The refuge exists primarily to protect and enhance wetland habitats for migratory water birds using the bay area, including tens of thousands of shorebirds, ducks, geese, swans, and the black brant.

During the spring, the bay's eelgrass beds are a key staging area for brant goose prior to their return to Arctic nesting grounds; and the refuge grasslands provide important habitat for thousands of Aleutian cackling geese.

Like many of the refuges in the system, this one was established to preserve habitats recognized to be instrumental to the perpetual survival of migratory birds and other wildlife.

The "Complex" is an administrative entity that also manages the Lanphere Dunes Unit and the Castle Rock National Wildlife Refuge.

This article incorporates public domain material from websites or documents of the United States Fish and Wildlife Service.