A trip to the Farallones

 

On Saturday, Carlos, Ellen and I boarded a boat to the Farallones for a sanctuary exploration trip.  The idea was to view marine mammals and birds, and to learn a little about the marine sanctuary.  It's an all day trip, so I packed enough food and medical supplies to deal with the hours away from land.  I even had on my good Lands End storm coat. 

The day was the coldest day we'd had in a while.  Temps were running about 20-30 degrees colder than previous days, and of course being in San Francisco it was also damp.  With the king tides going out and the winds on top of the normal seas in the area, people were huddled in the back of the boat puking pretty quick. 

The miserable conditions were interrupted by a sighting of a really active humpback, which we stuck with for a little while. People came back to life with every pectoral slap, breach, and peduncle throw.

The water in that region was only about 50 feet deep, which meant the whale's head was pretty close to the bottom during these maneuvers.   During this time we also were seeing several other whales in the distance, apparently feeding in the shallow waters out by Point Reyes. By the time we'd completed the trip, there had been thirty some odd whales spotted (I believe the number was 37!) 

For me the fun started pretty immediately outside the Golden Gate Bridge, when I spotted a few lone harbor porpoises.  I have no photos.  They were up, down, and gone before I could get the camera on them, but none the less, it was a good sighting for me because I'd never seen a harbor porpoise in the wild before.

By the time we'd gotten to the Farallones, my body had begun to shut down. The physical stress and excitement of the trip had me shaking violently, although I was not cold, nor was I terribly sea sick. (I do admit I had some queasy times in the rougher seas!) I was glad when the boat got to the calmer waters around the island, I downed a protien bar and some water, and was ready to be overwhelmed with the beauty of the islands.

I had expected birds. I had expected pinnipeds, I had not expected the sheer NUMBERS of animals on these little rocky outcroppings in the sea.

I know it's difficult to see at this size, but all those black/white dots are BIRDS.  They are the Common Murre, which nest here, and there is a whole history about these birds, their importance to the people who came to CA for the gold rush, how they nearly became extinct, and why the islands are a sanctuary.  I could do a post about that alone... but I'm here today for all the animals, and this post would get way too long if I posted all the conservation history for all of them!

Anyway...

My next big bucket list item was seeing a puffin in the wild.  I have really mixed feelings about this one, because yes, I saw a puffin, but it was a black dot in the distance and I'd have been hard pressed to identify it if it hadn't been pointed out by the naturalist.   Here's his photo:

photo credit:  Oceanic Society

There were so many kinds of birds on the islands and in the oceans surrounding them, I had no idea. I was in awe.  And I don't hope to recount all the species here.  Birding is my weak spot, but that doesn't mean I don't appreciate the diversity of birds!

and of course there were the pinnipeds!  in some areas they were so dense it was difficult to tell one animal from another.  There were California sea lions (of course!) but there were also Stellar sea lions, a few northern elephant seals, and the ones that surprised me: fur seals!

Now because of the conservation history of fur seals, I didn't expect to see one, because I'd assumed there would only be a half dozen or so living in the area.  I know that occasionally a fur seal comes in at the Marine Mammal Center as a rescue, and I know a pup washed up on the beach not far from me earlier this year, but I didn't expect THIS:

And the ocean in front of these rocks as well as near the boat were filled with curious fur seals that came up to see what was going on with the boat.

These are just a few of the highlights of the day for me, but I'll add some of the other photos of the island and the trip that really made this one of the most spectacular trips I've been on, and one that despite the harsh conditions on the trip out, made it an overwhelmingly positive experience for me.