This sort of thing is a huge problem here in New Zealand. The only native mammal here is a bat, we have mostly birds which evolved for a really long time with only avian predators. So they’re hilariously poorly adapted for surviving standard predators (cats, rats, dogs etc) which first the Maori and subsequently Europeans brought. For example, many of them are flightless and tend to freeze when threatened - works well against eagles but is a terrible idea when threatened by a cat.
As a result, we have many animals, mostly birds, which are totally unique and also critically endangered. Many of them can only survive on offshore islands which have been comprehensively cleared of predators at vast effort and expense. The islands need to be relatively accessible since humans have to get to them to maintain them, but it turns out that once in a while a predator will swim quite vast distances for no apparent reason, and it only takes one to mess up years of painstaking work. Quite apart from killing a bunch of birds whose total remaining numbers might range from the tens to the hundreds of individuals.
Alcatraz isn't really that far from land, about a mile away. They have events where you can swim to and from it. The currents make it dangerous, but the distance is unremarkable.
There are local clubs which swim from the island on a regular basis, year 'round. If not absolutely daily, several times a week.
Water temps vary by time of year, but are particularly mild from late summer through late fall. Even winter-time temps aren't particularly challenging. A dog could easily make the swim.
Currents are a challenge, but mostly if you're planning on landing at a specific point along the shore. If your goal is simply to make it to shore, they're far less an issue. Just swim cross-channel and you'll make it.
The physiological and psychological challenges are greatly overblown.
The 36th annual Rottnest Channel Swim will be held on Saturday, 21 February 2026.
Mind you, that's largely Australians who grow up swimming more than many US Navy SEALs do.
Come on down, the waters fine, the sharks rarely nip.
I'm suprised to see a HN comment along the lines of "most people don't ...", after all, most people don't program computers, start million and billion dollar companies, build out datacentres, fly planes, ... etc. The site is littered with people confidently doing things most people do not.
Worth noting that the water in San Francisco can be up to ~20 degrees colder than the water off the coast of Australia. Which adds to the difficulty some.
Sure, there are also a number of cold water long distance swims - the English channel is famous, the Tasmanian ones less so .. but they're cold, long, and have some wicked currents depending which one you take.
The Rottnest swim is just a long warm bath for those that like to dip a toe in and start easy.
To the best of my knowledge few ever attempt the horizontal falls even at slack tide - the waters are warm but the salties and the sharks can be off putting .. come tide change the stoppers will eat people.
> than the water off the coast of Australia.
I should note that Australia is a large continent with an area equal to that of mainland contiguous USofA .. it's not all Gold Coast Qld, just as the US is not all Florida.
Eg: the current water tempreture in San Francisco ( 12.5°C / 54.5°F ) is on par with the September water tempreture when surfing offshore breaks in southern Western Australia (not Perth, the south coast where all the fun is).
If you're a regular to the Australian beaches and headlines I visit you'll see a shark every week .. sometimes daily - and after five decades of swimming once a week if not daily you might get brushed up against once or twice - but it's unlikely you'll be bitten.
You will, however, almost certainly know or meet someone that can flash the scars of a bite.
As far as sea misadventures go, easily the funniest thing I've seen (sorry, we're like that, laughing at danger) was a young kid surfing with a pod of dolphins getting fully pancaked by a breaching dolphin that cleared a wave top, made serious air, and landed smack centre on the kid and his board.
He (the kid) got winded pretty hard, did get his (damaged) board back, and was laughing about it afterwards.
Direct ecological management is unfortunately a bit of a game of using a bucket to fix a leaky ship. The equilibrium that established the ecosystem dynamics in the first place is disrupted. A new equilibrium might form over time, but we enforce the old one because that is what we documented when we first came to a place, even though it is no longer thermodynamically favorable.
Ironically, the ecology of an island itself came from events like a random animal swimming to it over the historical record and finding sufficient spare resources or an ecological niche they could satisfy sufficiently to reproduce. Distance from mainland and species diversity is very strongly correlated reflecting increasingly scarce odds of these "heroic journeys" at greater distances. Species themselves are capable of exhausting an islands resources and putting themselves into local extinction even with no human intervention (such as the case of the last of the mammoths on wrangel island).
A lot of work and money has gone in to preventing zebra mussels from spreading to new lakes in Minnesota. Think free sites for people to have their boats cleaned when they’re going from lake to lake, PR campaigns, etc.
My parent’s small pond, which has never seen a boat or any other real human activity, got them before the big lake it’s connected to did. Clearly there was some other way they could spread, presumably by bird.
Anyways, one by one every lake in the area no has zebra mussels. Even if they would only spread via human, it was clearly only a matter of time. As much as they suck (they’re sharp and attach themselves to basically anything in the lake) I’m not sure the expense has been worth simply delaying the inevitable.
> I’m not sure the expense has been worth simply delaying the inevitable.
Now that I'm jaded I ask myself how many government and private sector jobs were "created" (in sarcasm quotes because broken windows fallacy) washing all those boats for free over the years and whether they even expected to prevent the spread or if the spread is the justification for expansion.
Those are actually great jobs for the government to be creating. Having a workforce of people dedicated to maintaining the environment is invaluable. These people are so poorly paid and driven by passion for their work the government is getting a great deal on all the hard work they do.
It's really odd stuff, humans are obsessed with declaring one moment in time as the "right one" and then trying to keep it like that forever. Evolution? We need to document gods work! People driving their SUV to protests for "conservation", the irony is thick.
We can acknowledge historical change while still acting to prevent unnecessary modern destruction. To my set of values, these ecosystems are worth protection from the accelerated decay almost always caused by human development, and losing them to indifference is a permanent tragedy.
I would be surprised if the Coyote would be quick to get back into the water after such a difficult swim. It would, I suspect, want to recover and find food. So I support the theory the Coyote is just hiding somewhere. The island is small but not that small that it couldn’t hide somewhere.
When they explained why it hadn't been found, the quote was "I suspect the coyote was swept away...", but then later in the article it seemed clear the 'swept away' was in reference to the SF->Alcatraz journey, given the prevailing currents reported by the boat captain.
But then later in the article they re-stated the idea that it had been swept away _off_ the island, which doesn't really make sense given the currents.
If you time things right, and don't get swept out to sea, it's the 54 degree water that is the real danger. I'm no medical person, but it sure seems like that the animal is suffering from hypothermia and fatigue. I'm sure it'll have happy hunting once it recovers.
I didn't think anti-bot stuff could get more annoying but to sit there and hold a button for like 20 seconds straight with nothing else on the screen to look at is incredibly boring and annoying and I gave up and left the page 3/4 of the way through it.
The article speculates that this coyote might attempt to establish a pack on Alcatraz, by calling until a mate makes the same 1.5 mile swim in treacherous cold water.
I wish everyone the best of luck here, but I can't shake the image of the lonely guy unwittingly calling young females in proestrus to their likely deaths. An appropriately gender-swapped Coyote Siren of Alcatraz.
Maybe female coyotes are smart enough to understand SF Bay tides and currents, or just to ignore the crazy loud guy. I sure hope so.
It seems too good to be true, honestly. The idea that this is how nature works, that it is indeed so metal, and it is actually just we, puny humans, who find the swim so treacherous in the pursuit of lust and eventually love. I’d swim to Alcatraz for pussy, if it was the only pussy for hundreds of kilometers around. I suppose.
Alcatraz being the last place on Earth I would expect to see such savage beauty is of no consequence to the fact that it is we, humans, who make Alcatraz so treacherous. Mother Nature sees it as an opportunity to breed hella puppies.
Most of the island is off-limits to tourists. It's administered by the National Park Service.
Coyotes are territorial and usually have fairly large ranges. Alcatraz is small, but probably big enough to keep a breeding coyote pair well-fed and mostly out of the way of humans.
But the younguns will need their own territory after a year or so, and needing to cross the Bay to Marin or SF City would be have very low rates of success!
Only dumbass mfs who let their pets off leash (I live in Pac Heights, you're supposed to have a leash on your dog at Lafayette Park and yet every day I see morons letting their dogs off leash OUTSIDE THE DAMN DOG PARK AREA. FUCK OFF!!!!) or let their small children go without supervision where they're not supposed to are at risk.
The worst part is that the authorities will put down the coyote (for being a coyote) and I hate reading stories about coyote culling.
Life would be so much better if morons were fined and eventually displaced into oblivion for making dumbass decisions that could have been easily avoided if they were not so negligent.
But yeah its nice to live in a city with cool nature like that. We have parrots, raccoons (there's a little family of them living near my home), coyotes, owls, hawks. Love it!
I recently spent a few days photographing wildlife just north of SFO. Your coyotes are so small and adorable compared to the coywolves we have here in the Northeast. I was actually focusing on bobcats, but I got some great shots of coyotes too. https://imgur.com/a/V8yarK4
Wild animals are going to do what they do. I certainly understand wildlife management programs, but I've never understood the vilification of animals like coyotes, at least in modern times.
As a result, we have many animals, mostly birds, which are totally unique and also critically endangered. Many of them can only survive on offshore islands which have been comprehensively cleared of predators at vast effort and expense. The islands need to be relatively accessible since humans have to get to them to maintain them, but it turns out that once in a while a predator will swim quite vast distances for no apparent reason, and it only takes one to mess up years of painstaking work. Quite apart from killing a bunch of birds whose total remaining numbers might range from the tens to the hundreds of individuals.
Water temps vary by time of year, but are particularly mild from late summer through late fall. Even winter-time temps aren't particularly challenging. A dog could easily make the swim.
Currents are a challenge, but mostly if you're planning on landing at a specific point along the shore. If your goal is simply to make it to shore, they're far less an issue. Just swim cross-channel and you'll make it.
The physiological and psychological challenges are greatly overblown.
* https://rottnestchannelswim.com.au/
* https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rottnest_Channel_Swim
Mind you, that's largely Australians who grow up swimming more than many US Navy SEALs do.Come on down, the waters fine, the sharks rarely nip.
I'm suprised to see a HN comment along the lines of "most people don't ...", after all, most people don't program computers, start million and billion dollar companies, build out datacentres, fly planes, ... etc. The site is littered with people confidently doing things most people do not.
* https://www.iswimhappy.com/tas
* https://www.derwentriverbigswim.com/
The Rottnest swim is just a long warm bath for those that like to dip a toe in and start easy.
To the best of my knowledge few ever attempt the horizontal falls even at slack tide - the waters are warm but the salties and the sharks can be off putting .. come tide change the stoppers will eat people.
> than the water off the coast of Australia.
I should note that Australia is a large continent with an area equal to that of mainland contiguous USofA .. it's not all Gold Coast Qld, just as the US is not all Florida.
Eg: the current water tempreture in San Francisco ( 12.5°C / 54.5°F ) is on par with the September water tempreture when surfing offshore breaks in southern Western Australia (not Perth, the south coast where all the fun is).
You will, however, almost certainly know or meet someone that can flash the scars of a bite.
Shark bites - rarer than the headlines make out.
_However_ shark behaviour may well be changing due to increased human waste changing ocean patterns: https://theconversation.com/4-shark-bites-in-48-hours-how-wh...
Jellyfish - seasonal and locational. There are areas where you just shouldn't go in the water for a couple of weeks. Nasty.
Melbourne's currently got a bloom of lion's mane jellyfish that'll leave a welt (tingly red strip on the skin) for a couple of days.
* https://www.abc.net.au/news/2026-01-19/lions-mane-jellyfish-...
As far as sea misadventures go, easily the funniest thing I've seen (sorry, we're like that, laughing at danger) was a young kid surfing with a pod of dolphins getting fully pancaked by a breaching dolphin that cleared a wave top, made serious air, and landed smack centre on the kid and his board.
He (the kid) got winded pretty hard, did get his (damaged) board back, and was laughing about it afterwards.
The dolphin was not available for comment.
( Addendum: Dolphins being cheeky is more common than reported in W.Australia - here's one that did get captured on video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oa7dSv3NBB0 )
Ironically, the ecology of an island itself came from events like a random animal swimming to it over the historical record and finding sufficient spare resources or an ecological niche they could satisfy sufficiently to reproduce. Distance from mainland and species diversity is very strongly correlated reflecting increasingly scarce odds of these "heroic journeys" at greater distances. Species themselves are capable of exhausting an islands resources and putting themselves into local extinction even with no human intervention (such as the case of the last of the mammoths on wrangel island).
My parent’s small pond, which has never seen a boat or any other real human activity, got them before the big lake it’s connected to did. Clearly there was some other way they could spread, presumably by bird.
Anyways, one by one every lake in the area no has zebra mussels. Even if they would only spread via human, it was clearly only a matter of time. As much as they suck (they’re sharp and attach themselves to basically anything in the lake) I’m not sure the expense has been worth simply delaying the inevitable.
Now that I'm jaded I ask myself how many government and private sector jobs were "created" (in sarcasm quotes because broken windows fallacy) washing all those boats for free over the years and whether they even expected to prevent the spread or if the spread is the justification for expansion.
I remember visiting Angel Island (a 0.5mi swim) and seeing the abundance of raccoons they have, and asked a ranger how they got there. They also swam.
Growing up on a lake I would regularly watch deer swim the quarter mile back and forth between the shore and a nearby island, with no problem.
https://angelisland.org/history/ayala-cove/
When they explained why it hadn't been found, the quote was "I suspect the coyote was swept away...", but then later in the article it seemed clear the 'swept away' was in reference to the SF->Alcatraz journey, given the prevailing currents reported by the boat captain.
But then later in the article they re-stated the idea that it had been swept away _off_ the island, which doesn't really make sense given the currents.
Impressive though.
I wish everyone the best of luck here, but I can't shake the image of the lonely guy unwittingly calling young females in proestrus to their likely deaths. An appropriately gender-swapped Coyote Siren of Alcatraz.
Maybe female coyotes are smart enough to understand SF Bay tides and currents, or just to ignore the crazy loud guy. I sure hope so.
Alcatraz being the last place on Earth I would expect to see such savage beauty is of no consequence to the fact that it is we, humans, who make Alcatraz so treacherous. Mother Nature sees it as an opportunity to breed hella puppies.
I guess I hope that not too many suitresses are lost to the passion before he finds his mate of elevated luck and/or constitution.
Any resulting pups are going to have to make some difficult decisions though.
(Actually, assuming he's alive and found, relocating him is probably the most humane option)
Coyotes are territorial and usually have fairly large ranges. Alcatraz is small, but probably big enough to keep a breeding coyote pair well-fed and mostly out of the way of humans.
But the younguns will need their own territory after a year or so, and needing to cross the Bay to Marin or SF City would be have very low rates of success!
I really like the coyotes here.
Only dumbass mfs who let their pets off leash (I live in Pac Heights, you're supposed to have a leash on your dog at Lafayette Park and yet every day I see morons letting their dogs off leash OUTSIDE THE DAMN DOG PARK AREA. FUCK OFF!!!!) or let their small children go without supervision where they're not supposed to are at risk.
The worst part is that the authorities will put down the coyote (for being a coyote) and I hate reading stories about coyote culling.
Life would be so much better if morons were fined and eventually displaced into oblivion for making dumbass decisions that could have been easily avoided if they were not so negligent.
But yeah its nice to live in a city with cool nature like that. We have parrots, raccoons (there's a little family of them living near my home), coyotes, owls, hawks. Love it!
i do feel bad for the cats they sometimes eat, but unless they're strays house cats should not be let outside. otherwise, nature always wins.