Redfish Rocks: IBA of the Month
by Mary Coolidge, Assistant Conservation Director
“Wilderness, in contrast with those areas where man and his own works dominate the landscape, is hereby recognized as an area where the earth and community of life are untrammeled by man, where man himself is a visitor who does not remain…an area retaining its primeval character and influence.” -Wilderness Act of 1964
- Red Fish Rocks - David Ledig
Along the rugged southern Oregon coast, a cluster of five bare-rock islands known as Redfish Rocks jut out of the Pacific Ocean south of Port Orford. This cluster, which teams with breeding seabirds, is among 1,854 rocks, reefs, islands and headlands included in the Oregon Islands National Wildlife Refuge (NWR), a refuge which spans 320 miles of Oregon’s coastline and supports a large percentage of the over 1 million seabirds that nest in Oregon. Wilderness protection is also provided to all but one acre of the 371 total acres of islands within the NWR, an area that is closed to human visitation as a means of protecting wildlife and supporting the refuge conservation mission.
Redfish Rocks, along with 10 other colony rock clusters and headlands within the Oregon Islands NWR, was designated in 2003 as Important Bird Areas for the superb nesting habitat they provide for many thousands of seabirds. Most notably, Common Murres have exceeded 20,000 breeding birds. The IBA designation includes the 5 breeding rocks and an additional buffer area of surrounding waters, an area which provides for foraging and loafing for breeding birds during nesting season, and represents a rich marine ecosystem that supports both migrant and resident seabirds throughout the year.
In 2009, Redfish Rocks gained new prominence in the marine conservation arena when it became one of Oregon’s first two pilot Marine Reserves. Instrumental in this designation, the local non-profit Port Orford Ocean Resource Team collaborated to develop and forward the Redfish Rocks Marine Reserve (MR) proposal, which was accepted along with the independently-developed Otter Rock Marine Reserve near Depoe Bay.
The Redfish Rocks Marine Reserve (MR) established a 2.6 square mile area around the colony rocks, within which no extraction activity may take place, a restriction which protects valuable habitat and conserves biodiversity. The adjacent 5 square mile Marine Protected Area (MPA) to the east is less restrictive than the MR, but still affords partial ecosystem protections. Given mounting pressures on our marine environment—from ocean acidification to invasive species to overfishing—such sanctuaries are critical for allowing marine life to breed and flourish, and provides for the many seabirds that rely on Oregon’s rich nearshore ocean resources. MR’s have been shown to result in dramatic and measurable increases in size, biodiversity and abundance of marine life. This is a conservation tool that both builds resilience into our marine ecosystems and provides opportunities for scientific research.
The Redfish Rocks Community Team—a group of fishermen, business owners, conservationists, and elected officials—was developed to work with Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife (ODFW) scientists to draft a management plan for the MR and the adjacent MPA, a plan which addresses biological research and monitoring goals as well as socioeconomic goals. It may take years to detect anticipated changes in community structure, but baseline data being collected now will help to characterize the current ecology of the site based on various measures, including: presence of indicator species, presence of rare and endangered species, pH, and salinity. Decades of USFWS aerial surveys of nesting seabirds may also provide important information about the impact of changing habitat conditions on seabird productivity. This site is among the first to provide a model for scientific research on MR effectiveness and to help guide management decisions both here and elsewhere.
Back in 2002, then-Governor John Kitzhaber endorsed the establishment of marine reserves off Oregon's coast. It will now be up to the state legislature to review the three newest Marine reserves brought forward by ODFW—at Cape Falcon, Cascade Head and Cape Perpetua (which falls within the Central Coast Marbled Murrelet IBA)—for designation and funding, and to the governor to sign on to their passage. If approved, the five reserves and marine protected areas would still comprise less than 10% of Oregon's ocean, leaving most of our waters open to fishing and other activities while protecting marine health and productivity.
Ornithological Significance
The five Redfish Rocks nesting colonies host most predominantly Common Murre and Pelagic Cormorant. Other species that have bred here include Brandt’s Cormorant, Western Gull, Tufted Puffin, Pigeon Guillemot, and Black Oystercatcher. The thriving nearshore marine ecosystem provides not only for foraging birds during the breeding season, but also provides for the many pelicans, shearwaters, murrelets, storm-petrels, terns, cormorants, gulls, grebes, scoters, and loons that migrate along or overwinter on our coastline.
Access
The only publicly accessible part of Oregon Islands National Wildlife Refuge that is open to the public is Coquille Point near Bandon, but many of the colony nest islands can be seen from land. Redfish Rocks can be seen from Humbug Mountain State Park, off of Highway 101, 6 miles south of Port Orford.
