Hi everyone and welcome to NOAA's Greater Farallones National Marine
Sanctuary off of San Francisco.
I'm, Sara Heintzelman and today I'm joined by Carol Preston and MaryJane Schramm.
The three of us will be your naturalists for your adventure into
Greater Farallones National Marine Sanctuary today.
You're joining us as part of the annual Get Into Your Sanctuary celebration.
All 14 marine protected areas in the National Marine Sanctuary System
are offering programs all weekend long.
The majority of waters in the National Marine Sanctuary System are open for recreation,
and this weekend you can explore all the many ways for you to enjoy your
national marine sanctuaries.
Tune in throughout the weekend for all sorts of different ocean adventures.
Today you'll be joining us to explore the ocean wilderness of
Greater Farallones National Marine Sanctuary.
We will be starting our journey by departing from San Francisco's Marina Green.
We'll head out underneath the Golden Gate and through the waters of
Greater Farallones National Marine Sanctuary to the Farallon Islands
and beyond out to the continental shelf.
We'll be searching for a wildlife along the way and learning
about maritime heritage and the research taking place in our sanctuary.
You can skip the Dramamine today, but do keep your eyes peeled for wildlife.
We never know when you might see a whale spout,
a seabird, or some other exciting sighting
If you have questions during our program,
please feel free to type them in the chat and we'll do our best to answer them as we go.
Enjoy your adventure today.
- Welcome aboard the Salty Lady. I'm so happy that you can join us today.
I wanted you to just take note of that little white dot on the map there in the marina.
That's our locator dot and that will follow us through our journey today.
So the Salty Lady belongs to the Oceanic Society,
and they're going to be our host today as we head out to the islands,
and I'd like to introduce you to Chris Biertuempfel of
the Oceanic Society.
- [Chris] Hi, my name is Chris Biertuempfel with Oceanic Society. Since 1972,
oceanic has set the standards for respectful exciting and educational
marine ecotourism both in the United States and abroad.
As a conservation nonprofit, our wildlife cruises are not just great adventures,
but they foster deeper appreciation for the ocean with all of our passengers.
Our naturalists are knowledgeable educators biologists and scientists
whose field experiences offer fascinating insights into all the trips and wildlife we see.
Thank you for joining us and please enjoy your trip.
- Thanks, Chris,
and as we head out towards the Golden Gate will actually pass
our sanctuary offices on the left-hand side.
And this is where we work to
protect the sanctuary waters through research,
education, conservation, and stewardship programs.
We're actually a part of a bigger system of national marine sanctuaries.
There are 14 of them plus two monuments and we'll kind of take a little quick tour
starting in Thunder Bay up there by the Great Lakes. There's some freshwater
sanctuaries that preserve our maritime heritage shipwrecks.
And then we'll head down the east coast around the Florida Keys.
There's lots of beautiful corals in that region.
We'll head out to American Samoa, one of my favorite sanctuaries,
and then up to the Hawaiian Islands and over to
Papahānaumokuākea national monuments and over to Olympic Coast
and then we'll head down to...You'll notice that there's four
sanctuaries right here in California on top of each other and that's
because this is really truly one of the richest areas in the world,
in the ocean and so it needs that much protection.
Let's go close in and see Greater Farallones where we'll be exploring today.
So the Greater Farallones protects about 3,295 square miles of ocean,
and that's about the same size as Yellowstone National Park.
- Okay, as we cruise under the iconic Golden Gate Bridge
our adventure has already begun.
The Pacific tide surges through this one-mile narrow strait
where it collides with the powerful outflowing
Sacramento and San Joaquin Rivers.
This massive movement of waters has gouged out deep trenches at the gate,
depositing rippled sand fields and treacherous shoals
just beyond it.
Currents here can reach a swift seven knots or roughly eight miles per hour
making navigation tricky.
But this dynamic also concentrates shoals of fish here,
creating great foraging for porpoises, sea lions,
and sometimes even humpback whales.
- So the Golden Gate is a great habitat for lots of wildlife
because of all those currents that
MJ just described and all the fish that get caught up in the whirlpools in that area.
We see lots of harbor porpoises there. I always can recognize them by
their dorsal fin on their back, it looks like a little, Hershey kiss.
And they're out chasing all that fish and
it's really great to see them back here in this region in the bay
because during World War Two, when we were protecting our port,
we put some nets across the bay and they took off.
And they returned though in 2008.
So it's really a great spot to watch for them.
And the Marine Mammal Center has actually been researching
them since their return, and they use the Golden Gate Bridge
as their observation site. And you can see their study area below.
- Great, and as we head out a little past the Golden Gate Bridge,
if you look to your right, you can see the Marin Headlands.
and the structure that you see is the historic Point Bonita lighthouse.
It was built in 1855 to guide boats through the treacherous Golden Gate straits.
Despite lighthouses all along our coast,
there are over 400 known shipwrecks in
Greater Farallones National Marine Sanctuary,
and we have a very rich maritime heritage.
If you take a closer look among the rocks below the lighthouse,
you might spot some of these guys- the black oyster catchers.
These birds will forage along the rocks looking for food to eat.
And if you keep your eyes peeled, you might even spot a harbor seal,
sneaking a peek at us.
Did you just feel that bump? We just passed over the famous San Andreas fault.
This is where the North American and Pacific tectonic plates meet.
The Pacific plate is very slowly creeping north, at a rate of about two inches per year.
And in the very, very distant future
LA will actually be San Francisco's offshore neighbor.
- As we move forward look for flocks of birds.
That's always a good indication that
something's happening below the surface of water.
Maybe a huge school of fish is there.
Oh and you can see that big humpback surfacing,
coming up and I think over on Sara's side of the boat. We can see some more.
- Yeah, and ^to communicate humpbacks will sing and slap the water
as you can see this humpback doing right now with its long, long fins.
^The patterns on the underside of their tails
^make it possible to identify individual whales, just like a human fingerprint.
^With one of the longest migrations of any animal,
^humpback whales travel through many of our national marine sanctuaries
^These special places give whales the safe spaces they need
^to feed and raise their young.
- Well, it looks like we captured some great photos today.
Notice that humpback breech you can see on the front of them those pleats.
Those actually can expand when they swallow
a whole school of fish.
And check out their long pectoral fins.
They use those to steer as they go through the ocean,
as well as corral fish and actually communicate.
So humpbacks really are highly intelligent,
social animals that we're just beginning
to understand more about their complex
language, the sounds that they make,
and the physical movements that they make.
- All right, we're now coming to the spot where in 1953,
the freighter SS Jacob Luckenbach
collided with its sister ship, the Hawaiian Pilot,
and sank 17 miles off San Francisco.
Thankfully, no lives were lost.
But decades later mystery oil spills during severe winter storms
were killing thousands of seabirds and marine mammals.
Farallones Beach Watch volunteers collected evidence
tracing these leaks to the Luckenbach shipwreck.
In 19, sorry, in 2002 a multi-agency effort
removed 100,000 gallons of fuel from the Luckenbach,
and the leaks dropped dramatically.
Successfully preventing many more wildlife casualties.
This sonar image sweeps from the Luckenbach's bow,
past the wheelhouse.
Revealing the split between the stern and the main hull.
- Oh, look, there's the Huli Cat!
That's a sport fishing boat.
It might be fun for us, I don't know if we can do this Sara,
to radio over to captain Tom Mattusch.
- Yeah. Hey Tom.
Do you think you could tell us a little bit more
what you do on the Huli Cat?
- Hello, I'm Tom Mattusch with Huli Cat Sportfishing
We offer the best possible fishing adventure to our clients,
with a crew trained in responsible fishing practices,
who are always there to help.
Salmon, rockfish, dungeness crab,
albacore, research trips, we do it all and we do it right.
As a harbor commissioner, I promote sustainability
and as part of the dungeness crab task force
whale entanglement group,
to help prevent whale entanglement in crab gear.
Count on us for a great day at sea.
- Going fishing is always a great way to experience
the sanctuary.
It looks like they got some great catches today.
Rockfish and even a salmon.
Ooh and there's a common murre.
Actually, they're not that common,
you have to go offshore to see the common murres.
Beautiful bird, they look a little bit like a penguin.
They actually nest on the Farallon Islands
right on the rock and they have one chick.
And the female, the mom, actually after having laid
this big beautiful egg and fed the chick for a week,
she actually takes off.
She's exhausted.
And it's the dad that takes care of the chick.
And when the chick gets to be about as big
as the one that you can see flapping there,
little, little guy before they can even fly,
kind of bounce down those rocky ledges
to follow their dad into the water where they spend,
actually right now you can watch this, July through August
what the dad actually teaches the chick how to fish
and hunt. And it's really an amazing sight.
Oh, and there's the Kitty Kat.
So, this is another whale watching boat
that you can take out to the Farallon Islands,
some other day on a journey.
And they're operated by the San Francisco Whale Tours.
You know, in San Francisco
we're lucky because we can always be super savvy consumers
in that we have many, or several,
companies to choose from that really respect
wildlife when they take us out on those journeys.
- Now here's another kind of seabird, a tufted puffin.
Puffins have huge bright orange bills only in breeding season
and a long feathery plumes that adorn their heads.
Their beaks can hold up to 20 small fish crosswise,
mostly anchovies, sardines, and squids.
They fly underwater like dive bombers
chasing their prey to depths of over 200 feet.
Now currently about 120 puffins call the Farallones home.
Nesting deep inside the tunnels and crevices
in these islands' rocky slopes.
Hey Sara, what's that?
It looks like a fin flapping at the surface on a flat round body,
like a seagoing frisbee?
- MJ. I think you just spotted one of my
favorite things to see out here.
That looks like you've found an ocean sunfish,
or a mola mola.
Let's see if we can take a closer look.
So, meet the mola mola.
These very unusual fish are one of my favorite things to spot out here.
They are so strange looking and really fascinating.
^Mola mola are also known as ocean sunfish
for their habit of lying flat on the surface of the ocean
in order to warm themselves in the sun.
A pelagic fish, they can grow up to
5,000 pounds, heavier than a typical SUV.
^These bony fish are sometimes seen schooling,
but as they get larger, they often become more solitary.
What a great sighting today.
- Ohh, it looks like we arrived at the Farallon Islands!
One of the most exclusive neighborhoods in San Francisco.
Note, there's just two houses on the island,
and only eight researchers can spend the night at any one time.
At the top up there, in 1853 is when the lighthouse was built,
and those houses were also built shortly thereafter
to house the lighthouse keepers families.
And as we move around the island,
we can see some different views.
And whoa, look at that, nice. That is the Great Arch Rock.
Oh, and this is a map of the Farallon Islands
that we kind of want to show you get you oriented.
We are going to go up on the islands today,
and we will go by East Landing right there.
And, just to give yourself the bearings.
There's the lighthouse,
and, there's actually two islands here in this one spot.
There's the main Southeast Farallon Island,
and the West End Island.
And they are divided by the Jordan Channel, in the middle
Hey, here we are at the East Landing and you know,
back when MJ, and I, and Sara got off onto the islands,
we went out on the Fulmar.
That's that silver boat.
The research boat for the sanctuary.
And we were picked up by that orange zodiac,
that brought us over to the billy pugh
and then we climbed on to that, and then you really like,
hang on, and you go up to the islands.
And you land, it brings you up,
and you land at East Landing.
You know now, though,
they usually you go up in the zodiac nowadays.
So, and then once you're on the islands themselves,
you're no longer in the sanctuary.
We only go up to the mean high tide.
So we protect the waters around the islands,
but the Farallon National Wildlife Refuge protects the land.
And that's managed by the US Fish and Wildlife Service.
And, there's also another organization
that's been working out here
for the last 50 years or more, a little bit more.
And that's the Point Blue Conservation Science.
And they study elephant seals, and fur seals,
and white sharks, and the seabirds,
and some land birds as well.
And my favorite of all is they study a salamander and
a cricket that only live on these islands,
and nowhere else in the world.
Okay, now I want to introduce you to
Ryan, who is actually a former
Point Blue Conservation biologist
and he'll tell us a little bit about the pinniped research
out there that he did. And his name is Ryan Berger.
- The pace of life out here slows down quite a bit.
We're examining things so closely,
and you just, you start to understand the animals.
And that's kind of neat, when you get that
involved with the study species
because you feel like you've become a part of,
you know, their world.
Pinnipeds which are seals and sea lions,
they are top marine predators.
They're a reliable source to
indicating the health of an ecosystem.
With respect to climate change,
this is where the value of long-term data sets comes in.
You know, the island has been impacted quite a bit
from climate change.
We've seen sea level rise is a part of this whole
increasing the intensity and frequency of large storm events.
We have had a lot of sand erosion,
washing away huge access areas,
and the beaches themselves.
And our elephant seal populations declined as a result.
We've been collecting sea surface temperature
with that long-term weather data-set over time
and we've seen increases in recording some the highest
sea-surface temperatures that we've ever got.
This is such a complicated ecosystem. Right?
We don't know that much about our oceans
- Wow, he had such an interesting work.
Also, we do study lots of seabirds out on the islands.
And their work usually starts pre-dawn to dark.
And it involves mist netting,
banding,
recording,
and measuring.
And really just overall checks of how healthy
the birds are at the islands.
And this is a really cool bird that you often don't get to see
too much during the day. They're mostly nocturnal.
And this is the rhinoceros auklet.
And you can see on the left there,
one in full breeding attire.
Awesome looking, huh.
They have that orange beak with the horn,
and that's where they got their name from.
And that horn actually glows a blue-green in the dark.
They are terrific divers and hunters for fish.
And sometimes at the islands, we get these fun surprises.
So this is a seabird from the Atlantic,
and it's been on the island since 2012
and has never left. It's a northern gannet.
There are six species of pinnipeds that live around
the Farallon Islands in the sanctuary waters.
And we're going to meet some that haul out onto the islands,
and some that breed.
So this elephant seal does not actually have a cold,
that white fluffy stuff by the nose is actually a good sign.
It indicates that the
seal is healthy and well hydrated.
And this is a northern fur seal.
That actually wasn't on the islands for almost 100,
150 years actually.
But then it came back in the, we saw traces of it and then in
1996 the first pup was born.
And now every summer there are about
2,000 pups born.
And this is the California sea lion that we heard
this morning when we left from the Marina Green.
We heard them barking.
And the way you can tell a sea lion from a seal is
you can see their little ear flaps there.
And this is a stellar sea lion.
You can see they are a true sea lion,
and that they also have ear flaps.
And that male in the middle
there, kind of the big one, is the bull.
And they actually roar.
And they actually have like a mane like a real "sea" lion.
The sanctuary actually comes out, sanctuary staff,
come out to the islands twice a year.
And we've been doing that for the last 20 years
to monitor the intertidal area.
And this particular monitoring site is one of my favorites.
You can see it's got lots of life in that beautiful pool,
and mussels, and lots of algae.
And you can notice those randomly placed quadrats,
that's where we actually count how many invertebrates
are inside.
And we can analyze our data
and assess long-term changes.
And also in these islands,
I just want to let you know it is just so beautiful.
And the diversity of life is amazing.
This is a hydroid.
And the colors are really vibrant in the tidepools.
Check out the purple urchins, the orange sponges,
the pink coralline algae.
And there's little anemones in between.
And this giant green anemone is not a flower.
It's actually an invertebrate,
and they can live to be over 150 years old.
And we sometimes monitor this one,
most of our monitoring actually happens
on the Southeast Farallon Island.
But we sometimes go over to the West End,
and I just wanted to show you how we get
over to that side of the islands.
So this is the zipline that we take across
you get in a harness and you push off the cliff,
and you arrive on the other side.
And this is Taylor and she makes it look so easy.
I know the first time I did this I pushed so hard.
I kind of crashed into the other side.
And as we leave the islands, the water just below
is really full of life.
And just wanted to give you a glimpse of that.
There's just life on top of life.
Fish, colorful fish, like this beautiful greenling
in the photo here.
And we can also look for Pacif,
sometimes, you get to see the giant Pacific octopus.
Which is the largest octopus in the world.
And the longest lived, although it doesn't live more than
a few, a couple, a few years.
And out a little further, are shallow banks
that are just covered in beautiful corals and sponges.
So the beauty beneath the sea is really quite extraordinary.
And now just for a moment, I wanted everyone to take
a deep breath,
and focus.
Because I want you really to think about this.
Here at the Farallon Islands,
which is a neighborhood within the city limits of San Francisco.
Is one of the most significant populations
of white sharks in the world.
And the females, they swim thousands of miles here,
every other year.
And they have, they come back to the exact same
territory that they've marked.
And they can live to be about
70 years old, and they start breeding at 33.
- Alright now we've gone past the Farallon Islands,
and at about 30 miles offshore,
we're at the edge of the continental shelf
at the Farallon Escarpment.
Here the seafloor plunges down a steep slope
to over 6,500 foot depths.
Together the south flowing California Current,
the Earth's rotation, and springtime winds,
force cold nutrient-rich waters
up against the escarpment to the surface.
This is called upwelling.
And here sunlight triggers photosynthesis in tiny sea plants,
called phytoplankton and the food web goes into overdrive,
bursting with life.
This super abundance of food attracts huge herds
of dolphins, sperm whales
fur seals and the largest animals on earth,
the fin and the blue whales.
Now look ahead, flying low across the waves toward us
is the black-footed albatross.
Its leg tag tells us this albatross has flown thousands of miles
from the Northwest Hawaiian Islands
to forage here in our sanctuary
for squid, fish eggs, and crustaceans
to bring back to its chick on the nest... in Hawaii!
July and August are peak season for hungry chicks,
so that keeps this parent busy.
Scientists have tracked these albatross flying
more than 6,000 miles roundtrip in just a few weeks.
With dynamic soaring, they half sleep on the wing
and cruise at over 80 miles per hour.
Now, we end our adventure with the largest creature ever to live
on earth, the mighty blue whale.
After past intensive hunting, they are still endangered
but our sanctuaries are working hard to protect them
from modern-day threats.
The blue whale's near exclusive food is these tiny shrimp-like krill.
And here, they can eat up to four tons of it per whale, per day.
In fact, last June
47 blue whales gathered near this spot where we are
for a seafood feast.
A great indicator of how productive our sanctuary can be.
And it's a rare place on earth that can support several
apex predators, such as the blue whale and the white shark.
This is why Greater Farallones National Marine Sanctuary exists.
And this is why we work so hard to keep protecting it.
Thank you so much for joining us for our adventure today.
This is the time on a, on a cruise out to the Farallon Islands
where most people take a nap.
After a day of being in the sun, on the waves,
and in the salt air.
We hope that you can reflect on all that you saw today
as we head back to port.
Our sanctuaries are fragile areas of great importance,
and need your protection.
The decisions that you make when you shop, travel,
and vote help protect our sanctuaries
and these very, very special places
in the ocean and the Great Lakes.
You can learn more about Greater Farallones
National Marine Sanctuary at farallones.noaa.gov
I'd like to extend a special thank you to all
of our partners who helped make today's
program possible.
Greater Farallones Association, Huli Cat Sport Fishing
Oceanic Society, Point Blue Conservation,
The Marine Mammal Center, and San Francisco Whale Tours.
Who provided us with video, pictures, and for supporting
Greater Farallones National Marine Sanctuary.
While Get Into Your Sanctuary is virtual this year,
the sanctuary waters are open.
Just please follow your local guidelines
and regulations before visiting.
If you're participating in the park passport badge program,
you just earned a National Marine Sanctuary badge!
You can check out the chat for more information
on this virtual passport program.
We'd also invite you to share your photos in our
annual Get Into Your Sanctuary photo contest,
which is open through Labor Day weekend.
And there's also information in the chat
so you can see just how to do that.
Please join us at the top of the hour for the next
Get Into Your Sanctuary Adventure.
Thank you so much for exploring Greater Farallones
National Marine Sanctuary with us today,
and we hope you enjoyed your adventure.