Farallon Islands
From Biocrawler, the free encyclopedia.
The Farallon Islands are a group of islands and rocks found in the Gulf of the Farallons, off the coast of mainland San Francisco, California. They lie 27 miles (43 km) outside the Golden Gate, 20 miles (32 km) south of Point Reyes. Southeast Farallon Island (SEFI) is the largest island and is the only inhabited one. The islands string north westwards for 5 miles (8 km), ending in the North Farallones. Their total area is 211 acres (854,000 m²). The islands were initially exploited for bird eggs and fur seal skins, then used as a lighthouse station and a radio station. They are currently protected in the Farallon National Wildlife Refuge, 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.
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History 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 July 24 1579, in order to collect seal meat and bird eggs for his ship. He named them the Islands of Saint James, a name that currently survives only as the name of one of the rocky islets of the North Farallones. It is likely that an earlier explorer Juan Rodriguez de Cabrillo sighted the islands before Drake did but if he did he left no record of it. The islands were given the name they still have by Sebastian Viscaino, who first charted them in 1603.
In the years following their discovery the islands were exploited by sealers, first from New England and then from Russia. The Russians maintained a sealing station of the Farallons from 1819 to 1838, decimating the island's population of fur seals (it is not known whether the Northern Fur Seal or the Guadalupe Fur Seal were the island's native fur seal, although the Northern Fur Seal is the species that has colonised the islands after they were made into a sanctuary).
After Alta California was ceded by Mexico to the U.S. in 1848 the islands became tied into the growth of the city of San Francisco. In 1853 construction began of a lighthouse 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, it even 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 pivate companies on the islands, howevere ilicit egging continued on the Farallones, undertaken by the lighthouse keepers. Egging, combined with the threat of oils from shipping in San Francisco's shipping lanes, led to Theodore Roosevelt signing 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 United States Coast Guard maintained a manned lighthouse until 1972, when it was automated. The island is currently maintained by the United States Fish and Wildlife Service, in conjunction with the Marin-based PRBO. The islands are currently the subject of long term ecological research. The islands are currently closed to the public, though birders and wildlife enthusiasts can approach them on whale watching boats.
Wildlife of the Farallon Islands
The Farallon Islands are an important reserve protecting a huge seabird colony. 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 island was protected the Common Murres, which once numbered nearly 500,000 pairs, have recovered from the egg collecting, oils splills and disturbance that so reduced their numbers, and have climbed from 6 thousand birds to 160 thousand; and the locally extinct Rhinoceros Auklet has begaun to breed on the island 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 haul out on the island and in some cases breed. These are the Northern Elephant Seal, the Harbor Seal, The Steller's Sea Lion, the California Sea Lion and the Northern Fur Seal (the last of which, like the Rhinocreos Auklet, began to return to the island again after protection). The elephant seals in turn attract a famous population of Great White Sharks to the island. The islands are in the Gulf of the Farallones National Marine Sanctuary, which protects the feeding grounds of the wildlife of the refuge.
References
White, Peter; (1995), The Farallon Islands, Sentinels of the Golden Gate, Scottwall Associates:San Francisco, ISBN 0-942087-10-0
External links
- Farallon Island National Wildlife Refuge (http://pacific.fws.gov/refuges/field/ca_farallen.htm) USFWS
- Farallon Islands (http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2005/05/15/BAG1UCPJ0C1.DTL) San Francisco Chronicle article.
Categories: Islands of California | National Wildlife Refuges in California | San Francisco, California
