovation of how to use nature for sea-level rise resilience,” said Evyan Borgnis Sloane, deputy executive officer of the California State Coastal Conservancy and a San Francisco State alum who studied at the center. “If you don’t want to see the bay shoreline where you kayak, walk and swim be transformed over time to concrete sea walls, then you should care about this center closing.”
Ironically, if the center closes, Boyer might have to return millions of dollars in research funding, including out of a recent $4.3 million grant from the California State Coastal Conservancy for climate change adaptation and education projects.
Boyer said she would also have to give back $5.8 million awarded by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration for a new aquatic research facility.
Oyster shells collected and bagged are used for a living shorelines project at San Francisco State’s Estuary and Ocean Science center, in Tiburon on April 23, 2025. (Gina Castro/KQED)
Stakeholders from across California have joined the Friends of the Estuary and Ocean Science Center, reaching out to their representatives and the university to voice their strong support for the center.
“All the agencies responsible for managing California’s coasts and oceans owe a lot to the studies, education and leadership of the Estuary and Ocean Science Center,” said Rebecca Schwartz Lesberg, the president of consulting firm Coastal Policy Solutions, who organized the coalition.
If the fundraising and advocacy fail, Boyer, two other tenured faculty and their graduate students will move back to the university’s main campus. Additional adjunct faculty and employees who are not funded through the university could be displaced, Boyer said.
“It’s so sad that we might not have the will to keep the one marine lab on San Francisco Bay,” Boyer said. “How can that be in a place where people care so much about the environment? It’s mind-boggling.”