Archaeologists exploring sunken ships off the Bay Area coast

SAN FRANCISCO (KGO) -- It may not be as famous as the Bermuda Triangle but hundreds of ships sit on the bottom of the Pacific Ocean, just west of the Bay Area. Now, researchers with NOAA, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, have started a project to visit wreck sites located within the Gulf of the Farallones National Marine Sanctuary.

Generations of sailors have faced a variety of dangers just outside the Golden Gate. "This is a difficult part of coast. First off, it's a funnel in which ships have to pass coming into the port. And it's just as if you're coming off the freeway onto an on-ramp or an off-ramp - wrecks happen. You also have an area where you don't have a lot of room to maneuver if you're a sailing ship and you lose the wind or the fog comes in," explains James Delgado, the director of the NOAA Maritime Heritage Program.

Part of the research will look at how sea creatures have turned shipwrecks into homes.

The earliest known wreck dates back to 1595.