page_title: Saumarez Reefs
section_title: General
hierarchical_section_title: Saumarez Reefs / General
caption_attribution_description: English: Satellite View of Saumarez reefs and the swains reef part of the Great Barrier Reef Español: Vista por satélite de las Arrecifes Saumarez y la parte Arrecife Swains de la Gran Barrera de Coral
context_page_description: Saumarez Reef is one of the southernmost reefs to be located in the Coral Sea Islands and part of the Coral Sea Shelf; it contains three main reefs and numerous smaller reefs all of which form a large crescent-shaped formation open to the northwest, about 27 by 14 km, area less than 300 km².
  There are two sand cays: North East Cay and South West Cay.
  The reefs were first seen on 27 of February 1823 by Lieutenant John Lihou aboard the vessel Zenobia and named after Vice-Admiral of the United Kingdom James Saumarez, 1st Baron de Saumarez.
context_section_description: The Saumarez Reef is located on the Coral Sea Shelf, 330 km North East of Gladstone, Queensland and are thus one of the closer coral sea islands as they are only located 85 km to the east of the Great Barrier Reef Swain Reefs and 95 km to the southwest of the Frederick Reefs.
  The Saumarez Reef consists of three main reefs and many smaller reefs that form a large crescent-shaped formation, measuring 39 km across, that is open to the northwest. There are two sand cays: North East Cay and South West Cay.
  North East Cay (21°38′S 153°46′E), is the northernmost of the Saumarez Reefs. It is a small sand cay lying near the Northern extremity of Saumarez Reefs. This 2.4m high cay, which is enclosed by a coral reef has an opening on the South Western side. A lighthouse (see infobox by side), is shown from the Northern edge of the cay. A clear channel, about 2.1 km wide, lies between Northeast Cay and the next reef to the South.
  South East Elbow (21°55′S 153°35′E) is located about 36 km SSW of Northeast Cay, forms the South Eastern extremity of Saumarez Reefs. SS Francis Preston Blair, an American Liberty ship, is a conspicuous stranded wreck and lies about 9.4 km North East of South east Elbow. The Royal Australian Air Force F-111 aircraft used the wreck for target practice during the 1980s.
  Three small reefs lie between 900m to 7.6 km WNW of Southeast Elbow. These small reefs are separated from each other by unsurveyed channels with widths of 900m to 2.2 km.
  South West Cay (21°50′S 153°30′E), enclosed by a reef, 10.8 km NW of Southeast Elbow, is the westernmost above-water  part of the Saumarez Reefs, and is 2.4m high. There is a channel, 4 km wide between the cay and the reef SSE.
caption: Satellite View of Saumarez reefs (center) and the Swains reef (Left part of the Great Barrier Reef) and Frederick Reefs (right)
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