Farallon Institute Newsletter - Spring 2022

Around The [Home] Office

This spring, post-doctoral researcher Caitie Kroeger fledged Farallon Institute to her next research opportunity. We are sad to see her go, proud of her accomplishments while working at Farallon Institute, and excited for her in her new position as a post-doctoral researcher at the San Jose State University Research Foundation at Moss Landing Marine Labs. Caitie’s new project involves integrating emperor penguin behavioral data with environmental data to model and identify important foraging habitats in the Ross Sea of Antarctica. She’ll also be co-teaching a graduate seminar on biologging technology in wildlife biology. While at FI, Caitie produced two manuscripts from her projects and we very much enjoyed and appreciated her involvement in our group.

State of the Ocean — Central-Northern California

Our coast is starting this year in normal conditions, which is not a bad thing at all, particularly following a year with strong upwelling. This combination is good for our marine ecosystem, especially after the warm years we experienced during the marine heatwave and El Niño. Last year began with La Niña conditions, which brought cool water and strong upwelling winds. In the summer, winds came back to normal strength, allowing the coastal water to warm up quickly. Despite a short-lived offshore marine heatwave in the summer (see the marine heatwave tracker), and some warming periods in the southern and northern parts of the California Current, the central California Current (central and northern California coasts) remained at normal temperatures, thanks to the cooling effect of strong coastal upwelling. Now, the effects of La Niña might be wearing off and a large area of warm water is looming in the Northeast Pacific, so a change from the current “normal” conditions seems likely.

Whales and San Francisco Bay shipping lanes

California’s coastal ocean provides habitat and seasonal feeding grounds for a number of large whales. Blue, fin, and humpback whales — all federally listed threatened and endangered species — are known to concentrate and feed off the west coast of the United States in the spring, summer, and fall. Whales share California’s coastal waters with many large shipping vessels, the majority of which travel through the region as they transit to and from the ports of Los Angeles, Long Beach, and Oakland, which together were responsible for roughly 35% of the nation’s market share of imports in 2020. In northern California, there are three approaches into San Francisco Bay (northern, western, and southern), all of which overlap with prime whale habitat in the Gulf of the Farallones and traverse through designated National Marine Sanctuaries.   

Ship strikes of whales are a threat to whales globally. In California, there were 70 recorded incidents of ship strikes on large whales (including grays and minkes) and 49 on threatened and endangered species of large whales from 2007–2020. Researchers estimate that these observed and reported incidents represent a small percentage of the total number of ship strikes that occur since most incidents with large vessels go unnoticed and most whales sink after death.

For this reason, the Greater Farallones and Cordell Bank National Marine Sanctuaries formed a joint working group in 2021 to explore ways to reduce the risk of ship strikes to whales in the sanctuaries by 50%. The working group was co-chaired by Farallon Institute scientist and Executive Director, Dr. Jeffrey Dorman, and included members associated with shipping/maritime industry, commercial fishing, research, and conservation communities. The working group gathered feedback from their respective communities, met with members of the regulatory and government agencies (United States Coast Guard, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration), and made recommendations regarding the speed of ships in the sanctuaries and the locations of shipping lanes in respect to whale habitat. These efforts, intended to reduce collisions between whales and ships, represent an ideal productive collaboration of a variety of stakeholders. 

You can read the group’s final report here.

Alcatraz Island history

Farallon Institute’s monitoring work of Brandt’s cormorants and western gulls on Alcatraz Island is entering its 28th year. Alcatraz is the location of one of the most unique seabird colonies in the world due to its proximity to a major city and notable history, and the resulting thriving tourism industry. Use of the island has changed a lot over the years and its history extends beyond the infamous criminals once housed there. There weren’t always buildings on the island and the number of visitors was historically much smaller than the millions that come today. Information about Alcatraz prior to European colonization is scarce, but Alcatraz figured in various aspects of Indigenous peoples’ life and remains a prominent symbol in Native American Culture today. 

The land around the San Francisco Bay has been inhabited by people for over 10,000 years and Alcatraz falls between the territories of two nations: the Coast Miwok to the north and the Ohlone people to the south and east. Both the Ohlone and Coast Miwok comprised many independent societal groups with unique languages and values; the names Ohlone and Coast Miwok refer to language similarities of the region. Alcatraz is closest to the homelands of the Yelamu people of the Ohlone language group who inhabited what is now San Francisco. 

The islands in the Bay were reached using boats that resembled a shallow canoe made from tule, a buoyant native bulrush. Shell middens (deposits associated with human settlements) on nearby Angel Island indicate it was inhabited seasonally, however, there is no archaeological evidence of consistent habitation on Alcatraz. This may be because it’s smaller, lacks fresh water, and is surrounded by more treacherous seas. The limited oral history about Alcatraz indicates it was believed to be inhabited by evil spirits. In spite of, or perhaps because of these evil spirits, Alcatraz was used as a place of isolation and banishment for those found in violation of tribal laws. The island may have also been periodically visited for collection of sea life and bird eggs.  

With Spanish colonization came changes in Native American use of the island. During the early 1800s, many Ohlone fled to Alcatraz to attempt escape from the mission system. When a military prison was established on the island in the late 1800s, prisoners sent there included Native Americans convicted of mutiny or resisting forced indoctrination. When the federal penitentiary (1934 to 1963) was shuttered, Alcatraz became surplus federal lands. The US government did not uphold an 1868 treaty stating all such lands would be open to ownership claims by some Native American Tribes; with this action, Alcatraz became a rallying spot for Native Americans across the country.  

Five members of the Sioux Nation led an on-island protest in 1964, asking for the return of Alcatraz to tribal hands and the establishment of a cultural center and museum on the island. A second occupation led by Richard Oakes of the Mohawk Nation in 1969 was intended as a symbolic gesture, with proposition of similar restitutions. This movement gained wide recognition and soon became a full-scale occupation by many Native American tribes, leading to the formation of the group Indians of All Tribes. Despite strong public support, their requests were never realized and the occupation ended after 19 months.  

In 1972 the island was placed under the jurisdiction of the National Park Service (NPS). The NPS currently strives to maintain all traditional, ecological, and cultural history of the island and supports an annual celebration of Native American culture on the island.

Sources and additional information:

• Randall Millikin, Ethnohistory and Ethnography of the Coast Miwok and their Neighbors, 1783-1840, National Park Service, Technical Paper, 2009, ii

• https://www.nps.gov/goga/learn/historyculture/ohlones-and-coast-miwoks.htm

• https://www.nps.gov/alca/learn/historyculture/we-hold-the-rock.htm

• https://www.nps.gov/articles/000/redpower50.htm