Cordell Bank

Cordell Bank National Marine Sancturary lies 115 feet beneath the water’s surface perched atop the northernmost seamount on the California continental shelf. Sixty miles northwest of San Francisco, this area is a prime spot for humpback and blue whale feeding. Cordell serves as a way-station for hungry cetaceans who feed on the area’s rich stock of krill as they journey north to Alaskan waters. The Pacific salmon, rockfish, Dall’s porpoise, and albatross are also frequenters of this sanctuary. They adopt habitats, such as the sanctuary’s soft sediment continental shelf and slope, seamount, and rocky subtidal, as their homes.

The protected waters of this sanctuary total 526 square miles. Designated in 1989, research activities at the sanctuary include a program sampling for biotoxins, surveys for seabirds and marine mammals and various studies on minke whales. Shipwrecks have been discovered within Cordell Bank’s waters and many believe that prehistoric artifacts might also be found here.

Cordell Bank is the albatross capital of the northern hemisphere. An albatross is a large seabird that only comes to shore to lay its eggs. More species of albatross have been identified in Cordell Bank National Marine Sanctuary than anywhere else in the northern hemisphere. Four species of albatross can be found here: Black-footed Albatross, Laysan Albatross, Light-mantled Sooty Albatross, and Short-tailed Albatross. There are 14 species of albatross world wide.

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