Willapa Bay

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Willapa Bay is a bay located on the southwest Pacific coast of Washington state in the United States. Like the usual bay, Willapa Bay is a large inlet of salt water otherwise similar to freshwater lakes in shape and size. The Long Beach Peninsula separates Willapa Bay from the greater expanse of the Pacific Ocean.

Willapa Bay is fairly shallow: more than half of its surface area lies in the intertidal zone, and in fact half of the volume of water inside it enters and leaves with every tide. The bay is an estuary formed when the Long Beach Peninsula, a long sand spit from the Columbia River to the south, partially enclosed the estuaries of several smaller rivers. The North River, Willapa River, and Naselle River provide most of the freshwater input into the bay.

The bay is bordered only by several smaller towns and unincorporated communities such as Raymond, South Bend, and Tokeland. The bay is entirely located within Pacific County, Washington and is home to a local oyster and seafood processing industry: approximately 9% of all oysters in the U.S. are grown there.

Willapa Bay is known for its amazing biodiversity and much of it has been set aside as part of the Willapa National Wildlife Refuge. The bay's ecology is threatened by the rapid spreading of atlantic cordgrass (Spartina Alterniflora), a non-native species of grass introduced possibly to help preserve wetlands and marsh areas, and possibly simply by accident, as packing material in crates of oysters from the East Coast.