What students want to know about Gray's Reef (answers below) 1. Where is Gray's Reef National Marine Sanctuary? 2. What is Gray's Reef National Marine Sanctuary? 3. Why is it called a National Marine Sanctuary? 4. How deep is the water at Gray's Reef? 5. How big is Gray's Reef? 6. What types of animals can you find at Gray's Reef? 7. Why is it called "Gray's" Reef? >8. How do you get to Gray's Reef 9. How long would it take to get there? 10. Why do we need to protect Gray's Reef? 11. What type of research is done at Gray's Reef? 12. How is Gray's Reef protected? 13. What can I do at Gray's Reef? 14. Is it dangerous to dive at Gray's Reef? 15. Is the water at Gray's Reef cold? 16. What types of sharks are found at Gray's Reef? 17. How do corals eat? 18. Isn't Gray's Reef livebottom just like a coral reef? 19. How well can divers see when going down so deep into the ocean to study Gray's Reef? 20. What can I do to help protect Gray's Reef?     ANSWERS 1. Gray's Reef is located 20 miles offshore of Sapelo Island near Savannah, Georgia. 2. Gray's Reef is an area in the ocean off the Georgia coast known as a "live bottom" or "hard bottom" habitat. The rock that forms the reef is mostly sandstone and limestone that was formed between two and five million years ago! The rock features rise up to three meters (about 9 feet) off the sandy bottom and gives a place for many different types of animals to grow. These animals include hard and soft corals, sponges, and sea anemones. Most of the sea bottom off the Georgia coast is fairly flat, sandy and featureless. Gray's Reef is important because the rock provides a home and foundation for hundreds of different species of plants and animals. A vertical food web exists from tiny plankton to enormous right whales. 3. In 1972 Congress passed the Marine Protection, Research and Sanctuaries Act. This Act was passed to protect nationally important marine areas. The sanctuary program is run by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, also called NOAA. A national marine sanctuary can be in coastal and ocean waters and in the Great Lakes. There are currently 14 national marine sanctuaries in the United States. 4. The water at Gray's Reef is 50 to 70 feet deep. (That's 15 to 21 meters.) 5. Gray's Reef is 22 square miles. 6. Gray's Reef is home to many types of animals. In fact, it is home to over 150 species of fish! Fish are a part of the group of animals known as vertebrates, or animals with backbones. Some examples of these fish are black sea bass, snapper, grouper, mackerel, gobies, Queen angelfish, barracuda, nurse sharks, and moray eels. Some of these fish only live there part of the year depending on the temperature of the water. These fish all feed in different parts of the reef. For example some small fish feed in small hiding places in the reef while other larger fish feed in the waters above the reef. Gray's Reef is also home to many types of animals which don't have backbones, called invertebrates. These include animals like corals, comb jellies, sea anemones, sea stars, crabs, lobsters, squid, octopus, and snails. With all of those tasty invertebrates to eat female loggerhead sea turtles find Gray's Reef a nice place to live during the summer nesting season. These turtles lay eggs on the beaches and then go out to the reef to eat and rest. They will do this from two to five times a season. These are very important animals to the reef since they are endangered. The waters off the Georgia coast are also home to the world's most endangered large whale, the northern right whale, during the winter months. In addition to the northern right whale bottlenose dolphins, spotted dolphin, humpback whales, Byrd's whale and any one of about 21 rare species of whales are known to occur in this part of the world! 7. The sanctuary was named after Milton B. Gray, a marine scientist, who studied the area in the1960's while working for the University of Georgia Marine Institute on Sapelo Island. The Milton Gray collection of invertebrates of Gray's Reef is housed at the Natural History Museum at the University of Georgia in Athens, Georgia. 8. In order to get to the reef you must take a boat. Most of the visitors to the reef are sportfishing off private boats. Charter fishing boats and dive boats also frequent the reef leaving from marinas all along the Georgia coast. The shortest route is directly east from Sapelo Island. 9. Most boats cruise at speeds of 10-20 knots (or nautical miles per hour.) Since the reef is about 20 nautical miles from Sapelo Island a trip from that point would take 1-2 hours. 10. There are many reasons why we would want to protect Gray's Reef. First of all it is the largest "near shore hard bottom reef" off the Georgia coast. It is one of 14 marine areas around the country identified by scientists as "nationally significant." Research projects can be done by many different types of scientists at Gray's Reef. The reef provides a protected area to conduct marine research. The number of plants and animals and the diversity of species at Gray's Reef makes it comparable to tropical rainforests on land. In addition to these scientific and educational reasons for protecting the reef there are also economic reasons. Many communities around the country are discovering that a healthy, productive environment is good for the economy in attracting ecologically oriented tourists to parks and sanctuaries. Maintaining a sustainable economy requires good conservation of the environment. 11. Scientists study many things at Gray's Reef. Here are a few of the areas being looked at. Monitoring the invertebrate communities on the reef. Fish tagging to see what types live there, their growth rates and population levels. Diver observations of reef fish abundance and diversity by season. Archeological surveys for fossil bones of mastedon and mammoth. Loggerhead sea turtle tracking. 12 . The United States Coast Guard patrols the sanctuary and supports NOAA programs at Gray's Reef. To protect the resources of the sanctuary there are restrictions on certain activities such as the use of wire fish traps, using poisons or explosives, taking or harming the invertebrates and tropical fish, and harming the seabed (the living and non-living things on the bottom). 13. Most people fish or dive at Gray's Reef. If you have completed a dive certification course you can experience the reef environment first hand. A good rule of thumb for divers is "take only pictures, leave only bubbles!" The best time to do these activities is during the warmer months. 14. Diving anywhere in the ocean can be dangerous if you don't follow safety procedures but it is very safe if you are careful. The dangers which can exist at Gray's Reef are things like strong currents at certain times or even some types of animals. The thing to remember is that when you are diving in any area you are a "guest" in that environment and you need to be very respectful of the animals' territories. If you respect them they should respect you! 15. Since Gray's Reef is in a temperate zone the water is colder in the winter and warmer in the summer. The temperatures range from 50° F (10°C) to 80°F (26°C.) 16. There are basically five types of sharks which can be found at Gray's Reef. They are the: nurse shark, spiny dogfish, lemon shark, tiger shark, great hammerhead. 17. Corals belong to the same group of animals as anemones and sea jellies. These animals use stinging tentacles to help capture and digest other living things. The most prominant hard coral at Gray's Reef is the Ivory Bush Coral. 18. No, many differences exist between Gray's Reef hardbottom reefs and coral reefs. Gray's reefis a sandstone rock reef. Deposits of calcareous sandstone emerge from the sandy sea floor and provide a place for plants and animals to attach themselves. Coral reefs on the other hand are actually made up of the limestone "skeletons" of corals built up over thousands of years. The corals which live at Gray's Reef are called soft corals because they are not surrounded by these skeletons. Other differences include temperature and light. Corals reefs need the water to stay above 70°F ( 21°C) year round and the water temperatures at Gray's Reef can range from 50° F (10°C) to 80°F (26°C.) Corals also require high light levels for photosynthesis. The waters at Gray's Reef vary in light penetration due to the variations in sediment and nutrient content which only some hard coral, like ivory bush, can tolerate. 19. The waters just off the Georgia are sometimes clear and sometimes kind of murky or cloudy. Farther offhsore the amount of sediments from the rivers and land is reduced and the light penetrates deeper in the clearer oceanic waters. Gray's Reef is affectd by the coastal waters and visibility can be reduced to about 10 feet when currents are strong and bringing coastal waters over the reef. This can shift and offshore water from the Gulf Stream sometimes moves over the reef and visibility can increase to 60 feet. 20. Perhaps one of the best ways for you to help Gray's Reef is to not litter on the beaches, in waterways, or even on roads. A lot of trash, especially plastics, make their way into the waters and harm animals. If you make sure that you throw away all of your trash in the proper place, or better yet recycle it, then you can help to keep harmful garbage out of the oceans. Participating in beach clean ups is another great way to help. Volunteers help in many programs each year to help clean up our beaches which can in turn help reduce the amount of garbage found in the ocean waters. The Center for Marine Conservation can tell you more about beach clean up programs in your area. You can contact someone at the Center for Marine Conservation, 1725 DeSales St. NW, Washington, DC 20036 Divers in the area can participate in reef clean ups which are sponsored by local dive shops. The divers remove old fishing line, cans and other debris from the reef and document what was found. You can also encourage your schools to study the marine environment and learn more about how to protect and conserve our valuable ocean treasures like Gray's Reef.