The last oyster shuck

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Drakes Bay Oyster Company in Inverness, California shut down after losing a long legal battle with the federal government.

The third-generation, family-owned oyster farm will be forced to shut its oyster shack and cannery on July 31 after losing a 19 month legal battle with the federal government. The Department of the Interior declined to renew the farm’s lease in efforts to restore the area, also known as Drakes Estero within the Point Reyes National Seashore, to a state of marine wilderness as designated by the U.S. Congress in 1976.

The case was denied an appeal by the U.S. Supreme Court on June 30 which upheld a decision by the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals to rule against the oyster company. However, the farm’s harvesting operations will be permitted to continue for at least another 30 days after a group of local restaurants and businesses filed a new lawsuit and forged an agreement with the National Park Service to allow it to harvest until the court’s ruling on the injunction. – Reuters