The Mallard II has plied the San Francisco Bay's salt ponds since her keel was laid in 1936. The crew of the Mallard II works year-round, maintaining about 10 miles of our 200 miles of levees per year. The one notable exception: when the Mallard II heeded the nation's call during World War II, retrieving artillery shells from the Bay floor around Mare Island and Port Chicago.
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The Mallard II is typically accompanied by a flock of birds that flutter and circle overhead, eager for the tasty fish and other food brought up with each bucketful of mud.
The Mallard II helps maintain a network of gates, pumps and siphons to move water from the salt concentrator ponds to the evaporation ponds.