Yaquina Bay

The Yaquina Bay is a shallow bay on the west coast of the USA in the state of Oregon is located in Lincoln County. The city of Newport is situated on both sides of the bay, which is spanned by the Yaquina Bay Bridge at the mouth in the Pacific Ocean. It is part of U.S. Highway 101, the name of the bay comes from a tribe of Indians who lived on the coast of Oregon and is now virtually extinct.

The bay has a length of about five, a width of about 2.5 kilometers and a size of about 8 km2. On the southern side of the Yaquina River flows into the bay. By the end of the 1920s the main link to Newport on ships docked in the bay. Before the construction of the bridge until about 1936 wrong ferry across the bay and formed the North -South connection on the coast.

Just east of the mouth of the Yaquina River is an oceanographic station, which is operated by NOAA and their data can be accessed through a website. In the north of the bay a biogeochemical station is anchored (Land / Ocean Biogeochemical Observatory) on a platform under the LOBO project. Also located in the north and south of the bay each a marina. Near the southern port, in the South Beach area, the Oregon Coast Aquarium, the Rogue Brewery, and the Hatfield Marine Science Center is right on the bay. This page also free -living seals and sea lions can be observed resting on the piers. On the north side, west of U.S. Highway 101, the Yaquina Bay State Park is the historic Yaquina Bay Lighthouse.

Due to its location right on the Pacific, in close proximity to the Cascadia subduction zone, the area of the Bay and the surrounding coastline is very high risk of tsunamis and earthquakes.