San Francisco, CA

The Bleak and Menacing History of San Francisco’s Farallon Islands | KQED

Published

2 years ago

June 7, 2024

The Bleak and Menacing History of San Francisco’s Farallon Islands | KQED

“[The rabbits of South Farallon] devoured what meager vegetation there once was,” one 1960 Examiner article reported. “[They] ate dead fish, seaweed and each other … According to reports, they were the meanest, ugliest rabbits in the world.”

Once the settlers had destroyed the local animal communities to the point that hunting was no longer profitable, they abandoned the Farallons in 1840. The rabbits, however, stuck around. Several attempts were made to thin their numbers over the years, but the efforts came to naught. That is, until 1972, when biologists from Point Reyes Bird Observatory arrived to assess avian numbers and concluded that the rabbits, as an invasive species, were negatively impacting the bird population.

The scientists subsequently spent years killing off the rabbits. The population was eventually wiped out in 1975. Today, a similar mass slaughter is being considered for house mice thriving on the islands. Apparently, everyone who sets foot on the Farallons wants to immediately kill anything with fur.

Egg gatherers in the 1870s, spread out and keen to steal the offspring of every murre bird on the island. (OpenSFHistory/ wnp4/wnp4.1097)

Egg wars

Turns out animals with feathers haven’t always fared well on the islands either. In the late 1840s and throughout the 1850s, the influx of gold-seekers to San Francisco caused a population boom that put a massive strain on local agriculture.

In 1949, the food scarcity inspired a pharmacist named Doc Robinson to sail to the Farallons with his brother-in-law and raid the eggs of the murre birds that nested on the islands. After their first egg haul netted them $3,000 (about $122,000 in 2024 money), crews of other egg hunters quickly followed suit. In the four decades that followed, approximately 14 million murre eggs were stolen and sent to San Francisco, and rival crews of poachers went to war with each other. Guns and even canons were fired as the egg thieves fought. Several were shot and killed. Tensions were so high that even the local lighthouse keepers were assaulted.

The egg wars continued until the end of the 19th century, and were ultimately brought to an end not by the authorities, but by the establishment of Petaluma as an egg farming hub. By then, the murre population had been decimated. Despite the Farallons’ current status as a bird sanctuary, murre numbers have never recovered. Their population remains only a quarter of its pre-Gold Rush size.

A war ship in unrecognizable, blackened ruins. — The USS Independence (CVL 22) on July 2, 1946 after it was hit with an atomic explosion, and before its radioactive scrap was buried in the Bay near the Farallons. (CORBIS/ Corbis via Getty Images)

Nuclear waste

Back in 1951, the Farallons were chosen as the final resting place for an aircraft carrier called USS Independence (CVL-22). At the time it was sunk with torpedos, the vessel was extremely radioactive, having been used in the now-infamous 1946 nuclear tests at Bikini Atoll.

To make matters even more toxic, between 1946 and 1970, at least 47,500 barrels of radioactive waste were ditched in a 540-square-mile area, starting just south of the Farallons. Those barrels were notoriously unstable and by 1990, investigators reported that many of them had broken open. A multitude more could not even be located. By then, the problem was well-established. In 1982, Governor Jerry Brown made a statement to the House Subcommittee on Oceanography to point out the dangers of dumping nuclear waste in the ocean.

“In California,” he wrote, “we have learned from our experience with the Farallon Islands nuclear dumpsite that remedial action is virtually impossible when unforeseen problems arise. The specter of leaking barrels of plutonium now lurks on the ocean bottom less than 50 miles from the Golden Gate.”

A 21-year-old man from Burlingame named John Rochette is wheeled away from a coast guard rescue helicopter after being attacked by “a huge shark” while diving near the Farallon Islands in 1963. Both his legs sustained very serious injuries. (Bettmann/ Getty Images)

Shark attacks

In 1990, a headline in the Examiner declared: “Bay Area Becoming Shark Attack Capital.” The story followed a series of attacks in which humans had near misses with gigantic sharks — some reportedly 18 feet long.

The attacks near the Farallons during that period were plentiful: Concord scuba diver LeRoy French was saved from serious injury when the attacking shark was scared off by his oxygen tank. Mark Tiserand from San Francisco wound up with teeth embedded in his leg that had to be removed by doctors. A paddle boarder named Rodney Orr was flipped off his board and immediately found his head in the mouth of a shark. He escaped with “bite gashes around his left eye and neck” after clubbing the animal with a spear gun.

At the time, Steinhart Aquarium scientist John McCosker said that attacks were most likely to happen in what he called “The Red Triangle” — a patch of water 25 miles west of the islands where sharks hunt sea lions and harbor seals.

A man in 1960s-era swimming cap and goggles swims aggressively in the ocean. — It took Ted Erikson three attempts to swim from the Farallones to Marin. He finally succeeded in 1967. (San Francisco Examiner/ Newspapers.com)

The worst swimming on Earth

In 1965, Ted Erikson took it upon himself to swim the English channel between France and the U.K., and then turn around and go right back again. The roundtrip took him 30 hours and three minutes and set a record. And yet, when it came to swimming the span from the Farallon Islands to Marin, he struggled, succeeding only on his third attempt.

His first jaunt from the Farallons was an outright failure. His second in 1966 ended 17 hours in, with him being pulled from the water in the middle of the night, almost unconscious and “swimming in all directions.” A multitude of swimmers before him — including a 15-year-old girl named Myra Thompson — had suffered similar endings on their masochistic swim journeys.

Bizarrely, before his third swim, Erikson had contacted “various marine life keepers” and asked them to donate a dolphin to swim alongside him. According to the Examiner, he believed this would “discourage the sharks.” In the end, he was forced to make the journey sans dolphin. Sharks were discouraged the good old-fashioned way — gunshots.

Erikson, a 38-year-old research chemist from Chicago, finally completed his journey on Sept. 17, 1967, boosted by mild weather and “relatively warm water.” After successfully finishing his 14-hour, 38-minute swim, Erikson — like an absolute maniac — referred to his victory as “a lark.”

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San Francisco, CA

Latest California-based gig work app lets people book content creators, editors

Published

8 hours ago

March 5, 2026

Press Room

Latest California-based gig work app lets people book content creators, editors

It’s 10 a.m. sharp, and Abby Kurtz gets her first assignment of the day. She’s received a time, a location in San Francisco and a target.

Her weapon of choice: an iPhone.

“Being a social agent is really the coolest thing ever,” she said.

Kurtz is a content creator working through an app called Social Agent, part of an expanding gig economy where more and more workers are trading stability for flexibility. Work that once required connections, planning, and a big budget can now be booked with a tap —extending the on-demand model from rides and meals to storytelling itself.

Just make a request, and someone like Kurtz can arrive within 30 minutes, camera-ready.

“What I look for when I’m shooting events is very crisp and clean content,” she said.

Her mission this time took her to Sutro Nursery, a nonprofit dedicated to growing native plants and that is hoping to grow its volunteer base, too. Board member Maryann Rainey said booking a Social Agent is a lot cheaper than hiring someone to do their social media full-time.

“I know I can’t do it myself, and I was certainly hoping that these young people would know how to do a good film,” Rainey said.

A typical job runs about $200, with same-day delivery. Agents earn around $50 an hour, plus tips. And if clients already have footage, they can upload it and have it turned into a finished piece.

The service is currently available in New York, Los Angeles, and Miami, with a slower rollout now underway in other cities.

Lisa Jammal, the company’s CEO, said the idea is simple: Let someone else do the shooting.

“We all are missing those beautiful moments because we’re always behind the phone,” she said.

As for Kurtz, after the shoot, she headed straight to a nearby coffee shop, where the clock started ticking. She had just over an hour to shape her raw material into a polished final cut.

“I think I’m going to give this reel a really peaceful, calming feel, but also informative and inviting,” she said.

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San Francisco, CA

SF scientists build robotic storm samplers to track pollutants before they reach the Bay

Published

20 hours ago

March 4, 2026

Press Room

SAN FRANCISCO (KGO) — Environmental Scientist Kayli Paterson from the San Francisco Estuary Institute is hitting the road with colleague David Peterson and a trunk full of water sampling robots.

“Yeah, I think the max we’ve ever done was five. But the sites are very close together. Oh, there it is. Hopefully it samples well,” says Paterson as she turns the mobile sampling lab onto a private oak-lined road.

They’re closing in on a watershed creek flowing through the hillsides near the San Andreas Lake reservoir, west of Highway 280 in Millbrae, part of the larger watershed that eventually drains into San Francisco Bay.

“So, we’ve got our sampler. Look at the battery. Hook that up, red and black. This is a 12-volt lithium battery, and it powers our sampler for probably about six to seven days,” she explains, showing off a self-contained unit miniaturized into a portable case.

MORE: Futuristic Fight Club: VR-controlled boxing humanoid robots battle in San Francisco

The black cases are their latest innovation in stormwater science. Robotic samplers anchor in key sections of the watershed to monitor not only flow, but also the chemicals and pollutants washing downstream toward the Bay.

“And this is a front-line pollution sampler. It’s getting the stormwater before it enters the Bay. And so, we want to know what’s coming into the Bay and getting these samplers out there in more locations will give us a better idea of where we might have issues, where a hotspot is, or maybe a previously unknown contaminant,” says Paterson.

“It’s important to get out that fast,” her colleague David Peterson adds. “You know, in these storms as they’re happening, because the water is picking up pollutants in real time, and we need to be there to capture them.”

When we first met Peterson several years ago, he and another Estuary Institute team were sampling water along the Bay shoreline by hand, a technique that’s still valuable. But to cover more ground, Kayli and a group of collaborators began developing the robotic samplers over recent storm seasons.

Kayli and David start by chaining the unit itself to a tree near the creek bank. The system employs remote-controlled pumps that draw samples from the creek and store them in onboard containers. The software controlling the volume and frequency can be operated from a phone app.

MORE: New study of San Francisco Bay fish confirms concentrations of PFAS aka ‘forever chemicals’

One of the key targets in this study is a group of so-called “forever chemicals” known as PFAS, synthetic compounds that persist in the environment and have been detected in widespread areas of the Bay.

“And we capture samples and send them off to analytics labs across the country. Typically, universities or private labs will process these for us,” Peterson explains.

For these two stormwater detectives, it’s a mission that requires a combination of speed and patience**, chasing flowing water** through creeks and storm drains, sampling as they go.

“So, we’re looking for areas – the point of this is to do source control. Ultimately, we want to be able to trace this back to a possible source,” says Kayli Paterson.

And potentially prevent a source of toxic pollution from reaching San Francisco Bay and our Bay Area ecosystem.

More than a dozen of the robots were given names in a special contest, including the Big Sipper and the Tubeinator.

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San Francisco, CA

Floats for San Francisco Chinese New Year Parade get finishing touches

Published

1 day ago

March 4, 2026

Press Room

Floats for San Francisco Chinese New Year Parade get finishing touches

SAN FRANCISCO (KGO) — ABC7 Eyewitness News got a sneak peak as crews put the finishing touches on the floats you’ll see at Saturday’s San Francisco Chinese New Year Festival and Parade.

Since it’s the year of the fire horse, you’ll see a lot of horses and fire symbolism on the floats, housed at Pier 19.

“So Year of the Horse, it’s energy, it’s passion, it’s momentum so a lot of things that we’re really hoping to embody in the new year,” said Stephanie Mufson, owner of San Francisco-based The Parade Guys, which designs and constructs the floats.

She said they’ve been building them for about three months, with the designs starting in November.

MORE: Bay Area artist brings Year of the Horse statue to life for Golden State Warriors

“We’re in the home stretch,” she said. “We’ve got a couple of days left and we’ve got a nice little team that’s cranking out all the finishing work that needs to go into it.”

Derrick Shavers was sanding some wood that will be painted and become cherry blossom trees on a float.

“It’s exciting,” Shavers said. “I look forward to coming every year and just creating and making things shine and sparkle.”

Bon was painting mountains for a float, making sure everything is perfect in time for the parade.

MORE: Meet the 2026 San Francisco Chinese New Year Parade mascot, Maverick

“It’s one of the few parades that actually happens at night still,” Bon said. “So we got to make sure all the lighting is in check, and people are safe on the float. It’s all in the details, just for it to walk by you for 10 seconds.”

Ten seconds that bring so much joy to those watching the parade.

Here’s how you can watch the parade on ABC7 Eyewitness News on Saturday, March 7.

Coverage starts at 5 p.m. wherever you stream ABC7.

SF Chinese New Year Parade 2026: How to watch ABC7 Eyewitness News live coverage

If you’re on the ABC7 News app, click here to watch live

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