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.

Cordell Bank National Marine Sanctuary was established to protect and preserve the extraordinary marine ecosystem around Cordell Bank off California’s Marin and Sonoma County coastline. The 1,286 square mile sanctuary is entirely offshore and protects soft seafloor habitat, a rocky bank, deep-sea canyons, and wildlife. Its dynamic and food-rich surface waters are feeding areas for local and migratory seabirds and marine mammals. Sanctuary explorations have discovered diverse and bountiful wildlife on the seafloor hosting deep-sea corals, sponges, anemones, crabs, and fishes.

About the Artwork
Ocean conditions and undersea topography combine to fuel a rich and diverse marine ecosystem around Cordell Bank. The rocky bank is encrusted with colorful anemones, sponges, and corals and provides a habitat for species like top snails, decorator crabs, rosy rockfish, lingcod, and giant Pacific octopus. The waters above and around the bank concentrate krill, juvenile rockfish, anchovy, and jellies attracting ocean sunfish, California sea lions, Pacific white-sided dolphins, and blue whales.

LOCATION
• 52 miles west-northwest off the coast of San Francisco, California

PROTECTED AREA
• 1,286 square miles

DESIGNATION
• May 1989

HABITATS
• Continental shelf and slope Deep-sea canyons
• Open ocean
• Rocky reef

Key Species
• Albatross
• Bamboo coral
• Blue whale
• California hydrocoral
• Dall’s porpoise
• Giant Pacific octopus
• Krill
• Rockfish
• Strawberry anemone

ARTWORK BY : Matt McIntosh 

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