San Francisco Baykeeper is a nonprofit
environmental advocacy organization that uses science and the law to protect, preserve, and enhance the health of the ecosystems and communities that depend upon the
San Francisco Bay, the San Francisco Bay-Delta
Estuary, and its
watershed. SF Baykeeper is the only organization, governmental or non-profit, that regularly patrols the Bay by boat and drone to document sources of pollution.
The San Francisco Bay watershed—in addition to its recreational value and the biological diversity it supports—provides drinking water for more than 23 million people, and is vital to
California's economy. Beginning in the high reaches of the
Sierra Nevada and
Cascade Mountains, the Bay-Delta watershed encompasses the entirety of the
Bay Area as well as the
Great Central Valley of California. This vast watershed includes virtually all of the state's remaining coastal wetlands, and provides rare and fragile habitat for
marine mammals, migrating birds, and California's few remaining endangered
salmon runs.
Baykeeper was founded in 1989 by research scientist Dr. Michael Herz, on the principle that California's
waterways are common property, owned by all who use and enjoy them. Baykeeper works to rehabilitate natural environments and promote new strategies and policies to protect the water quality of the Bay-Delta Estuary.