October 2022 marks the 50th anniversary of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's (NOAA) National Marine Sanctuary System. To celebrate, we’ve created 3D Augmented Reality displaying custom artwork and educational information made by the incredible team at NOAA celebrating the wildlife that thrives in these protected waters around the nation.

Gray’s Reef National Marine Sanctuary protects a vibrant hard bottom 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, and 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.

About the Artwork
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 an 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.

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

ARTWORK BY : Matt McIntosh 

Official website: https://monitor.noaa.gov/