Farallon Islands

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The Farallon Islands are a group of islands and rocks found in the Gulf of the Farallones, off the coast of San Francisco, California. They lie 27 miles (43 km) outside the Golden Gate, 20 miles (32 km) south of Point Reyes. They are visible from the mainland on clear days.

1 Geography
- 1.1 Overview
- 1.2 Subgroups and individual islands
2 History
3 Nuclear Waste
4 Wildlife
5 References
6 See also
7 External links

[edit] Geography

[edit] Overview

The islands string north westwards for 8 km. Their total land area is 0.42 km² (419,320 m²). The Territorial waters measure 247.5 km² (247,530,823 m²). The islands were initially exploited for bird eggs and fur seal skins, then used as a lighthouse station and a radio station. They have been protected in the Farallon National Wildlife and Wilderness Refuge, established in 1969, and contain the largest seabird colony in the U.S. outside of Alaska and Hawaii. The islands are part of the City and County of San Francisco.

[edit] Subgroups and individual islands

South Farallon Islands, aggregate area 0.39 km² (387,688 m²)
- Southeast Farallon Island (SEFI) is the largest island, with an area of 0.31 km² or 310,406 m²) and is the only inhabited one. The island is pyramidal in shape and 109 meters high. The peak, Tower Hill (actually a double peak consisting of Lighthouse Hill and Little Lighthouse Hill), is the location of a lighthouse. The large flat area in the southeast of the island is called Marine Terrace. Immediately south of it is Mussel Flat, about 30 by 120 meters, which is cut off from the main island only during high tide.
- Seal Rock (Saddle Rock), about 250 meters south of SEFI is, about 80 by 250 meters in size, and 25 meters high.

Image:Aulon arch Sugarloaf.JPG

- Maintop Island (West End) is immediately to the west of SEFI, separated by a narrow impassable gorge, The Jordan (Jordan Channel), which connects Mirounga Bay in the south to Maintop Bay in the north. It is the second largest island, and 68 meters high at Main Top hill in its eastern part. The Great West Arch, a rock formation, is in the west of the island, and Indian Head in the South.
- The Drunk Uncle Islets are a group of small rocks just northwest off Maintop Island.
- Aulone Island and smaller Great Arch Rock (Arch Rock) are immediately north of the northern tip of SEFI, and together about 60 by 120 meters in size. They are barely separated by a narrow gorge. Great Arch Rock is not to be confused with Great West Arch, a rock formation in the west of Maintop Island.
- Sugarloaf Island (usually just referred to as Sugarloaf) is northeast of Great Arch Rock, and just slightly larger in size, with a height of 25 meters. Southwest of Aulon Island, Great Arch Rock and Sugarloaf Island, and in the northeast of SEFI, is protected Fisherman Bay.
- Sea Lion Rock is just northwest of Aulon Island, diameter approximately 40 meters.

Middle Farallon Island, 3 km northwest of SEFI, is a 6 meters high black rock about 65 meters in diameter, with an area of 3,362 m². This island is informally known as "the pimple."

North Farallon Islands, about 7 km further northwest, consist of two clusters of bare precipitous islets and rocks 28 to 47 meters high, with an aggregate area of 28,270 m²
- North Farallon Island, 31 meters high, about 110 meters in diameter, 9,260 m²
- Island of St. James, 47 meters high, about 125 meters in diameter, 12,380 m²
- unnamed rock, about 85 meters in diameter, and 5,640 m² in area
- four smaller unnamed rocks, diameter 20 meters and less

Noonday Rock, at 5 km WNW of the North Farallones the northernmost and westernmost feature of the group, is submerged , rising abruptly from a depth of 37 meters, with a least depth of 4 meters (13 feet) over it at low tide. It is the shallowest point of Fanny Shoal, a bank 3 km in extent, with depths less than 55 meters. There is a lighted bell buoy about 1 km west of Noonday Rock. Noonday Rock derives its name from the clipper ship that struck it in 1862 and sank within one hour. About 25 km northwest of Noonday Rock is Cordell Bank, a significant marine habitat which is not considered part of the Farallon Islands anymore.

[edit] History

Image of the San Francisco Bay area, showing relative position of the Farallones

The islands were long known to the American Indians who lived in the Bay Area prior to the arrival of Europeans, but they are not thought to have traveled to them. The first European to record the islands was the English privateer Sir Francis Drake, who landed on the islands on 24 July, 1579, in order to collect seal meat and bird eggs for his ship. He named them the Islands of Saint James, a name that survives only as the name of one of the rocky islets of the North Farallones. The islands were given the name "Farallones" (literally 'Rocks') by Sebastián Vizcaíno, who first charted them in 1603.

In the years following their discovery, the islands were exploited by seal hunters, first from New England and later from Russia. The Russians maintained a sealing station in the Farallones from 1819 to 1838, decimating the islands' population of fur seals (it is not known whether the Northern Fur Seal or the Guadalupe Fur Seal were the islands' native fur seal, although the Northern Fur Seal is the species that has recolonized the islands after they became protected).^{[citation needed]}

Southeast Farallon Islands from the west,</br>with Maintop Island in the foreground (right)

After Alta California was ceded by Mexico to the U.S. in 1848 the islands' environment became linked to the growth of the city of San Francisco. Beginning in 1853, a lighthouse was constructed on SEFI. As the city grew, the seabird colonies came under severe threat as eggs were collected in the millions for the markets of San Francisco. The trade, which in its heyday could yield 500,000 eggs a month, was the source of conflict between the egg collecting companies and the lighthouse keepers. This conflict turned violent in a confrontation between rival companies in 1863. The clash between two rival companies, known as the Egg War, left two men dead and marked the end of private companies on the islands, although the lighthouse keepers continued egging. This activity, combined with the threat of oil spills from shipping in San Francisco's shipping lanes, prompted President Theodore Roosevelt to sign Executive Order No. 1043 in 1909, creating the Farallon Reservation, protecting the northern islands of the chain. This was expanded to all the islands in 1969 when it became a National Wildlife Refuge.

The islands are the site of many shipwrecks, including the liberty ship SS Henry Bergh, a converted troop carrier that hit West End in 1944, pieces of which can still be seen from the island today (all hands were saved). The United States Coast Guard maintained a manned lighthouse until 1972, when it was automated. The islands are currently managed by the United States Fish and Wildlife Service, in conjunction with the Marin-based PRBO Conservation Science (formerly Point Reyes Bird Observatory - PRBO). The islands are currently the subject of long term ecological research. Today, the Farallones are closed to the public, although birders and wildlife enthusiasts can approach them on whale watching boats.

[edit] Nuclear Waste

From 1945 to 1970 the sea around the Farallones was used as a nuclear dumping ground for radioactive waste. The USS Independence, used as a target in Bikini Atoll nuclear tests, was sunk near this site.[1] In 1990 marine biologists produced graphic evidence of fish swimming among corroded and collapsed barrels, with one source reporting that barrels were shot at and punctured to make them sink. [Kunzig, The Restless Sea, pp. 294-305] Some complain that radioactivity at the site is inadequately monitored.^{[citation needed]}

[edit] Wildlife

The Farallon Islands are an important reserve protecting a huge seabird colony. The islands' position in the highly productive California Current and Eastern Pacific upwelling region, as well as the absence of other large islands that would provide suitable nesting grounds, result in a seabird population of over 250,000. Twelve species of seabird and shorebird nest on the islands; Western Gull, Brandt's Cormorant, Pelagic Cormorant, Double-crested Cormorant, Pigeon Guillemot, Common Murre, Cassin's Auklet, Tufted Puffin, Black Oystercatcher, Rhinoceros Auklet, Ashy Storm-petrel and Leach's Storm-petrel. Since the islands were protected, Common Murres, which once numbered nearly 500,000 pairs, have recovered from the egg collecting, oil spills and other disturbances which previously had greatly reduced their numbers, and have climbed from 6,000 birds to 160,000. Additionally, since protection, the locally extinct Rhinoceros Auklet has begun to breed on the islands again. The island has the world's largest colonies of Western Gulls and Ashy Storm-petrels, the latter species being considered endangered and a conservation priority. The island also is the wintering ground of several species of migrants, and regularly attracts vagrant birds (about 400 species of bird have been recorded on or around the island).

Five species of pinniped come to shore on the islands, and in some cases breed. These are the Northern Elephant Seal, Harbor Seal, Steller's Sea Lion, California Sea Lion and the Northern Fur Seal (the last of which, like the Rhinoceros Auklet, began to return to the island again after protection). The elephant seal population attracts a well-known population of Great White Sharks to the islands as well. Humpback whales pass through this part of the Pacific Ocean on their migrations; moreover, in December 2005 one Humpback was rescued from netting entanglement east of the Farallons by staff of The Marine Mammal Center. The last sighting of another famous humpback, named Humphrey, was near the Farallones in 1991. The islands are in the Gulf of the Farallones National Marine Sanctuary, which protects the feeding grounds of the wildlife of the refuge.

[edit] References

White, Peter; (1995), The Farallon Islands: Sentinels of the Golden Gate, San Francisco: Scottwall Associates, ISBN 0-942087-10-0
Casey, Susan; (2005), The Devils Teeth: A True Story of Obsession and Survival Among America's Great White Sharks, New York: Henry Holt and Co., ISBN 0-8050-7581-X