[8] Additionally, waters surrounding the islands are protected as part of the Greater Farallones National Marine Sanctuary.

[12] The first European to create a record of the islands that has survived was the English privateer and explorer Sir Francis Drake, on July 24, 1579.

[15] The islands were apparently first given their names "Farallones" (literally, "cliffs") by Friar Antonio de la Ascencion, aboard the Spanish explorer Sebastián Vizcaíno's 1603 expedition.

[20] On July 17, 1827, French sea captain Auguste Duhaut-Cilly sailed by the southernmost Farallon Island and counted the "crude dwellings of about a hundred Kodiaks stationed there by the Russians of Bodega...the Kodiaks, in their light boats, slip into San Francisco Bay by night, moving along the coast opposite the fort, and once inside this great basin, they station themselves temporarily on some of the inner islands, from where they catch the sea otter without hindrance.

"[21] After Alta California was ceded by Mexico to the United States in 1848 with the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo, the islands' environment became linked to the growth of the city of San Francisco.

As the city grew, the seabird colonies came under severe threat as eggs were collected in the millions for San Francisco markets.

The trade, which in its heyday could yield 500,000 eggs a month, was the source of conflict between the egg-collecting companies and the lighthouse keepers.

These radio intercept sites along the coast could track Japanese warships and merchant marine vessels as far away as the Western Pacific.

The liberty ship SS Henry Bergh, a converted troop carrier, hit West End in 1944 (all hands were saved).

[citation needed] The USS Conestoga, a US Navy tugboat that disappeared with its 56 crew members in 1921, was found in 2009 and positively identified in 2016.

(The Conestoga had sailed from nearby San Francisco, but the waters of the Farallones were never searched because the vessel was assumed to have traveled far out into the Pacific.

)[31] On the morning of August 5, 1941, a United States Coast Guard Douglas Dolphin, V-126, likely struck a rock pinnacle on the southeast Farallon island, causing the aircraft to burst into flames.

[32] Computer scientist Jim Gray was lost at sea after setting out on a solo sailing trip from San Francisco to the Farallones on January 28, 2007.

[33] On April 14, 2012, the sailing yacht Low Speed Chase capsized during a race at Maintop Island, killing 5 of the 8 crew aboard.

[36] On May 11, 2024, Amy Appelhans Gubser became the first and only person to have swum in the outbound direction, from the Golden Gate to SE Farralone, in just over 17 hours.

[37] The collecting of eggs, along with the threat of oil spills from San Francisco's shipping lanes, prompted President Theodore Roosevelt to sign Executive Order No.

This sanctuary protected open ocean, nearshore tidal flats, rocky intertidal areas, estuarine wetlands, subtidal reefs, and coastal beaches within its boundaries.

[39] The Farallon Islands are outcroppings of the Salinian Block, a vast geologic province of granitic continental crust sharing its origins with the core of the Sierra Nevada.

The San Andreas Fault, marking a boundary zone between the Pacific and North American Plates, passes a few miles east of the islands.

Middle Farallon Island, 2 miles (3.2 km) northwest of SEFI, is a 20-foot (6.1 m) high guano-covered black rock about 210' (65 meters) in diameter, with an area of ¾ acre (3,362 m2).

[43][44] The banks northwest of Fanny Shoal are not considered part of the Farallon Islands anymore, and they are outside of U.S. territorial waters.

Although the Farallon Islands do not have an official weather station, satellite measurements indicate a very mild mediterranean climate due to its offshore position in the midst of the very cold California Current.

During San Francisco's and Oakland's above 100 °F (38 °C) record heat wave of 1 September 2017, the aggregate weather around the Farallon Islands remained below 68 °F (20 °C).

Due to the absence of a warming nearby landmass and the cold water, winters remain mild but often cooler than San Francisco also during that time of year.

The island has the world's largest colonies of western gulls and ashy storm petrels,[citation needed] the latter species being considered endangered and a conservation priority.

In 1996 West End Island became the fourth American northern fur seal rookery when a pup was born.

The average length of a full-grown great white shark is 4 to 4.8 metres (13 to 16 ft), with a weight of 680 to 1,100 kg (1,500 to 2,430 lb), females generally being larger than males.

[53] Over the decades of study, many of the individual white sharks visiting the Farallones have been nicknamed, often based on their scars and appearances, such as Gouge, The Hunchback, The Jester, and Stumpy.

[54] Some individual sharks have been tagged and found to roam the Pacific as far as Hawaii and Guadalupe Island off Baja California, returning regularly to the Farallones every year in the autumn.

Satellite tracking has revealed the majority of great white sharks from the Farallones (and from other parts of California, Hawaii and the west coast of Mexico) migrate to an area of ocean dubbed the White Shark Café, 1,500 miles (2,400 km) west of Ensenada, Baja California.