A King Tide informational tour will be given by the Friends of the Arcata Marsh

A King Tide is a popular term often used to describe exceptionally high tides that occur during a new or full moon. Folks who live along the North Coast know how dangerous these can be. The Friends of the Arcata Marsh (FOAM) will offer a special King Tide tour at the marsh to inform the community.

“Next Thursday the 11th, we will be hosting a tour to see the peak of the King Tide,” said Elliot Dabill, the President of FOAM. “[There will be] talk about what makes a King Tide. A lot of people want to know [about] environmental stuff like that.”

This tour will also educate people about sea level rise and what will happen to Humboldt Bay as the rest of the century brings monumental changes to the landscape. The tour hosted by FOAM will occur rain or shine. People will gather on South I street in the first parking lot from Samoa Boulevard across from the “green wall.”

“Bring a camera because we want people to take pictures,” Dabill said. “And there’s a King Tide tour website that the state of California is hosting [where] they can post pictures to that and show our little corner of the world. Folks should wear sturdy shoes. It’s a gravel trail, but pretty much anyone can do it. It’s a short walk.”

This tour starts at 11 a.m. It is expected that the peak of the King Tides will be by 11:30 a.m. The informational tour about King Tides will continue the following day with a lecture by sea level researcher, Aldaron Laird at 7 p.m. 

“It’s important to know them because in this case, it will affect our lives,” Dabill said. “Big parts of Arcata, for example, will be underwater in the next few decades, and there’s not much we can do about that, at least in the short term. In the long term, we can do better.”

The group, FOAM, hosts this King Tide informational tour every January. According to Dabill, every January is when the sun is closest to the earth and the earth is closest to the moon and gravity plays a huge part in all three bodies in the rising of sea levels.