FogHorn April 23 Meeting

The mission of the Fish and Wildlife Service is to provide habitat conservation for wildlife. There are National Wildlife Refuges in every state of the union. In the San Francisco Bay area there are seven refuges totaling 50,000 acres. The Farallon NWR was created in 1909 by Teddy Roosevelt as a preserve for the breeding birds. Originally it only included the north islands, the middle islands and Noonday Rock. In 1969 the South Island was added. Farallon NWR consists today of 211 acres. Of which 141 acres is designated as wilderness. The exception to the wilderness designation is the largest island, South East Farallon. Gerry Mc Chesney is assigned as the halftime manager and he has a full-time assistant. The Farallon NWR partners with Point Reyes Bird Observatory (PRBO) to provide protection, monitoring, research and management of the refuge. PRBO maintains a full-time presence on the southeast island utilizing two old lighthouse houses that are more than 100 years old. The primary programs are seabird and mammal monitoring, white shark monitoring, invasive plant control and seabird habitat research. Access is primarily by boat. PBO uses volunteer boat operators. There is no dock. They use a small boat which comes out from the island to ferry passengers and supplies to the island. A crane actually lifts the little boat onto the island.

Some of the species of bird life on the Farallon Islands include cormorant, murre, puffins, gulls and auklets. There are approximately 350,000 birds that nest on the island. It is the largest seabird nesting area in the lower 48 states. Today the common murre has recovered from a low of 6000 birds to 250,000 birds. There are five species of seals. The first northern fur seal pup in 150 years was born in 1996. Since then the northern fur seal population has been increasing at an exponential rate. There are two species which are endemic to the Farallons. They are a camel cricket and a salamander. White sharks congregate around the island in the fall months to feed on young elephant seals that are on the islands to molt.

The data collected on the island is correlated with other data to provide predictive information. There appeared to be a relationship between common murre nesting and the gillnet fishery which led to changes in the regulation of that industry. Similarly, cassin's auklet nesting patterns proved to be a predictor for the salmon stocks the following year. This is because both the birds and fish are krill feeders.

This presentation was very well received and very informative.