Orford Reef

Pacific islands of OregonPort Orford, OregonReefs of the Pacific OceanReefs of the United States

Orford Reef is a reef located off Cape Blanco on the southern coast of Oregon in the United States. The reef is situated around eight small rock islands: Best Rock, Long Brown Rock, Unnamed Rock, Square White Rock, Seal Rock, Conical White Rock, West Conical Rock, and Arch Rock.The reef includes forests of bull kelp up to 100 feet (30 m) long, which provide protective habitat for numerous animals, including the bat ray, big skate, broadnose sevengill shark, cabezon, kelp bass, leopard shark, spiny dogfish, kelp greenling, plumose anemone, and numerous species of rockfish. The reef also supports more than 39,000 seabirds, including 5% of the common murre nesting population in Oregon. The Oregon Coast Aquarium in Newport, Oregon contains a simulated version of Orford Reef in its Passages of the Deep exhibit.

Excerpt from the Wikipedia article Orford Reef (License: CC BY-SA 3.0, Authors, Images).