October 2018 marked 25 years of data collection through the Beach Watch project. Beach Watch is the National Ocean Service flagship citizen-science program, which documents live and dead birds and mammals, human activities and oil pollution along our coast. With sanctuary biologists, over 150 specially trained volunteer surveyors, monitor sanctuary beaches every two weeks. Watch this award winning video to learn more (16th Annual San Francisco International Ocean Film Festival, 2019 Citizen Science Award).
Video by Bob Talbot about the Greater Farallones National Marine Sanctuary
On March 13, 1920, a gale struck to the north of the San Francisco Lightship station. Heading from San Francisco to Reedsport, Oregon, one vessel -- the 34-year-old Ituna -- was caught in the storm. As the sea raged, Ituna's seams split and the forward hold flooded, plunging the ship bow-first to the bottom of the ocean. It took only 10 minutes for the ship to sink. Twelve of the 14 crew members escaped, struggling for hours to keep their lifeboat afloat on the harrowing trip to the San Francisco Lightship. Two crew members, trapped in their bunks, went down with the ship. View this video as the crew aboard the E/V Nautilus revists the site of the wreck.
When you think of the might and power of the U.S. Navy, the first thing that comes to mind is not likely to be a tugboat. More likely, you picture a formidable aircraft carrier or a well-armed battleship, operated by hundreds and often thousands of sailors. A tug is an afterthought, if it's a thought at all. So why is the USS Conestoga -- a Navy fleet tug -- so important?
The Fisherman in the Classroom program invites commercial fishermen from Greater Farallones National Marine Sanctuary into the classroom to help students understand how they are connected to the ocean. Watch our video to learn more!
This video reveals the offshore rocky reefs of the sanctuary: Rittenburg Bank, Cochrane Bank and the Farallon Escarpment.
We joined the Tagging of Pelagic Predators (TOPP) team as they conducted research on white sharks in Greater Farallones National Marine Sanctuary off the coast of California.
Zooplankton like krill may be small, but they are mighty! Because so many marine animals depend on these tiny animals for food, their size and abundance can tell researchers a lot about how healthy an ecosystem is. When there's lots of krill, there also tends to be plenty of seabirds and marine mammals around. Sanctuary researchers work with ACCESS Partnership to survey the zooplankton in the sanctuary -- check out our video to learn more!
Highly detailed maps of topography and substrate type for Rittenburg Bank, Farallon Escarpment and an unnamed bank are now revealed for the first time.
Preliminary video from the first several days of the research cruise onboard the R/V FULMAR to Rittenburg Bank, Cochrane Bank, and Farallon Escarpment.
When astronauts first launched toward the moon and looked back at our planet for the first time, they made an unexpected discovery: Earth is Blue. We will be sharing a photo each day and a video each week highlighting the wonder and beauty of these special places and the work we do to protect them.
Join us as we explore America's national marine sanctuaries and share your own images of our national marine sanctuaries using the hashtag #EarthIsBlue.
Maps of the Greater Farallones National Marine Sanctuary.
Greater Farallones National Marine Sanctuary