The islands were apparently first given their names of the “Farallones” (literally, “cliffs”) by Friar Antonio de la Ascencion, aboard the Spanish explorer Sebastián Vizcaíno's 1603 expedition. The name of St James is now applied to only one of the rocky islets of the North Farallons. He named them the Islands of Saint James because the day after his arrival was the feast day of St James the Great. On that day, Drake landed on the islands to collect seal meat and bird eggs for his ship. 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. The first Europeans to see these islands were most probably the members of the Juan Cabrillo expedition of 1542 which sailed as far north as Point Reyes, but no source record of the Cabrillo expedition's actual sighting of these islands has survived. The islands were long known by the name Islands of the Dead to the Native Americans who lived in the Bay Area prior to the arrival of Europeans, but they are not thought to have traveled to them, either for practical reasons (the voyage and landing would be difficult and dangerous) or because of spiritual beliefs (the islands were believed to be an abode of the spirits of the dead). Additionally, waters surrounding the islands are protected as part of the Greater Farallones National Marine Sanctuary.Īerial view of the Southeast Farallon Island from the south In 1974, the Farallon Wilderness was established ( Public Law 93-550) and includes all islands except the Southeast Island for a total of 141 acres (57 ha). The Farallon Islands National Wildlife Refuge is one of 63 national wildlife refuges that have congressionally designated wilderness status. The only inhabited portion of the islands is on Southeast Farallon Island (SEFI), where researchers from Point Blue Conservation Science and the U.S. The islands are part of the City and County of San Francisco. The islands lie 30 miles (48 km) outside the Golden Gate and 20 miles (32 km) south of Point Reyes, and are visible from the mainland on clear days. The islands are also sometimes referred to by mariners as the Devil's Teeth Islands, in reference to the many treacherous underwater shoals in their vicinity. The Farallon Islands, or Farallones (from the Spanish farallón meaning "pillar" or "sea cliff"), are a group of islands and sea stacks in the Gulf of the Farallones, off the coast of San Francisco, California, United States.
(2011), meanwhile, consider possible explanations for speciation and geographic differentiation within a large island, and find the same type of oceanic barriers that are critical to bird speciation across archipelagos may also contribute to divergence that appears to have occurred within a single island.A Fata Morgana mirage of the Farallon Islands, as viewed from San Francisco. (2011) use a phylogenetic analysis of white-eyes on islands in the Gulf of Guinea to identify two previously overlooked island radiations, and reveal replicated adaptive divergence on islands where species occur in pairs. 2009 Kisel & Barraclough 2010 Rosindell & Phillimore 2011). Nevertheless, two studies in this issue of Molecular Ecology join a string of other recent analyses suggesting that island radiation in birds remains under-appreciated (see also Moyle et al. Darwin's finches and Hawaiian Honeycreepers are among only a handful of examples of island radiation in birds (Price 2008), suggesting that winged powers of dispersal make sufficient isolation from mainland colonists unlikely, while also hindering speciation within and among isolated islands. In birds and other highly dispersive taxa, however, this 'zone of radiation', may be vanishingly small. If island biogeography has a sweet spot, it's where islands generate their own species diversity rather than merely taking on mainland immigrants.
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