Twenty eight miles west of San Francisco, the Farallon Islands
are a wildlife oasis commonly known as "California's Galapagos."
Their protected status and location in biologically productive
waters provide a safe haven for imperiled species. But there was
once a time when the islands themselves were under attack.
According to legend, native Coastal Miwoks called them "islands
of the dead." Themselves unable to traverse the rough waters,
they wrapped their deceased in tule reeds and dropped them into
currents headed towards eternal paradise there. They were
visited by England's Sir Francis Drake in 1579 and charted by
Spain's Sebastián Vizcaíno during his California expedition that
started in 1602. Three centuries later, President Teddy
Roosevelt granted some of the islands national wildlife refuge
status due to circumstances I'll discuss later. In 1969, the
largest island was added to complete the 211 acre refuge managed
by the US Fish and Wildlife Service, while surrounding waters
received protection from th