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Group San Francisco

At the foot of Yerba Buena Island, just south of where the east span of the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge crosses the island.

Formerly land that was part of a Lighthouse Service Signal Station and Buoy Depot established in 1872, a portion of Yerba Buena Island came under U. S. Coast Guard control when the Lighthouse Service was formally incorporated into the U. S. Coast Guard in 1939. Since then, the Coast Guard has operated some sort of search and rescue and law enforcement unit here. In 1970, the current Group San Francisco administration and housing complex was built and the Group was formally established as a tenant command of Base San Francisco. With the Coast Guard reorganization of 1987, Base San Francisco was disestablished and its functions divided between the newly-created Maintenance and Logistics Command Pacific and Group San Francisco.

Group San Francisco performs its assigned missions in a geographical area which includes: All ocean waters and islands in an area bounded on the North by a line bearing 270 degrees true from the Sonoma-Mendocino county line on the coast at 38-45.5N; on the West by the outermost extent of the U.S. Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ); and on the South by a line bearing 240 degrees true from the Monterey-San Luis Obispo county line at the coast at 35-47.5N.

Inland units include The California Counties of San Mateo, San Francisco, Marin, Sonoma, Napa, Yolo, Sutter, Yuba, Sierra, Nevada, Placer, El Dorado, Sacremento, Solano, Contra Costa, Alameda, Santa Clara, Stanislaus, San Joaquin, Toulumne, Calaveras, Amador, Alpine, Monterey, Santa Cruz, San Benito, Merced, Mariposa, Madera, Fresno, and Mono; all Nevada counties except Clark county; all Utah counties except Washington, Kane, Garfield, and San Juan counties; and Sweetwater county, Wyoming.

The Group's patrol boats patrol northern, central and southern California. The central California patrol area, managed by Coast Guard Group San Francisco, includes the ocean area bounded by the Gualala River (Sonoma/Mendocino County line) to the north, Monterey/San Luis Obispo County line to the south, 200 nautical miles out to sea to the west, and includes the waters of San Francisco Bay. Northern California patrols are managed by Coast Guard Group Humboldt Bay and range north to the Oregon/California border, and southern California patrols to the Mexican border are managed by Coast Guard Group Los Angeles-Long Beach and Activities San Diego.

The patrol boats are primarily law enforcement platforms. Underway periods are spent patrolling assigned areas to enforce all Federal laws. Patrols are coordinated with the National Marine Fisheries Service and other Federal agencies, as well as State agencies such as the California Department of Fish and Game. Although Coast Guard cutters cannot enforce State or local law, they often document such violations and report them to appropriate agencies. State agency personnel often accompany the cutters on patrol. Like all operational Coast Guard cutters, Group San Francisco Patrol Boats also respond to search and rescue cases when on patrol or when in a high readiness status inport.