Coho salmon in Redwood Creek

Golden Gate National Recreation Area cannot escape the influences of the ocean and bay waters that surround it. Notice the fisherman on park beaches or piers, and you will begin to realize the bounty of fish in the park. Starting from the offshore waters of the Pacific ocean, a multitude of species travel along currents past and through the Golden Gate. The San Francisco Bay is a world of its own, supporting estuarine species that can handle the fluctuating salinity levels. Intertidal areas of the park provide important spawning and rearing habitat for fish.

Commercially important species such as the Pacific herring spawn in Tomales Bay, the intertidal rocks of Alcatraz, and other central bay rocky shorelines. Anchovy are the most abundant fish in the Bay, entering seasonally to forage and spawn, and are important to the economy of West Coast fisheries. 

The intertidal zone supplies fishermen with surf perch, cabezons, blennies, rock fish, pricklebacks, mussels and sea urchins. Typical estuarine fish include brown smoothhound, pile surfperch and white croaker. Coho salmon and steelhead trout maintain their annual migrations up Redwood Creek, Olema Creek and Lagunitas Creek. Green and white sturgeon can still be found in lower Lagunitas Creek, Tomales Bay, and the San Francisco Bay-Estuary. Limited information about fish species and abundance is available from beach seines and trawls conducted by the California Department of Fish and Game.