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}} 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. They lie outside the Golden Gate and south of Point Reyes, and are visible from the mainland on clear days. The islands are officially part of the City and County of San Francisco. The only inhabited portion of the islands is on Southeast Farallon Island (SEFI), where researchers from Point Blue Conservation Science and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service stay. The islands are closed to the public. The Farallon National Wildlife Refuge is one of 63 National Wildlife Refuges that have congressionally designated wilderness status. In 1974 the Farallon Wilderness was established (Public Law 93-550) and includes all islands except the Southeast Island for a total of . ==History== The islands were long known by the name "Islands of the Dead" to the American Indians 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 superstition (the islands were believed to be an abode of the spirits of the dead), or both.〔(【引用サイトリンク】title=Farallon Islands - Gulf of the Farallones )〕 The first European to land and record the islands was Spanish explorer Juan Rodriguez Cabrillo in 1539, who named the islands "Farallones", Spanish for cliffs or small pointed islets.〔(【引用サイトリンク】 publisher=United States National Park Service, National Park Service )〕 Cabrilho had departed from Puerto de Navidad in México with two ships (three according to others): San Salvador, Victoria, and San Miguel, after which Catalina Island, Clemente and San Diego Bay were respectively named in this voyage. The expedition missed the entrance to San Francisco Bay, but it sighted and named nearby places such as "Punta de los Pinos" (Point Reyes), and "Bahia de los Pinos" (Monterey Bay). On July 24, 1579, English privateer and explorer Sir Francis Drake landed on the islands, in order to collect seal meat and bird eggs for his ship.〔 He named them the Islands of Saint James because the day after his arrival was the feast day of St James the Great. The name of St James is now applied to only one of the rocky islets of the North Farallones. The islands were given the name "Los Frayles" ("The Friars") by Spanish explorer Sebastián Vizcaíno, when he first charted them in 1603. In the years following their discovery, during the Maritime Fur Trade era, the islands were exploited by seal hunters, first from New England and later from Russia. The Russians maintained a sealing station in the Farallones from 1812 to 1840, taking 1,200 to 1,500 fur seals annually, though American ships had already exploited the islands. The ''Albatross'', captained by Nathan Winship, and the ''O'Cain'', captained by his brother Jonathan Winship, were the first American ships sent from Boston in 1809 to establish a settlement on the Columbia River. In 1810, they met up with two other American ships at the Farallon Islands, the ''Mercury'' and the ''Isabella'', and at least 30,000 seal skins were taken. By 1818 the seals diminished rapidly until only about 500 could be taken annually and within the next few years, the fur seal was extirpated from the islands. It is not known whether the northern fur seal or the Guadalupe fur seal were the islands' native fur seal, although the northern fur seal is the species that began to recolonize the islands in 1996. On July 17, 1827, the 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." 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. Beginning in 1853, a lighthouse was constructed on SEFI. 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. This conflict turned violent in a confrontation between rival companies in 1863. The clash between two rival companies, known as the Egg War, left two men dead and marked the end of private companies on the islands, although the lighthouse keepers continued egging. This activity, combined with the threat of oil spills from San Francisco's shipping lanes, prompted President Theodore Roosevelt to sign Executive Order No. 1043 in 1909, creating the Farallon Reservation to protect the chain's northern islands. This was expanded to the other islands in 1969 when it became a National Wildlife Refuge. The islands are the site of many shipwrecks, including the liberty ship SS ''Henry Bergh'', a converted troop carrier that hit West End in 1944, pieces of which can still be seen from the island today (all hands were saved). The islands have also been mentioned in connection with the schooner ''Malahat'' as one possible site for Rum Row during Prohibition .〔 〕 The United States Coast Guard maintained a manned lighthouse until 1972, when it was automated. The islands are currently managed by the United States Fish and Wildlife Service, in conjunction with the Marin-based Point Blue Conservation Science (formerly Point Reyes Bird Observatory - PRBO). The islands are currently the subject of long term ecological research. Today, the Farallones are closed to the public, although birders and wildlife enthusiasts can approach them on whale watching boats and the sail-training vessel ''Seaward'' out of Sausalito. From 1902 to 1913, the former U.S. Weather Bureau maintained a weather station on the southeast island, which was connected with the mainland by cable. The results of the meteorological study were later published in a book on California's climate. Temperatures during those years never exceeded or dropped to .〔U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service〕 Years later, the National Weather Service provided some weather observations from the lighthouse on its local radio station. Three people have successfully swum from the Farallones to the Golden Gate, with two more swimming to points north of the Gate. The first, Ted Erikson, made the swim in September 1967, with the second, Joseph Locke, swimming to the Golden Gate on July 12, 2014, in 14 hours. The third person, and the first woman to complete the distance, Kimberley Chambers, made it in just over 17 hours on Friday August 7, 2015.〔http://www.nbcbayarea.com/news/local/-San-Francisco-Woman-Attempts-to-Complete-Record-Breaking-Swim-from-Farallon-Islands-to-the-Golden-Gate-Bridge-321143531.html〕 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Farallon Islands」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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