Surface Motion
H arbor to Acquire Permanent Dredge
October 13, 1986: The Sentinel covers the assembly of the new state of the art dredge. To be called "Seabright", the $2.6 million dredge is a complete bypass system, the realization of the original designers' precautions, twenty years too late. The apparatus seen in the photo is a new breed of Harbor dredge. The flimsy floating pipes of the past dredging systems are being replaced by a network of permanent pipes. These pipes will be the end of a bypass system that takes sand out of the Harbor mouth and projects it on the beach to the east of the Harbor.
"Preparing to Unveil the Dredge"
Photo by Dan Coryo
Santa Cruz Sentinel photo
Harbor Bill Mulcoy is cited in this article as a surfer who both mastered the waves at the harbor and managed to elude harbor authorities.
Commentary: History has focused on Harbor Bill perhaps due to his recognizable name and the lore surrounding him. It is always easier to tag an individual as a protestor, but the surfers as a group are what made the protest of the Harbor effective.
Protestors usually take great labor and organization to make a statement, getting press as gadflies or environmentalist outlaws. Harbor surfers, without meaning to organize a protest, attracted more attention by their constant presence and sheer numbers to the obvious fact that the harbor was poorly designed. Theirs was an effective protest of the most visible, playful, and irreverant sort to the folly of engineers who blunder into the forces of nature.
