Surfing and Sharks

My older son, who is now 31 years old and married with a child on the way, has always been a thrill seeker. He loves to skateboard and ride mountain bikes. Since he moved to San Francisco about seven years ago, he has become a surfer.
 
He likes to surf in the early morning before going to work. In San Francisco, he lives near the ocean so that he can be at the beach at dawn in a damp wetsuit. He likes to surf a few miles south of the Cliff House. From the beach, it’s a quarter to half-mile swim to where the waves break.

Within a week of reading about a shark attack off the coast of San Francisco, my wife and I learned that our son had taken up the sport of surfing. We weren’t pleased. I hoped against odds that this latest endorphin-charged experience would be just a passing fancy. But, to our chagrin, he is avid about surfing and has traveled around the world in search of the best waves.

For Father’s Day, this year, he sent me the book, “The Devil’s Teeth, A true story of obsession and survival among America’s Great White Sharks” by Susan Casey. The author, a journalist from New York City, and a group of shark researchers lived for parts of several years on the Farallon Islands, a 211-acre archipelago of ten islets 27 miles west of the Golden Gate Bridge. The researchers studied the sharks and tagged them with devices to track their migration.
Every September, a large group of great white sharks congregate around these islands during the seal and sea lion migration from the north to warmer climes. To researchers, the areas extending from Tomales Bay in West Marin County to the Farallones to Monterey is known as the “Red Triangle”. More great white shark attacks have taken place within this triangle than in all the other shark hot spots of the world. This is where my son surfs.

I read the book. I had never heard of the Farallon Islands but I learned much about their colorful history. Sir Francis Drake was the first European to set foot on the islands in 1579. In 1807, a Yankee fur trader noted the islands. He returned in three years and managed to slaughter seventy-three thousand seals. The pelts were prized in China. Later Russian fur traders with their Indian and Eskimo slaves hunted the area and exterminated hundreds of thousands more.
Living conditions on the islands were wretched with little or no shelter from the elements, no freshwater, and diseases brought on by the lack of fresh foods. By the time the California gold rush happened in 1849, the islands were once again deserted and the seals were making a come back.

Entrepreneurs of the Gold Rush, once again exploited the island. This time it was for the eggs laid by the Common Murre, a duck-size seabird. The Murres were jammed shoulder-to shoulder on the island—each sitting on several eggs. With a leathery and speckled shell, the eggs ranged in color from ivory to soft green or turquoise. The eggs were a perfect substitute to the chicken eggs craved by the miners, merchants and hostelries of San Francisco. For nearly 40 years, the “eggers” sailed from the San Francisco Bay to the Farallon Islands to collect eggs by the shiploads.
In 1895, the first lighthouse was built on the island to warn seafarers of the danger ahead. In 1891, the islands were incorporated into the California territory. The eggers were expelled and the government set up homes and a school for the light house tenders and their families.

In the meanwhile, the seals and sea lions continued to multiply and the great white sharks have once again become frequent diners in the “Red Triangle”. These huge mouth-and-tail creatures can be 8 feet wide, 6 feet in depth and 20 feet long. Their practiced attack is from far below. They surge to the surface at 40-miles per hour and tear into their victims. The bottom surface of a surfboard can easily be mistaken for the white underbelly of a seal.

I’m so happy I had the opportunity to read this book.