Gulf of the Farallones is a

gulf A gulf is a large inlet from the ocean into the landmass, typically with a narrower opening than a bay, but that is not observable in all geographic areas so named. The term gulf was traditionally used for large highly-indented navigable bodies ...

of the

Pacific Ocean The Pacific Ocean is the largest and deepest of Earth's five oceanic divisions. It extends from the Arctic Ocean in the north to the Southern Ocean (or, depending on definition, to Antarctica) in the south, and is bounded by the contin ...

off the northern

California California is a state in the Western United States, located along the Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the most populous U.S. state and the 3rd largest by area. It is also the m ...

coast. It extends westward from the opening of the San Francisco Bay and

Drakes Bay Drakes Bay (Coast Miwok: ''Tamál-Húye'') is a wide bay named so by U.S. surveyor George Davidson in 1875 along the Point Reyes National Seashore on the coast of northern California in the United States, approximately northwest of San Fra ...

to the Farallon Islands. Most of the gulf lies in

Gulf of the Farallones National Marine Sanctuary A gulf is a large inlet from the ocean into the landmass, typically with a narrower opening than a bay, but that is not observable in all geographic areas so named. The term gulf was traditionally used for large highly-indented navigable bodies ...

, which protects about . The gulf is home to major shipping lines to the

Port of San Francisco The Port of San Francisco is a semi-independent organization that oversees the port facilities at San Francisco, California, United States. It is run by a five-member commission, appointed by the Mayor and approved by the Board of Supervisors. Th ...

Port of Oakland The Port of Oakland is a major container ship facility located in Oakland, California, in the San Francisco Bay. It was the first major port on the Pacific Coast of the United States to build terminals for container ships. As of 2011 it was the f ...

, and

Port of Richmond The Port of Richmond, also known as the Richmond Deepwater Terminal, is located on the James River in Richmond, Virginia, United States, inland from Cape Henry and approximately northwest of Newport News, Virginia. It is located at 77° 2 ...

. The gulf has also historically been used as a dumping ground for various types of waste, including dredging sediment, industrial waste, sunk vessels, and barrels of low-level nuclear waste. Around 47,800 barrels of nuclear waste were dumped between 1946 and 1970; their location was largely unknown until mapping and monitoring efforts in the 1990s.''Beyond the Golden Gate'', pages 66
/ref> ''Farallones'' comes from the Spanish ''farallón'' meaning sea cliff and is a reference to the islands. Historical names for the gulf include Bahia De Puerto De San Francisco, Ensenada De Los Farallones, and La Bahia De Los Pinos.

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