photos: Oceanic Society and Chloë Green
On a clear day, it is possible to see the blurry outline of a cluster of some 20 islets rising from the line of the horizon, some 28 miles out into the Pacific Ocean, beyond San Francisco's Golden Gate Bridge.
California Biodiversity Day, September 7th, 2024 was not one of those days to start off with, but after a few hours out on the water, the approach to the Farallon Islands revealed close to ideal viewing conditions.
Nowadays, the Farallon Islands are part of a National Wildlife Refuge within the 3,295 square miles of Greater Farallones National Marine Sanctuary. The islands of mystery, otherwise known as the Galapagos of San Francisco are managed by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and are strictly off limits to the public.
As a three-decade-plus Californian, I've long-since been fascinated by the fog-shrouded lore of this iconic outpost, known, not surprisingly, to the region's first people as the Islands of the Dead. Generations of native Americans endangered their lives and/or perished in pursuit of a perilous access to its far-flung, food-rich, rocky terrain.
Elizabethan England's privateer and explorer, Sir Francis Drake is believed to have successfully moored his galleon, The Golden Hinde in order to explore the islands briefly in search of much needed replenishing of meat and eggs in 1579, during his circumnavigation of the world. Though he took the liberty of naming the craggy outpost as the "Islands of St. James", it was around a quarter of a century later, that Spanish expedition captain Friar Antonio de la Asuncion described the string of seven islands in his diary as "Farallones", Spanish for steep rock or cliff.
Today, the Farallones offer a rare study of early California.
What appear as islands are in actual fact, the higher peaks of a submerged mountain range — composed of granite bedrock, believed to originate from the southern Sierra Nevadas. It's incredible to think that this isolated, rocky outpost has been separated from the mainland for over 10,000 years.
What we see a return to in this protective era, is a globally important hotspot for marine biodiversity, especially known for breaching humpback whales, abundant seals and sea lions, a large and diverse seabird population and the hunting grounds of great white sharks.
When I spotted a post on a friend's social media linking to an all-woman expedition, a September day trip to the Farallones during whale watching season, I jumped at the chance and signed myself up, along with a couple of intrepid girlfriends, who followed suit.
The naturalist-led day trip was chartered by women's dive brand company Moon Scuba with the Ross-based Oceanic Society at the helm. The Oceanic Society has been leading trips to the Farallon Islands since 1972, exploring the beauty, biodiversity and rich history of the Islands, while providing essential information for those planning to visit the Department of Fish and Game's remarkable wildlife sanctuary.
Navigating the waters around the Farallon islands is extremely dangerous. Quick-moving currents can sweep boats onto the rocks, where the Pacific pounds them into oblivion, and during storms waves can get so big they've swallowed boats whole. Heading out with the experts was reassuring!
Photos: Frances Rivetti
Moon Scuba is a California design-forward dive brand and community. "We focus on providing gear, tools and experiences for women to facilitate connection and advocacy for our ocean," explains Co-Founder Chloë Green. "We're re-envisioning our gear, experiences and digital tools to help people engage with blue spaces, opening up access to a sport that has historically prioritized men. We're in business to inspire ocean advocacy."
As part of Moon Scuba's mission to facilitate connection with the ocean, the team hosts engaging, meaningful trips such as this all-woman tour of the Farallones, in addition to wildlife tours, snorkeling and diving at all levels. Since I've yet to take up scuba diving and these waters west of the Golden Gate Bridge are not the spot for a dip, I enjoyed the chance to get to know this adventurous and welcoming group simply by suiting up in my waterproofs for a place on the Oceanic Society's Outer Limits boat.
I must admit to having been a little nervous the night before. Would I cope with the continual motion? If the wind picked up would I have enough layers under my waterproofs to stay warm? Lots of thoughts ran through my mind in the wee hours, some more dramatic than others. We 33 women guests were instructed to take a travel sickness pill the night before so as to have it in our system and not be too drowsy at the 8.30 am start of the trip. Although I didn't sleep much that night, Dramamine original worked well for me once on board. And as far as I could tell, we all appeared to fare remarkably well.
We'd met up at the harbor in San Francisco's Marina, where veteran Oceanic Society expedition naturalists gave us the run-down on where we were headed and what we could hope to see. Fellow British American and long-time San Franciscan, Peter Winch was not at all intimidated by this eclectic company of animated women and proved a treasure trove of knowledge and enthusiasm for all things oceanic throughout our voyage through the Golden Gate.
Morning fog lifted after the first few hours. It was super atmospheric voyaging beneath the fog-shrouded Golden Gate Bridge.
Our naturalists hoped it would be a decent day for sightings. Nobody, however, naturalists included, had any expectation of the remarkable experience that was awaiting us. Before we even arrived at the Farallones and still in the plankton-rich waters before the drop off to deep ocean, more than a dozen breaching humpback whales delighted everyone on board with an awe-inspiring display of aquatic gymnastics. And on our way back, even more, up to 15 or so whales at a time created what felt to me like the ultimate in wildlife theater, in a 360 degree spectacle of beauty, grace and playfulness.
I wondered whether the whales were drawn to the female energy of our expedition! I'd like to think so.
This is what we saw:
50 Humpback Whales
Hundreds of California Sea Lions
Juvenile Mola Molas (Sunfish)
Common Porpoises
Harbor Seals
Steller Sea Lions
Earless Seals
Tufted Puffins
Rhinoceros Auklets
Black Oyster Catchers
Black-footed Albatross
Brown Pelicans
Brandt's Cormorants
Pelagic Cormorants
Sooty Shearwaters
Pink-Footed Shearwaters
Red-Necked Phalaropes
Common Murres
Cassin's Auklets
Ochre Sea Stars
Bull Kelp
Jellyfish
Our approach to the islands co-oincided with lunch time, delicious sandwiches and salads enjoyed on still waters.
A definitive hush fell over us as we cruised around the islands. Nobody much fancied the idea of being marooned. Peter explained how even walking on the islands is dangerous given slippy conditions and holes in the rock. He described the Farallones in spring as being coated in green and extremely noisy, as a cacophony of seabirds nest and raise their young.
I learned that the great white shark cruises the islands on the hunt for juvenile elephant seals returning to the rocks with their mothers. Apparently the juveniles have a high fat content and are top of the oceanic menu for sharks. That made me sad, despite the laws of nature, given the level of protection of elephant seals during birthing season in the early months of the year out at Point Reyes National Seashore.
The following quote from an account written by Zackhar Chichinoff, a Russian living on the main island in the 1820s, captures the extreme conditions of this remote region.
"A schooner took us down to the islands but we had to cruise around for over a week before we could make a landing. We had a few planks with us and some canvas, and with that we built huts for shelter. The water was very bad also, being taken from hollow places in the rocks where it stood all the year round. We had no fire-arms, the sea lions were killed with clubs or spears. Scurvy broke out among us and in a short time all were sick except myself. All the next winter we passed there in great misery and when the spring came the men were too weak to kill sea-lions, and all we could do was to crawl around the cliffs and gather some sea birds’ eggs and suck them raw."
Despite the extraordinary miserable living conditions and basic weaponry, settlers killed an estimated 200,000 fur seals on the Farallons in a few, short and bloody years.
According to KQED's Bay Curious reporting: "By 1834 the fur seal population was decimated. The animals that survived abandoned the island. It would be 140 years before they were seen on the island again; in the 1970s, a few fur seals started to return to the island. The first pup was spotted in 1996, and since then the population has continued to grow. In 2019, Point Blue Conservation Science reported that about 2,000 pups are born on the island each year."
By the time of the Gold Rush, food scarcity prompted the more daring of San Francisco's Barbary Coast to venture out to the Farallones in search of supplies. What they discovered were eggs, the Farallon Islands being the largest seabird nesting colony south of Alaska.
Author Mildred Hoover wrote a book about the islands, published by Stanford University Press in 1932. In it, she described: "There was one essential item in the equipment of the workers – a loose fitting jacket with capacious pockets inside the front. At a given signal, the day’s operations began: every man started on the run for a favored spot among the nests. … When the loose-fronted jackets were full of eggs the men descended the slippery rocks with care to deposit their booty in hidden baskets – hidden because of the Gulls. Accidents were not unknown and to fall while wearing a coat full of eggs delayed the worker at least long enough to wash out the pockets with cold sea water."
It was estimated that by the 1950s, half a million eggs were being pilfered from the wild each year. Bird populations suffered. The federal government eventually ruled all commercial eggers off the islands.
According to the Bay Curious report, there are as many as 400 ship and airplane wrecks in the depths of the Greater Farallones sanctuary. (Many airplanes flying low beneath the fog belt having run into the islands’ rocky peaks.)
A lighthouse was built at the top of Southeast Farallon Island in 1855 as was one of the first on the West Coast. Four lighthouse keepers and their families somehow lived simultaneously on the island in two Victorian duplexes in order to keep the light in operation. At one point their were nine men, five women and five children in residence. It must've been like serving a dangerous, isolated and monotonous prison sentence. U.S. Coast Guard took over the lighthouse in 1939 and it operated until 1972. The houses remain and are used by scientists and wildlife biologists today.
It took until the 1970s before a small population of fur seals returned to islands. The first pup was spotted in 1996, and scientists now estimate around 2,000 pups being born on the highly protected island each year.
An intrepid seven-hour ocean journey out to the Farallons and back to San Francisco may not be for everyone. I was extremely fortunate to pick a good-weather day with an unexpected abundance of whale and wildlife sightings. My only regret is that I didn't take a camera with a good zoom. Cell phone cameras did not do our sightings justice. It was hard to balance while trying to take snapshots. I'm grateful to Moon Scuba and the Oceanic Society for the great photos at the top of the post and for an unforgettable adventure.
Here's a terrific video from KQED to take you there without the boat ride!
Click here to learn more about California Biodiversity Day.
Frances Rivetti is a British Americaan freelancw writer based in Petaluma, Sonoma County. She is the author of four books: Fog Valley Crush, Love at First Bite, At Home in the California Farmstead Frontier; Fog Valley Winter, Pionner Heritage, Backroad Rambles and Pioneer Recipes; Big Green Country and The House on Liberty Street. She is at work on her third novel, Floating in the Middle, which is set against the coastal erosion backdrop of Sonoma Coast. Follow her on social media on
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