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Gray's Reef National Marine Sanctuary,

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a beautiful underwater

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haven teeming with life,

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lies just off the coast of Georgia,

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about 19 miles east of

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Sapelo Island.

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Gray's Reef is a jewel

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in a sanctuary system comprised of 14

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national marine sanctuaries and two

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marine national monuments.

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The National Oceanic

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and Atmospheric Administration's

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Office of National Marine Sanctuaries

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serves as the trustee for this network

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of underwater parks.

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NOAA's mission of science, service,

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and stewardship reaches

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from the floor of the ocean to

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the surface of the sun.

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The sanctuary protects a vibrant

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hard bottom area,

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and the reef's rocky outcroppings, which

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can rise six feet up from

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the ocean floor,

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provide homes for an

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abundance of marine life.

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Crabs, lobsters, soft corals, sponges,

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sea stars, and other animals form a dense

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carpet of living creatures, covering the

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nooks and crannies of Gray's Reef

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and giving it the name "live bottom."

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The reef attracts more than

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200 species of fish,

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including black sea bass, snappers,

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groupers, and mackerels.

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Loggerhead sea turtles,

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a threatened species, forage and rest

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year round at Gray's Reef,

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and the reef is within the critical

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habitat and only known

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winter calving ground

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of the highly endangered

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North Atlantic right whale.

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The 22 square mile sanctuary is the only

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protected natural reef

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in the Atlantic Ocean between

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Cape Hatteras, North Carolina

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and Cape Canaveral, Florida.

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It's a really unique environment. There's

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nothing else like it.

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As an undergraduate, I started working

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summers here, running small boats and

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driving the bus back and forth.

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Sam Gray was the

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taxonomist here, collecting

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samples and identifying them.

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He was very diligent and

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had a huge collection in the attic

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over at the lab there.

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Well, Sam Gray was at the marine biology

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laboratory at Woods Hole,

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and he was there for about 50 years and

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he was a collector,

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he was a taxonomist, and scientist,

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and actually he was a key person and

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that institution couldn't have operated

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and had the reputation it did

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without Sam Gray. Well when he retired,

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Dr. George Lauff, who was the director

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here, he asked Sam Gray to come

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down here permanently,

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which he did in the '60's,

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early '61 or so.

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Everybody was so honored to have him here.

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Anybody that was ever

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here during that period,

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whenever you say Sapelo,

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they think of Sam Gray.

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There's a group in Washington called

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the Board of Geographic Names that

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officially names

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features, physiographic features

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both on land and offshore.

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They require pretty stringent

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justification for naming a feature.

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Dr. Henry and I

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discussed it at length, we thought that,

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you know rather than a generic

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name for a live bottom area,

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that it should be

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given the proper designation

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of a proper name and

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Sam Gray was the obvious choice. I mean

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he knew about it before

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anybody else did, and collected on it for

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years and years. We started referring to

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it as Gray's Reef

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from the time we discussed it.

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Easier to say than Sapelo Live Bottom.

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[Laughs]

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Early in my career, we learned about the

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Sapelo Live Bottom and so a number of us

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biologists that were stationed in

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Brunswick

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decided to go out there and dive. And so

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my first dives on the coast of Georgia

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were at the Sapelo Live Bottom.

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Not long after that, we learned about

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Jesse Hunt's work,

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and learned about the proposal by Jesse

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Hunt and Dr. Jim Henry

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to rename it after Milton Gray, and call

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it Gray's Reef.

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And so because of that, we just adopted

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Gray's Reef as the name

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for the Sapelo Live Bottom.

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We had proposed the name,

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filled out the paperwork.

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They take a while to review

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and I think it was '75 or '76,

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the Georgia Department of Natural

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Resources in Brunswick

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got behind it and showed their support

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for it and then it became

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Gray's Reef officially. Amongst the

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office staff, the biologists in our

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office in Brunswick,

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we said, you know there's a national

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marine sanctuary program

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and Gray's Reef would be an excellent example

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of a live bottom area off the south Atlantic

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to be representative and become a

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national marine sanctuary.

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So I sat down and got the nomination

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form and wrote the nomination

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for Gray's Reef to become a

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national marine sanctuary, and thanks to

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people like Jane Yarn who were personal friends

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of President Jimmy Carter, she was able

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to convince Jimmy Carter to sign the

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bill that designated Gray's Reef as a

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national marine sanctuary.

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U.S. President Jimmy Carter approved the

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designation of Gray's Reef

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National Marine Sanctuary on January 16, 1981.

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It was a great experience. I had

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worked up at the headquarters office in

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Washington D.C. for

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12 years. The opportunity came up

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to work at a field site

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and I just thought that would be the

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best thing possible.

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And I had been working with folks down

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here at Sapelo and

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and Gray's Reef that were doing some

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contract work, so I knew

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what an amazing place this is.

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It was a great

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opportunity to build a network,

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a community, folks that wanted to

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work on Gray's Reef and be involved in

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the sanctuary.

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It is one of the largest near shore live bottom

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reefs in the southeast.

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You'll find other similar formations

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further offshore

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in much deeper water, but this is an area

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that's accessible by a lot of people and in

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diving depths as well. 60 to 70 feet.

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[Splash]

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[Bubbles]

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We need to protect representative parts

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of the marine environment.

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That's what the marine sanctuary program does.

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All the marine sanctuaries around the

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country are all unique

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in their own way and so it's, you know, I

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think it's really neat to have

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those and to have people recognize those.

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It just highlights how important these

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areas are to, to the nation.

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[Music]