The San Francisco Bay Area, also commonly known as the Bay Area, is a metropolitan region that surrounds the San Francisco and San Pablo estuaries in Northern California. It encompasses the metropolitan areas of San Francisco (12th largest in the country) Christian book store and San Jose (31st largest in the country), as well as four other smaller, surrounding metropolitan areas. Overall, the Bay Area consists of nine counties, 101 cities, and 7,000 square miles. The nine counties are Alameda, Contra Costa, Marin, Napa, San Francisco, San Mateo, Santa Clara, Solano, and Sonoma. The Bay Area when defined as a Combined Statistical Area, is the sixth largest in the country, with approximately 7.4 million people. The Bay Area hosts many cities, towns, military bases, airports, and associated regional, state, and national parks, connected by a massive network of roads, highways, railroads, bridges, tunnels and commuter rail. The combined urban area of San Francisco and San Jose is the 50th largest urban area in the world. San Francisco is the cultural and financial center of the Bay Area, and has the second highest population density of any major city in North America after New York City. San Jose is the largest city in terms of population, land area, and industrial development, and is the center of Silicon Valley, a well-known high technology region. Oakland is a major manufacturing and distribution center, rail terminus/hub, and has the fourth largest container shipping port in the United States. Largely because of San Francisco and Silicon Valley, the Bay Area presently ranks second only to the much larger New York City region in number of Fortune 500 company headquarters (April 2010 Fortune Magazine). The Bay Area is renowned for its natural beauty, affluence, diversity, and progressive thinking new age reputation. The eastern side of the bay, consisting of Alameda and Contra Costa counties, is known locally as the East Bay. The East Bay is split into two regions, the inner East Bay, which sits on the Bay shoreline, and the outer East Bay, consisting of inland valleys separated from the inner East Bay by hills and mountains. The inner East Bay includes the western portions of Alameda and Contra Costa Counties, including the cities of Oakland, Hayward, Fremont, Berkeley, and Richmond, as well as many smaller suburbs such as Alameda, Castro Valley, Newark, Union City, Emeryville, Albany, San Leandro, San Pablo, El Sobrante, Pinole, Hercules, Rodeo, Piedmont, and El Cerrito. The inner East Bay is more urban, more densely populated, has a much older building stock (built before World War II) and a more ethnically diverse population. Oakland hosts the region’s largest seaport and professional sports franchises in basketball, football, and baseball. As with many inner urban areas, the Inner East Bay also features a high incidence of crime as well as other socio-economic problems. According to the FBI Uniform Crime Reports, more than 50% of all homicides in the Bay Area in 2002 occurred within the city limits of Oakland and Richmond. The homicide rates have steadily increased, as 2005 had the highest homicide rates for both Richmond and Oakland in many years. The outer East Bay consists of the eastern portions of Alameda and Contra Costa counties and is divided into 5 distinct areas: Lamorinda, Central Contra Costa County, East Contra Costa County, the San Ramon Valley, and the Livermore-Amador Valley. The word Lamorinda was coined by combining the names of the cities it includes: Lafayette, Moraga, and Orinda. Walnut Creek is situated east of Lamorinda and north of the San Ramon Valley and, together with Concord, Martinez, and Pleasant Hill comprises Central Contra Costa County. The cities of Pittsburg, Antioch, Brentwood, Oakley and the unincorporated areas surrounding them comprise East Contra Costa County. The cities of Dublin, Pleasanton, Livermore, comprise the Livermore-Amador Valley (sometimes joined with the San Ramon Valley and called the Tri-Valley), or more popularly referred to as the Livermore Valley because Livermore is the largest city in the valley. The San Ramon Valley consists of Alamo, Danville, Diablo and its namesake, San Ramon to the south. The outer East Bay is connected to the inner East Bay by BART, Interstates 80, 580, and 680, and State Route 24 via the Caldecott Tunnel. The outer East Bay is particularly rural in Livermore, while being part suburban in Pleasanton-Dublin, and its infrastructure was mostly built up after World War II. This area remains largely white demographically, although the Hispanic and Filipino populations have grown significantly over the past 2-3 decades, particularly in the Concord area. The region north of the Golden Gate Bridge is known locally as the North Bay. This area encompasses Marin County, Sonoma County, Napa County and extends eastward into Solano County. The city of Fairfield, being part of Solano County, is often considered the eastern most city of the North Bay, though due to a stronger cultural and socioeconomic similarity to many East Bay cities, it is also often considered the northern most city of the East Bay. With few exceptions, this region is quite affluent: Marin County is ranked as the wealthiest in the nation. The North Bay is comparatively rural to the remainder of the Bay Area, with many areas of undeveloped open space, farmland and vineyards. Santa Rosa in Sonoma County is the North Bay’s largest city, with a population of 157,985 and a Metropolitan Statistical Area population of 466,891, making it the fifth largest city in the San Francisco Bay Area. The North Bay is the only section of the Bay Area that is not currently served by a commuter rail service. The lack of transportation services is mainly because of the lack of population mass in the North Bay, and the fact that it is separated completely from the rest of the Bay Area by water, the only access points being the Golden Gate Bridge leading to San Francisco wedding favors, the Richmond-San Rafael and Carquinez Bridges leading to Richmond, and the Benicia-Martinez Bridge leading to Martinez. The area between San Francisco and the South Bay, geographically part of the San Francisco Peninsula, is known locally as the Peninsula. This area consists of a series of small cities and suburban communities in San Mateo County and the northwestern part of Santa Clara County, as well as various towns along the Pacific coast, such as Pacifica and Half Moon Bay. This area is extremely diverse, although it contains significant populations of affluent family households with the exception of East Palo Alto and some parts of Redwood City. Many of the cities and towns had originally been centers of rural life until the post-World War II era when large numbers of middle and upper class Bay area residents moved in and developed the small villages. Since the 1980s the area has seen a large growth rate of middle and upper class families who have settled in cities like Palo Alto, Woodside, Portola Valley, and Atherton as part of the technology boom of Silicon Valley. Many of these families are of foreign background and have significantly contributed to the diversity of the area. The Peninsula is also home to what used to be one of the deadliest cities in the United States, East Palo Alto. Peninsula cities include: Atherton, Belmont, Brisbane, Burlingame, Colma, Daly City, East Palo Alto, Foster City, Half Moon Bay, Hillsborough, Menlo Park, Millbrae, Pacifica, Portola Valley, Redwood City, Redwood Shores, San Bruno, San Carlos, San Mateo, South San Francisco and Woodside. San Francisco is generally placed in a category by itself in terms of culture and geography, and is known locally as “The City.” San Francisco is surrounded by water on three sides; the north, east, and west. It is the cultural and urban center of the region. The city is a population center in the region, as it squeezes approximately 845,000 people in only 46.7 square miles, making it the second most densely populated major city in North America after New York City. On any given day, there can be as many as 1.2 million people in the city because of the commuting population and tourism. San Francisco has the largest commuter population of any city in the Bay Area. The limitations of land area make continued population growth challenging, and has resulted in increased real estate prices. The regional governments in the San Francisco Bay Area, including the Association of Bay Area Governments, the Metropolitan Transportation Commission, the Bay Area Air Quality Management District, and the San Francisco Bay Regional Water Quality Control Board include only the nine counties above in their boundaries or membership. (The BAAQMD includes all of the nine counties except the northern portions of Sonoma and Solano; the RWQCB includes all of San Francisco and the portions of the other eight counties that drain to San Francisco Bay or to the Pacific Ocean.) However, the United States Census Bureau defines the San Jose-San Francisco-Oakland Consolidated Statistical Area as an eleven-county region, including the nine counties above plus Santa Cruz and San Benito Counties. Meanwhile, the California State Parks Department defines the Bay Area as including ten counties, including Santa Cruz backlink checker but excluding San Benito. On the other hand, Santa Cruz and San Benito along with Monterey County are part of a different regional government organization called the Association of Monterey Bay Area Governments. Some residents of the Santa Cruz Mountains (Boulder Creek, Brookdale, Ben Lomond, Felton, Scotts Valley) do not usually consider themselves to be residents of the Bay Area, rather just car rental Alicante of the Santa Cruz Mountains themselves. The Santa Cruz Mountains run along the spine of the San Francisco Peninsula, beginning in San Francisco and continuing loan down to their terminus near the City of Gilroy, effectively creating the Santa Clara Valley. The city of Santa Cruz is geographically isolated from the rest of the San Francisco Bay Area, and is usually considered a part of the Monterey Bay area since the city lies on the north end of the Monterey Bay. The city is also sometimes regarded as the northernmost point of the California Central Coast, which extends along the state’s coastline to Santa Barbara. This partial inclusion of these two counties in the Bay Area is one manifestation of a “spillover” where, because kids furniture of high housing prices in the Bay Area proper, people with Bay Area jobs purchase homes in outlying areas and endure long commutes. This blurs the outer borders of the Bay Area, which now can be said christening gift ideas to spillover not only to the south (Santa Cruz, San Benito, and Monterey counties) but to the Central Valley counties of Sacramento, San Joaquin, Stanislaus, and Yolo. The communities along the southern edge of the Bay are known as the South Bay, Santa Clara Valley, motorhome auctions, and Silicon Valley. Some Peninsula and East Bay towns are sometimes included in the latter. It includes the major city of San Jose, and its suburbs, including the high-tech hubs of Santa Clara, Milpitas, Cupertino, Sunnyvale, Palo Alto and Mountain View as well as many other suburbs like Los Altos, Saratoga, Campbell and Los Gatos and the exurbs of Morgan Hill and Gilroy. Generally, the South Bay is Santa Clara County, but the northwest portion of the county (Palo Alto and Mountain View) is often considered Labradoodle part of the Peninsula instead. Home of Silicon Valley, the South Bay was also an early development of working and middle class families who left the coastal cities of the Eastern Bay south of Oakland and Alameda. Large numbers of families during the post-World War comforter sets era also moved there for the aerospace industry. This area has long been developed and expanded and is often featured as a stereotype of the typical California suburban city. Today, the growth continues, primarily fueled by colon cleanse technology and cheap immigrant labor. The result has been a huge increase in the value of property forcing many middle class families out of the area or into nascent ghettos in older sections of the region. Befitting of the title Silicon Valley, this region is home to a vast number of technology sector giants. Some notable tech companies headquartered in the South Bay are AMD, Intel, Cisco Systems, Hewlett-Packard, Apple, Google, eBay, and Yahoo!. As a consequence of the rapid growth of these and other companies, the South Bay has gained increasing political and economic influence within California, the U.S., and throughout the world. San Jose, the tenth largest city in the United States, and the largest city in the Bay Area, is the financial and cultural center of the Santa Clara Valley. It contains many neighborhoods and a large and diverse demographic comparable to San Francisco. San Jose prides itself on being an environmentally conscious city. It is also home to the NHL hockey team the San Jose Sharks. The height of buildings in the Financial District of Downtown is limited because it is situated directly under Tignanello Handbags the flight path to San Jose International Airport. The benefit is, that the airport is quickly and easily accessible from anywhere in Silicon Valley. Over the past several decades, San Jose weight loss tips has experienced rapid growth. To limit the effects of urban sprawl, planned communities were laid out to control growth. Urban growth boundaries have been established to protect remaining open space (primarily in the surrounding hills and southern border) from development. Most new growth has been urban infill in the form of high density housing, further increasing the population density. The growth rate has slowed, but San Jose continues to be one of how to get rid of love handles the fastest growing cities in the United States. According to the 2007 American Community Survey, the Bay Area’s population was 6.958 million, up from 6.784 million in 2000. In 2000 the racial makeup of the 9 County Bay Area was 58.10% white, 19.01% Asian, 0.54% Pacific Islander, 7.53% black, 0.64% Native American, 9.24% from other races, and 4.93% from two or more races. 19.39% of the population was Hispanic or Latino of any race. 27.36% of the population was foreign born; of this, 51.31% from Asia, 32.46% came from Latin America, 11.39% from Europe, 4.84% from other parts of the world. In 2007 the population density was 1,057 people per square mile. There were 2,499,702 housing units with an average family size of 3.3. Of the 2,499,702 households, approximately one-third were renter occupied housing units, while two-thirds were owner occupied housing units. 12.7% had a female householder 25th wedding anniversary gifts with no husband present, 11.6% of households had someone 65 years of age or older, and 27.4% of households were non-families. Among the 114 Combined Statistical Areas in the United States, San Jose-San Francisco-Oakland has the second highest free web templates educational-attainment in both bachelor’s and master’s degree attainment, and the second highest median household income after Washington-Baltimore-Northern Local Realtors Virginia. The Bay Area is renowned as being among the most liberal areas in the country. According to the Cook Partisan Voting Index (CPVI), congressional districts the Bay Area tends seo to favor Democratic candidates by roughly 40 to 50 percentage points, considerably above the mean for California and the nation overall. All congressional districts in the region turf supplies voted for Democrat Barack Obama over Republican John McCain in the 2008 Presidential Election. Over the last four and a half decades the 9-county Bay Area voted for Republican Gas Fire Pit candidates only twice, once in 1972 for Richard Nixon and again in 1980 for Ronald Reagan, both Californians. The last counties to vote for a Republican Presidential candidate was Napa county and San Benito in 1988 for stamped concrete fort worth George H. W. Bush. The San Francisco Bay Area is one of the wealthiest regions in the U.S, due to the economies of San Francisco and Silicon Valley. The Bay Area has approximately 123,621 millionaire households. Among medium-sized cities, Pleasanton has the highest household income in the country, and Livermore the third highest. However, disposable income is very T1 line comparable with the rest of the country, primarily because the higher cost of living offsets the increased income. While only 26% of households nationwide boast incomes of over $75,000 a year, 48% of households in the teeth grinding mouth guard San Francisco Bay Area enjoy such incomes. The percentage of households with incomes exceeding the $100,000 mark in the Bay Area was double the nationwide percentage. Roughly one third (31%) of households in the San Francisco Bay how to get rid of a yeast infection Area had a six figure income, versus less than 16% at the nationwide level. In June 2003, a study by Stanford University reviewing US Census Bureau statistics determined the median household income in the San Francisco Bay Kent Wedding Photographer Area to be roughly 60% above national average. Overall the largest income bracket in the Bay Area were households making between $100,000 and $150,000 annually, who medical assistant training constituted roughly 18% of households. On a national stained concrete fort worth level the largest income bracket were households with incomes between $30,000 and $40,000 who constituted 13% of all households nationwide. Six of the top ten California places with the highest per capita income learn forex are in the San Francisco Bay Area (Belvedere, Atherton, Woodside, Portola Valley, Diablo). Of the 100 highest income counties by per capita income in the United States, six are in the San Francisco Bay Area (Marin, San Mateo, San Francisco, Santa Clara, Contra Costa, Alameda). According to Forbes Magazine, published auto insurance in 2005, 12 of the top 50 most expensive Zip Codes are in the Bay Area (Atherton, Ross, Diablo, Belvedere-Tiburon, Nicasio, Portola Valley, Los Altos-Los Altos Hills, Los Gatos-Monte Sereno, the Cow Hollow-Marina District of San Francisco, Alamo, and Burlingame-Hillsborough). Forty-seven San Francisco Bay Area rain sounds residents made the Forbes magazine’s 400 richest Americans list, published in 2007. Thirteen live within San Francisco proper, placing it seventh among cities in the world. Among the forty-two were several well-known names such as Steve Jobs, George Lucas, and how to deal with panic attacks Charles Schwab. The highest-ranking resident is Larry Ellison of Oracle at No. 4. He is worth $19.5 billion. Additionally, a Forbes Magazine survey of the super wealthy concluded that the San Francisco Bay Area had the highest concentration of the super wealthy relative to other locations such as New York City and Dallas. “America’s Greediest Cities”. http://www.forbes.com/2007/11/30/greediest-cities-billionaires-forbeslife-cx_ee_1203greed.html. (Forbes Magazine, 12/03/07). A study by Claritas indicates that in 2004, 5% of all households within the San Francisco and San Jose metropolitan areas held $1 million in investable assets. As of 2007, there were approximately 80 public companies hair loss treatment with annual revenues of over $1 billion a year, and 5-10 more private companies. Nearly 2/3 of these are in the Silicon Valley section of the Bay Area. According to the May 2009 Fortune Magazine video converter analysis of the US “Fortune 500″ companies, the combined San Francisco-San Jose metropolitan region ranks second nationally (along with metro Chicago and Houston) small business ideas with 29 companies. (May 4, Fortune Magazine) Additionally, when the combined total revenue of the Fortune 500 list companies is considered, the San Francisco-San Jose region again ranks second nationally after New York with $884 billion. (May 4, Fortune Magazine) As backlinks of 2010, the San Francisco-San Jose region ranks second only to New York City (and ahead of Chicago and Houston) as the number of Fortune 500 companies has increased to 31 companies. (April 2010 Fortune Magazine) Although most working-class affordable seo services households in the United States earn between $20,000–$30,000 a year, working-class households in the Bay Area earn up to $50,000 a year performing the same jobs (such as in the service industry), an income which would be considered middle-class in sell my car other parts of the country. Nevertheless, because of extremely expensive housing costs, disposable income of working-class Bay Area households is only equivalent to no more than the amount of disposable income in other parts of the country because the rest of the income increase goes to pay for an increased cost of living. Therefore, although the great majority of the population is much more affluent] (without taking into account the increased costs of living) compared to the rest of the country, the disposable income is nearly identical, while the some of the value obtained for that portion is significantly smaller due to higher prices for theaters, dining, etc. This enables low cost goods shops, such as variety stores, to maintain a presence in the Bay Area. Because the hills, mountains, and large bodies of water produce such vast geographic diversity within this region, the Bay Area offers a significant variety of microclimates. The areas near the Pacific Ocean are generally characterized Christian Books by relatively small temperature variations during the year, with cool foggy summers Walking Shoes and mild rainy winters. Inland areas, especially those separated from the ocean by hills or mountains, have hotter summers and colder overnight temperatures during the winter. Few residential areas ever experience snow, but peaks over 2,000 feet (610 m) (including Mount St. Helena, Mount Hamilton, Mission Peak, Mount Diablo, and Mount Tamalpais) occasionally receive snow. San Jose at the south end of the Bay averages fewer than 15 inches (380 mm) of rain annually, while Napa at the north end of the Bay averages over 30 and parts of the Santa Cruz Mountains just a few miles west of San Jose get over 55. In the summer, inland regions can be over 40 degrees Fahrenheit (22 degrees Celsius) warmer than the coast. This large temperature contrast muscle building induces a strong pressure gradient, which results in brisk coastal winds which help keep the coastal climate cool and typically, foggy during the summer. Additionally, strong winds are produced through gaps in the coastal ranges such as the Golden Gate, the Carquinez Strait, and the Altamont Pass, the latter the site of extensive wind farms. During Affiliate Marketing the fall and winter seasons, when not stormy, a high pressure area is usually present inland, leading to an offshore flow. While negatively impacting air quality, this also clears fog away from the Pacific shore, and so the best weather in San Francisco can usually be found from mid September through mid October (Related Articles on San Francisco: backlinks, short hair styles, campervan hire australia, accountants essex, jeff paul, wealthy affiliate, Albuquerque Homes for Sale, best gaming mouse, gas pressure washer, mortgage modification, computer consultant, salsa classes london, playstation2 video games, ideal weight for women, small business ideas, wedding favors Settlements on the Pacific Coast, took place as part of this inland, rather than coastal fur trade. After merging with the North West Company in 1821, the British-owned Hudson’s Bay Company sent parties out annually from Fort Astoria and Fort Vancouver into the Sacramento and the San Joaquin valleys as far south as French Camp on the San Joaquin River, with the goal of denuding the lands of modern day Oregon and California of all fur bearers, so that the Americans lawyers would “have no inducement to proceed thither”. Although twentieth century naturalists were skeptical that beaver were historically extant in coastal streams or the Bay itself, earlier records show that Free iPhone the California Golden beaver (Castor canadensis ssp. subauratus) was one of the most valued of the animals taken, and apparently was found in great abundance. Thomas McKay reported that in one year the Hudson’s Bay Company took 4,000 beaver skins on the shores of San Francisco Bay. At the time, these pelts sold for $2.50 a pound or about $4 each. Historical evidence of Bay Area beaver includes reference by Captain John Sutter who around 1840 recorded that 1,500 beaver pelts were sold “at a trifling value” by the Indians to Mission San José, the latter only 25 miles from the town of Los Gatos. In addition, in 1828 fur trapper Michel La Framboise travelled from the Bonaventura River to San Francisco and then the missions of San José, San Francisco Solano and San Rafael Arcángel. La Framboise stated that “the Bay of San Francisco abounds in beaver”, and that he “made his best hunt in the vicinity of the missions”. Beaver in the Bay Area used car prices were likely wiped out by the mid-nineteenth century. Beaver have recolonized Kirker Creek in the Dow Wetlands of Pittsburg, Fairfield Creek in Cordelia, Alhambra Creek in Martinez, Southampton Creek in Benicia State Recreation Area, the Napa Sonoma Marsh in north San Pablo Bay, the Napa River, and Sonoma Creek. These beaver likely emigrated from the Delta which possibly once sustained the densest beaver populations in North America. In 1840, explorer Captain Thomas Farnham wrote that beaver were very numerous near the mouths of the coffee pods Sacramento and San Joaquin rivers and on the hundreds of small “rushcovered” islands. Farnham, who had travelled extensively in North America, said: “There is probably no spot of equal extent in the whole continent of America which contains so many of these muchsought animals.” In addition, beaver Hen Party were re-introduced in the 1930’s in Pescadero Creek and sometime before 1993 in Los Gatos Creek where they continue to thrive. Despite its urban and industrial character, San Francisco Bay and the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta remain perhaps California’s most important ecological habitats. California’s Dungeness crab, Pacific halibut, and Pacific salmon fisheries rely on the bay as a nursery. The few remaining salt marshes now represent most of California’s remaining salt marsh, supporting a number of endangered species and providing key ecosystem services such as filtering pollutants and sediments from the rivers. Most famously, the bay is a key link in the Pacific Flyway. Millions of waterfowl annually use the bay shallows as a refuge. Two endangered species of birds are found here: the California least tern and the California clapper rail. Exposed bay muds provide important feeding areas for shorebirds, but underlying layers of iPhone deals bay mud pose geological hazards for structures near many parts of the bay perimeter. San Francisco Bay provided the nation’s first wildlife refuge, Oakland’s artificial Lake Merritt (constructed in the 1860s) and America’s first urban National Wildlife Refuge, the Don Edwards San Francisco Bay National Wildlife Refuge (SFBNWR) (1972). The Bay is also invaded by non-native species. Steelhead trout (Oncorhyncus mykiss) populations in California have dramatically declined due to human and natural causes. The Central California Coast distinct population segment (DPS) was listed as threatened under the Federal Endangered Species Act on August 18, 1997; threatened status was reaffirmed on January 5, 2006. This DPS includes all naturally spawned anadromous steelhead populations below natural and manmade impassable barriers in California streams from the Russian River to Aptos Creek, and the drainages of San Francisco, San Pablo, and Suisun Bays. The U.S. National Marine Fisheries Service has a detailed description of threats. The Central California Coast Coho salmon (Oncorhynchus kisutch) Evolutionary Significant Unit (ESU) population is the most endangered of the many troubled salmon populations on the West Coast. It was listed as threatened on October 31, 1996 and later downgraded to endangered status on June 28, 2005. The ESU includes all naturally spawned populations of coho salmon from Punta Gorda in northern California family coat of arms south to and including the San Lorenzo River in central California, as well as populations in tributaries to San Francisco Bay. The National Park Service has made major recent investments in restoring the tidal wetlands at the mouths of Lagunitas Creek and Redwood Creek including levee removal and placement of large woody debris in the creeks, which provide shelter to salmonids during heavy stream flows and flooding. Lagunitas Creek’s coho population roofing company is especially important, as 80% of the ESU depends on this stream draining the north slope of Mount Tamalpais. This year’s coho count dropped to 64 from an average of 600 in previous years. Tellingly, much of the SFBNWR consists of salt evaporation ponds purchased or leased from Leslie Salt Company and its successor, Cargill Corporation. These salt ponds produce salt for a variety of industrial purposes, including chlorine bleach and plastics manufacture, as well as supporting dense populations of brine shrimp, and therefore serving as feeding areas for waterfowl. In 2003, California and Cargill entered one of the largest private land purchases in American history, with the state and federal governments paying about $200 million for 16,000 acres (65 km²) of salt ponds in the south bay. SFBNWR and state biologists hope to restore some of the recently purchased ponds as tidal wetlands. The seasonal range of water temperature in the Bay is from about 8 °C (46 °F) to about 23 °C (73 °F). Humphrey the Whale, a humpback whale (Megaptera novaeangliae), entered San Francisco Bay twice on errant migrations, and was successfully rescued and redirected each time in the late 1980s and early 1990s. This occurred again with Dawn and Delta a mother and calf in 2007. Industrial, mining, and other uses of mercury have resulted in a widespread distribution in the bay, with uptake in the bay’s phytoplankton and contamination of its sportfish. In November 2007, a ship named Cosco Busan collided with the San Francisco – Oakland Bay Bridge and spilled over 58,000 gallons of bunker fuel, creating the largest oil spill in the region since 1996.