Introduction to the Marine Reserve

Between Florence and Yachats lies the Cape Perpetua area, a biodiverse recreation mecca home to lush coastal rainforests and deep cultural history. But past the coastline also lies the largest Oregon marine reserve. The Cape Perpetua Marine Reserve is dedicated to the research and conservation of ocean ecosystem, where take of wildlife and human development is restricted. Cape Perpetua area also contains two Marine Protected Areas (MPAs) and a seabird protection area. Unlike the reserve, these protected areas allow limited take in their boundaries.

Within the reserve, creatures large and small live in various habitats from sand, gravel, to some of the most biologically diverse rocky intertidal habitats anywhere on the Pacific Northwest. These creatures live in a unique ecosystem shaped by the ever-changing weather and tides. Some days, strong winds will pull cold, oxygen-rich water and plankton up to the surface in a process called upwelling, while on other, more stagnant days, the water loses its oxygen and becomes hypoxic.

Because of its dynamic environment, the Cape Perpetua Marine Reserve is home to a plethora of wildlife such as whales, sea lions, seals, pelicans, cormorants, rockfish, and intertidal invertebrates that fuel a complex food web between the land and sea.

The Cape Perpetua area, on the central coastal of Oregon, includes:

• Cape Perpetua Marine Reserve (Oregon’s largest) and Protected Areas
• numerous state parks
• Audubon’s Ten Mile Creek Sanctuary
• Siuslaw National Forest
• Cape Perpetua Scenic Area
• Rock Creek and Cummins Creek Wilderness Areas
• a Globally Significant Important Bird Area for the Marbled Murrelet, recently uplisted in endangered on the Endangered Species Act (ESA)
• the Oregon Islands National Wildlife Refuge
• Oregon’s Ocean Shore State Recreation Area
• natural resources that provide habitats for migratory and resident seabirds, marine mammals, native fish and wildlife
• cultural resources
• places for people to recreate