Humboldt Bay has a particular problem with dredging. Long shore currents move massive amounts of sand from the Eel River, Mad River and Little River to form the peninsula's. In the days before "manifest destiny" and the jetty the bay never had a permanent outflow to the ocean and some years would close off for weeks late season before the fall rains, much like the nearby lagoons to the north. Back about 1990 in the "YES WE CAN" days when it looked like the timber industry was going to implode and Eureka Southern might not survive, the then Harbor District tried to float a tax on property owners (home owners too) within a certain proximity to the bay that might benefit from it's commerce just to pay for dredging. That talk ended as fast as you can say "Tea Party."
When the Eco groovy environmental types "blew off" the LNG terminal back about 1998, that was probably the last time anyone would consider Humboldt Bay anything more than fish and "chips."
ARD