I’m always amazed at how many San Franciscans are aboard and who have never been on the waters of the Sanctuary, much less out to the islands.  The trips start with some trepidation about the weather, the wind and waves and the 27-mile transit to the islands.  The nervousness fades as we immediately see several small harbor porpoises before we even cross beneath the Golden Gate. There are more of these shy cetaceans than I have ever seen, and local researcher Bill Keener of Golden Gate Cetacean Research confirms that the small dolphins have returned to the San Francisco Bay after an absence of approximately 65 years.  Their recent foraging in the bay may be an indicator of the health of the ecosystem.

Clearing Point Bonita, we enter the shipping channel and begin our search for whales, but it is the pelagic seabirds that first greet us.  We are currently experiencing a changing of the guard in the transition between seasons. The productive ecosystem off the coast of California has three oceanographic seasons: upwelling season in the spring and early summer; relaxation in the late summer and fall; the storm season in winter.

During the upwelling season (March-July), strong northwest winds and the south flowing California current combine with the earth's rotation to drive surface waters away from the shore. These surface waters are replaced by an upwelling of nutrient-rich deeper water from offshore. The nutrients become available for surface dwelling phytoplankton (microscopic marine algae). Phytoplankton form the foundation of this oceanic food web and the combination of nutrients and increased sunlight in spring initiates a bloom of life that radiates up the food web from small shrimp called krill to the great whales. An abundance of phytoplankton, zooplankton, and young fish are food for animals at higher levels of the marine food web. During the summer months endangered blue, humpback and other species of whales visit our National Marine Sanctuaries of Monterey, the Gulf of the Farallones and the Cordell Bank to feed on this abundance of krill. Here's a video from a summer trip.

Now, the season is in the relaxation mode, and the calm seas and sunny skies help relax the passengers as we watch pelagic and double-crested cormorants, arctic terns and marbled murrelets wing past. The islands are in sight, but no whales so far.  With less food, the humpback whales are making their exit as the California gray whales enter our waters in their annual migration from the feeding grounds near Alaska to the warm lagoons of Baja California Mexico where they calve. The gray whale is a success story.  Hunted to extinction in the Atlantic, and with a few hundred individuals in the eastern Pacific, protections afforded under the Marine Mammal Protection Act has allowed this population to increase to well over 20,000.

Mid-channel, we are alerted by another vessel, The Salty Lady, that they are onto humpback whales.  Captain Jimmy turns back towards the mainland and we see four humpback whales slowly swimming south.  After a half hour, we head back to the islands and soon sea a California gray whale engaging in what looks like feeding near the south side of the Island. Nearby are two shark-watching boats and I wonder if the divers inside the cage witness the whale.

Out near the continental shelf, we are joined by over one hundred Pacific white-sided dolphins and among them northern right whale dolphins.  The large pod of dolphins swim alongside us, surfing the bow wave as they head north past Middle Rock and north Farallon Islands towards Point Reyes and the Cordell Bank.

Just as the great whales migrate, so too do the great white sharks which visit the islands during this season to feed.  As we discuss sharks on our way back to San Francisco, I reflect that like the whales. We can protect them in our sanctuary, but we can't protect them as they transit the open sea in their great migrations.

Like the whales, sharks need protection locally and internationally and require shark sanctuaries, protection from fisheries on the high seas and at home, and shark finning banned worldwide.  Perhaps one of the most important things we can do is to protect sharks that are reproducing and to protect nurseries like the southern California bight for white sharks and the San Francisco Bay for sevengill sharks, soupfin sharks and the smaller hound sharks that pup there.  Through our  Shark Steward program with The Turtle Island Restoration Network, we are now developing a San Francisco Shark Sanctuary to protect local sharks reproducing in the bay so that sharks will continue to swim the waters of California.

The first time I visited Guadalupe Island-aka The Island of the great white shark-was under sail in the early nineteen eighties. A rugged and desert island one hundred fifty miles off the coast of Baja California, the island itself was then only inhabited by goats and a fish camp. The deepwater anchorage provided little shelter from the swell and above water the island felt remote and spooky. But beneath the surface I experienced a rich marine ecosystem from abalone to giant kelp to Guadalupe Fur Seals. During that voyage we didn’t experience a white shark, but on a recent last trip aboard a Mexican ecotourism boat we experienced five in one dive. Like the Farrallon Islands off San Francisco, Guadalupe is as an aggregation site for white sharks.

Last week I joined four Italian photographers, three Japanese and six Americans on a Mexican Shark watching vessel to enter cages and experience what it is like to be in the water with a great white shark.

All trained SCUBA divers, I was surprised at how little my fellow passengers- all educated and experienced divers- knew about sharks, threats to sharks and shark conservation. During our five days aboard I was able to raise awareness via video and shorts talks peppered by the real action in the water. Seeing a white shark swim is like nothing else and the sharks made a clear impression on us all.

We can look at the statistics. For example, millions of sharks are killed each year for their fins. Countless millions of others harks are killed as bycatch in longline fishery. As many as ninety percent of some pelagic sharks are now missing from the ocean, and one third of these are on the IUCN Red List and threatened with extinction. Great white sharks are one of the few species internationally protected with trade restrictions, yet white shark fins are coveted and the Pacific population hovers around 1000 individuals.

Yet sharks get a bad rap. My colleague at the California Academy of Sciences, Dr. John McCosker points out that in the last one hundred years, there have been round 100 white shark attacks in our State waters, with a 10% fatality. The odds of getting killed (if you even enter the water) are greater by simply crossing the street.

How many people actually ever get to see a white shark?

Statistics pale when watching a white shark swim. You are left with the feeling that these sharks belong and we are the interlopers. Unless we reconsider our views on sharks, white sharks could easily go extinct in our lifetimes. But tourists like these might hold the hope. Click, click, the shutters fire as sharks swim past an arm’s reach. Click click fire the synapses as the mind wonders at the size and power of this amazingly adapted beast.

Risks

Interacting with wildlife, especially top predators can be thrilling, but can it also be dangerous.
Wildlife tourism has been long established in the terrestrial environment, but not without problems. Animals and tourists have been killed through negligence and greed. Eventually, guidelines have been established in many regions to protect both the tourists and the wildlife such as tigers and elephants from harm. Many have strict rules like the tours lead through SEEtheWILD. Profits raised through the tourism are directed towards enforcement or conservation but just as important, local jobs are created. Some of these jobs go to the very people who once harvested or poached the animals after protective laws were established. In Baja, Grey Whale Expeditions lead by the American Cetacean Society or events lead by local naturalists of the Ocean Conservation Society allow people an enjoyable first hand experience and provides a valuable economic influx to areas without other options outside of fishing.
Last year I accompanied a sea turtle operation lead through SEE Turtles tagging and tracking sea turtles in Baja. The tourists benefit from hands on experience and learn about the ecology of the animals.

The guides benefit by employment. The turtle populations benefit by more eyes and hearts looking out for their population. Scientists benefit through more data provided by the citizen scientists.

More Valuable Alive the Dead

Like the terrestrial analogue, shark watching operations have experienced a few glitches along the way. These include an over saturation of operations in South Africa leading to overuse of chum and feed impacting the local ecology, altering the shark’s behavior, impacts of sharks with cages and boats and allegations of increased shark attacks. Some non-cage operations in the Bahamas have lead to the accidental death of photographers by Tiger sharks. This has lead to serious restrictions/elimination of chumming and shark/object interactions. However, through government and self regulation my experience at the Farallones and Guadalupe Island is that operators are cleaning up their acts and working for shark conservation. Increasingly via first- hand experience people are observing the beauty and power of sharks, and understanding their importance through shark and shark cage diving. Today, white shark watching occurs off the Farallon Islands under permit by the Gulf of the Farallones National Marine Sanctuary requiring trained naturalists and using strict best watching practices. Many countries like Palau and the Bahamas are banning not only shark finning, but all shark fishing and are benefiting form shark tourism. Sharks are worth more alive than dead. A recent study on the economics of shark tourism suggests one reef shark may bring up to two million dollars in its lifetime through tourism.
On my recent trip to Guadalupe Island, the crew was entirely Mexican and their families helped with activities like provisioning and the vessel preparation. We also helped a local shark scientist Mauricio Hoyos who is engaged in research on the island, and the cage operators contribute to his non profit Tiburon Blanco. Our international team of divers were as amazed by the beauty of the sharks as they were incredulous of the travesty sharks are experiencing worldwide. Each walked away with increased respect both for the majesty of the shark and also for the need to protect them. In our home waters, white sharks are returning to the Sanctuary after migrating thousands of miles and tourists are starting to head west to visit them. We call it Sharktober and all month Sea Stewards and partners will be celebrating sharks and all wildlife. More on learning about and celebrating the shark can be found at Sea Stewards.

Let sharks live.

Most people don’t know that the animals we are eating from the ocean are vastly different from the animals we eat on land.

I have been working lately with John McCosker, Chair of Aquatic Biology department at the Academy, in preparation for his talk – Sharks: Why We Need, Fear and Love Them at the next NightLife on April 29th. It is in collaboration with the Great White Shark episode QUEST has produced featuring John McCosker in his research with Great White Sharks. It also goes into why these animals are now threatened. There was a portion of the video that showed sharks being hauled up onto a boat only to have their fins cut off and then the injured animal being thrown overboard to sink to the bottom of the ocean. Shark Fin Soup being is demand is influencing this practice. I physically cringed at the cruelty and mentally noted, “Okay, that’s another species I vow to never eat.”

My list thus far of animals from the ocean I will never eat:

Octopus
Squid
Giant Sea Bass
And recently added Shark

The first three animals I have come to be more closely acquainted with while volunteering in the Steinhart Aquarium on Tuesday mornings. I regularly help with the Tidepool, Octopus and Giant Sea Bass tanks and have grown quite fond of them and their inhabitants. On my last morning volunteering, I was given the opportunity to give the small Octopus in the tidepool a sardine-on-a-stick. Seeing a tentacle tentatively reach out and then deftly take the sardine and then try to take the whole stick definitely made an impression. As well, every Tuesday, I spend time preparing squid in the Aquarium prep kitchen for the black tip reef shark’s lunch given later in the day. That duty has made me grow much less fond of squid. I’m not the only one who has worked in the Aquarium who has a list. John McCosker suggested sushi for dinner as long as the apex predators were not on the menu. Moreover, many biologists have told me that their seafood consumption has drastically decreased with the increasing knowledge they have gained working in the Steinhart.

Most people don’t know that the animals we are eating from the ocean are vastly different from the animals we eat on land. Bluefin Tuna, Sharks, Octopus, and Squid are predators. We eat chicken, cows, ducks and pigs on land, which are herbivores and omnivores. Eating a shark or tuna is analogous to eating a tiger. We wouldn’t eat a tiger, but the demand for seafood is threatening top predators in the ocean. In the example of sharks, John McCosker notes, “It's tragic for sharks, and tragic for the ecosystem…Sharks are top-level predators for the ocean ecosystem. And the oceans are collapsing. When the sharks go, there are no controls.”

What does he mean by no controls? An ecosystem is a tiered system. Predators ensure that no one animal population explodes. If a hunted population does explode it will then eat food lower in the food chain without check and cause animal and plant populations to crash. With fewer Great White Sharks in the ocean, Sea Lion populations have already adversely affected the Salmon population off the coast of Northern California.

The Seafood Guide put out by Monterey Aquarium is a great way to become educated about what seafood is sustainable and which ones when eaten without check lead to imbalance in the Ocean’s ecosystem. I have downloaded the application onto my phone and check it when I go out for sushi or seafood. I have angered many a waitress with that application! Yet, I wouldn’t eat a tiger and want to give the mighty predators of the ocean the same respect. I have a feeling that means my list is going to big bigger.

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"Anti-shark cage? You go inside the cage? Cage goes in the water, you go in the water? Shark's in the water. Our shark." (from the film JAWS)

Like any good fishing trip, the day started before the sun came up. Our boat, the New Superfish out of the Berkeley Marina, had been specially outfitted with a shark cage and hot-tub, what they called the "TRU" or "Thermal Recovery Unit." The under-caffeinated passengers stowed their gear, the crew cast off and we began our trek to the Farallon Islands in hopes of encountering great white sharks.

We would cross under the Golden Gate Bridge just as the sun was rising over the East Bay Hills– a beautiful sight on a clear crisp morning. From there it was fairly smooth sailing out to the Farallones. We had been trying to make this trip for years. Weather and rough seas always seemed to keep us cooling our heels on land. Even on a good day this is generally not a trip for the faint of heart or weak of stomach. But now we were finally on our way.

Like many people, I'm fascinated with sharks. I can’t remember a time when they did not interest me. Growing up we had a collection of National Geographic magazines that my brother and I would page through. The one that I'd return to again and again was a well worn copy from 1968. On the cover was a shark and inside there was an article titled "Sharks: Wolves of the Sea." I was equal parts frightened and captivated and it sparked my curiosity to check out every book I could find about sharks at the library. Then when I was in 4th grade, I did an incredibly in-depth presentation on Great White Sharks. I considered myself the class expert. This was a couple years before a famous movie came out that made the great white an infamous villain. I think Jaws was the first R-rated movie I ever saw. I don't know if it was the result of one of my friend’s parents being lax or if my buddies and I managed to sneak in, regardless, I saw that movie at a far too young and impressionable age. And it permanently colored my perceptions of being in the ocean. That was when my interest in sharks tipped from mainly curiosity to just being terrified.

I think most surfers in California always have the thought of white sharks somewhere in the back of their minds. But when I surfed it was always in the front and center of my thoughts, "I am bait." As great a day on the waves might have been, it was always partnered with my ever-present fear, irrational as I knew it was…makes for a fun time. I was looking forward to meeting the bully of my imagination head on and hopefully getting past this.

Prior to our trip I had the great honor of meeting one of my all-time heroes, Dr. John McCosker at the California Academy of Sciences, to talk sharks. Dr. McCosker is one of the world's foremost experts on the great white shark. It's not hyperbole to say his work has set the foundation of nearly all white shark research over the last 30 years. He has also been particularly instrumental in of our understanding of why white sharks occasionally attack humans. Since 1950 there have been around 100 shark attacks that have occurred along the entire California Coast. Most of these were not fatal. Needless to say, I know the numbers but always thought, "But with my luck…" When I expressed my goofed up fears, Dr. McCosker put it into perspective for me. "What's so remarkable that if the numerator is 99, (Amount of shark attacks) the denominator is in the billions. How many human beings or human being-hours have been spent in the water over the past 60 years? The sharks are clearly not hunting us. So why are we so afraid? I guess because we are terrestrial animals that are accustomed to things on land that we understand, and when we put our foot in the ocean, we are out of our element and no longer in charge. So we're afraid of white sharks because of the exaggeration and what we've created with our own imaginations. And there's no reason we should be. We should be more afraid of the disappearance of white sharks, because an ocean without white sharks is a very unsafe place for every human being."

I also asked Dr. McCosker what the chances were that we'd see white sharks at the Farallones. He said that no doubt the sharks would be there but he couldn't place odds on us seeing them. Shark dive operators in the Marine Sanctuary are not allowed to bait or chum around the Farallones. The sharks know that the boats don't have much to offer in the way of food or sport. But Dr. McCosker then said, "You might not see them but no doubt they'll know you're there."

We reached the Farallon Islands and the cage was dropped into the bitter cold water. Divers pulled on their wetsuits and fitted their masks. I would be in the first group getting into the cage. We tested our regulators, hooked up to a hookah unit pumping air down to us from the surface, and heavy weights were strapped to our ankles. I clambered out over the rolling cage and slipped into the frigid water. From the start I had a hard time controlling my breathing and thought I might hyperventilate. Was it the burst of cold water entering my wet suit or the adrenaline hit from me thinking I'd be breaking the surface and entering the opening jaws of a great white? As I calmed down I scanned the murky green depths. The rays of sunlight draped down from the surface. Jellyfish pumped by in a leisurely fashion. The cage pitched up and down with the rolling waves and my leg slipped between the bars behind me. I immediately spun around and reeled it back in with the thought that it was about to be snapped off by a waiting monster. I frantically scanned the green shadows below and around. In a short time my breathing normalized. I was in their world but I suddenly found a peaceful calmness take over.

We did not see sharks on our dive. It was disappointing but not unexpected. But in many ways I saw much more. I saw their realm for what it really is: a fragile and beautiful place where white sharks are the masters but not monsters. In order to complete our story I would rely on the footage taken by white shark researchers such as Scot Anderson out at the Farallones and other footage taken by the folks at Great White Adventures during past dives in the clear blue waters of Mexico. In any case I would not trade my experience. Knowing that I was sharing the water with these amazing animals, unseen but out there, has given me something back. No more irrational fear, all wonder.

Watch The Great White Shark: Meet the Man in the Gray Suit TV story online.

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The Galapagos of California: The Farallon Islands.

Every so often the fog retreats from my neighborhood in San Francisco, moves out to sea and we are blessed with a world-class sunset. Adding to the oranges and reds, yellows and spiraling indigos of the evening sky, it also gives us a special chance to see the silhouette of the strange jagged fist of rock breaking up the crisp line of the horizon. I have gazed out upon the Farallon Islands for years. The archipelago is clearly the wildest part of The City-seemingly always just out of reach. (Many people don’t realize that these little islands are actually part of the City of San Francisco.) Since they are a federally protected wildlife refuge, they’re completely closed to the public. So to get a chance to actually set foot on South Farallon Island was an absolute honor.

We’ve tried to share the experience in as many ways as we can. I encourage everyone to really explore the islands through Quest. In addition to the television story, we have a radio presentation with reporter’s notes, a web exploration with video and stills, a unique audio slideshow, an interactive history timeline (also embedded below) and a Flickr set. We’ll also be adding another web-only video story and education guide. The only things we couldn’t bring you are the smell and chill of the wind. But we’ll get on that.

Farallon Islands History: Interactive Timeline

Watch the The Farallon Islands – "California's Galapagos" television story online.

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