Port Orford and the nearby Redfish Rocks Marine Reserve is an incredible area to experience the beauty of the south coast and plug into some great stewardship activities with local organizations. Highlights include tidepooling at Rocky Point in the marine reserve, kayaking through arches and fishing around the Port Orford headlands, or catching a wave or two at Battle Rock. Read on to learn more.
Tidepooling at Rocky Point
Located on the north end of the Redfish Rocks Marine Reserve, the Rocky Point beach access is a great place to get up close and personal with the rocky intertidal shoreline.
If you want to get your hands dirty with some citizen science, Surfrider has partnered with the Redfish Rocks Community Team and students from Pacific High School on surveying Native Littleneck Clam shells in the area. The goal of the project is to determine if a correlation can be drawn between live clam populations and the abundance of clam shells found in the intertidal zone. For more information about this project check out clam-shell-correlations here.
Redfish Rocks Community Team Project Coordinator Tyson Rasor and students from Pacific High School preparing for clam shell surveys
Kayaking around Redfish Rocks
If getting out on the water is more your thing, then there is no better way to to see the sights of the sea than to book a tour with Dave Lacey at South Coast Tours LLC. The south coast holds much of Oregon’s near shore reefs and some of the best fishing, photography, wildlife viewing and wildest rivers on the west coast.
In addition to being a knowledgeable tour guide and fisherman, Dave is a long-time advocate for the creation and protection of the Redfish Rocks Marine Reserve and other special places on the south coast. His conservation efforts include working with the Our Ocean coalition (now Oregon Marine Reserve Partnership), participating in The Lower Rogue Watershed Council, serving on the Curry Natural Resource Advisory Committee and helping found the 4H Surfrider Foundation Gold Beach Surf Club. Who better to explore the area with! For 2015 he's offering a 10% discount on his tours to all Surfrider memebers.
Surfing Stewards
Finally, if you'd rather don a wetsuit and catch some waves there's plenty of nooks and crannies down south. Watch out for the locals though, you might find yourself in stiff competition with youth from the 4-H Surfrider Surfing Outdoor Stewardship (SOS) Program, who might show you a thing or two in and out of the water.
In addition to learning how to surf and recreate safely in the ocean, club members participate in service activities that maintain healthy watersheds for their community and promote water safety.
Last week, a group of youth from around the State, participated in the week-long spring break SOS Program. They learned about the history and inhabitants Redfish Rocks Marine Reserve and surveyed marine debris along a stretch of beach in front of the Curry County Fairgrounds part of a coast-wide citizen science effort in partnership with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). More on this amazing youth leadership development program here.
4-H Surfrider SOS youth participating in NOAA Marine Debris Monitoring program
There's lots to see and do around the Redfish Rocks Marine Reserve, so get out there and experience it, just make sure you leave this special place a little better than you found it.