During each cruise our expert naturalists give talks on gray whales and the conservation efforts which brought them back from near extinction. Since 1972, Oceanic Society has sponsored expert-guided, educational natural history and wildlife encounters for over 133,000 people.
Programs benefit environmental education and research.
The Farallon Islands, just 27 miles off San Francisco, lie amid the Gulf of the Farallones National Marine Sanctuary, a food-rich marine ecosystem which attracts whales, dolphins, seals and seabirds each summer and fall, to feed and to breed. Researchers have catalogued hundreds of individual humpbacks and blue whales as seasonal feeding residents. Twenty three species of marine mammals, including 18 species of whales and dolphins, can be found here. Despite past human exploitation, the Farallon Islands National Wildlife Refuge is now the largest seabird rookery in the contiguous United States with nesting Tufted Puffins, Pigeon Guillemots, Rhinoceros Auklets, Shearwaters, and other species. Island beaches are covered with sea lions, including massive Steller's sea lions, now on the Endangered Species List.