Bay Area bids adieu to Drakes Bay Oyster Co. at Point Reyes Station

◼ Marin residents Saturday savored one final meal of oysters harvested from Drakes Estero near Inverness as part of a Cajun celebration honoring the recently closed Drakes Bay Oyster Co. - Silicon Valley/Megan Hansen, The Marin Independent Journal

Kevin Lunny, owner of the Drakes Bay Oyster Co., was ordered by the federal government to shut down his business at the end of 2014 after a two-year legal battle to keep it open that went all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court. Hundreds of supporters of Lunny's operation met to honor the oyster farm's decade of business with a Cajun potluck at Point Reyes Station's Green Barn at 540 Mesa Road.

...The Drakes Bay closure order came on Nov. 29, 2012, when then-Interior Secretary Ken Salazar announced he would allow a 40-year lease -- originally negotiated with the Johnson Oyster Co. in 1972 and taken on by Drakes Bay -- to expire. In 1972, the federal government bought the land from Johnson for $79,200 and provided the lease to operate within the Point Reyes National Seashore.