Gray's Reef
National Marine Sanctuary

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Gray's Reef National Marine Sanctuary protects a vibrant hardbottom area off the Georgia coast. About 65 feet below the surface, the reef’s rocky, hard bottom, and scattered ledges provide a home for an abundance of marine life. Crabs, lobsters, soft corals, sponges, sea stars, and other organisms form a dense carpet of living creatures called a “live bottom." The reef attracts more than 200 species of fish, loggerhead sea turtles, and is a known calving area for the North Atlantic right whale. It's a popular destination for scuba divers, recreational anglers, and boaters.

Learn more about Gray's Reef National Marine Sanctuary at graysreef.noaa.gov.

A graphic map of the Georgia coastline showing Gray’s Reef National Marine Sanctuary. The map features a light grey coastline with black arrows pointing to Savannah and Sapelo Island. The sanctuary is indicated by a solid teal rectangle located in the ocean to the southeast of Sapelo Island.
Gray's Reef National Marine Sanctuary is situated off the coast of Georgia, this map highlights the sanctuary's location relative to Savannah and Sapelo Island.

Quick Facts

Location: 19 miles off the coast of Sapelo Island, Georgia

Protected Area: 22 square miles

Designation: January 1981

Habitats:

  • Ledges and crevices
  • Flat and sandy areas
  • Rocky outcroppings
  • Overhangs and undercuts
  • Sponge fields
  • Tabletop ledges

Key Species:

  • Algae
  • Black sea bass
  • Carpet sponges
  • Grouper
  • Soft corals
  • Loggerhead sea turtle
  • North Atlantic right whale
  • Nurse shark
  • Red snapper
  • Sea whips
  • Tunicates
  • Vase sponge

Sanctuary Highlight

Sunset from the back deck of a large vessel at sea
Read

Restoring Deep Habitats In and Around Gray's Reef National Marine Sanctuary

A team of experts embarks on an unprecedented restoration expedition

Multimedia

Our Planet is an Ocean Planet: Earth Is Blue.

No matter where you are, the ocean and Great Lakes are in your hands. We hope these images and videos from Gray's Reef National Marine Sanctuary inspire you to help care for our ocean and to spread the word that Earth isn't green—it's blue.

Gray's Reef is a marine oasis. On the surface, recreational anglers try for grouper, sea bass, and snapper, while a northern gannet flies overhead, and a NOAA weather buoy collects data. Beneath the waves, divers share the waters with a host of colorful tunicates, sponges, soft corals, and other residents of the live-bottom reef, like a loggerhead sea turtle, octopuses, nurse sharks, schools of spadefish, jellyfish, and North Atlantic right whales.
Underwater view of Gray's Reef National Marine Sanctuary, a vibrant live-bottom reef teeming with schooling fish and marine life.
A diverse array of fish swim above large, pale sponges and colorful corals on a vibrant live-bottom reef.
A pair of fish swim near the seafloor next to sponges and other invertebrates.
Underwater view of large schools of Atlantic spadefish and smaller tomtate fish swimming above a rocky coral reef at Gray's Reef National Marine Sanctuary.
360-degree underwater view of a live-bottom reef on a sandy seafloor, teeming with marine life and covered in sponges.

National Marine Sanctuary System

national marine Sanctuary system map

Safeguarding America's Premier Marine Places

From Washington state to the Gulf of America and from the Great Lakes to the Pacific Islands, the National Marine Sanctuary System protects 18 underwater parks spanning over 629,000 square miles of ocean and Great Lakes waters. By investing in innovative solutions, we strengthen these iconic places to address 21st-century challenges while supporting America's commerce and tourism. These unique locations inspire people to visit, value, and steward our nation’s iconic ocean and Great Lakes waters.