During the 1970s, NOAA designated five estuarine sanctuaries: South Slough, 4,400 acres in Coos Bay, Oregon (1974); Sapelo Island, 6,110 acres on the Georgia coast (1976); Rookery Bay, 110,000 acres in southwest Florida (1978); Apalachicola Bay, 246,000 acres on Florida’s panhandle (1979); and Elkhorn Slough, 1,400 acres in Monterey Bay, California (1979).