The Netarts Bay estuary is located on the Oregon coast at Netarts. The estuary is approximately 2743 acres in area and has a watershed of approximately 14 square miles.

The Netarts Bay estuary is designated as a Conservation estuary under the Oregon Estuary Classification system. The geomorphology of the area is that of a Bar Built estuary.

The Netarts Bay estuary is located in Tillamook County. The principle industries of Tillamook County are agriculture, lumber, fishing, and recreation. Dairy farms dominate the county's fertile valleys providing milk for the well-known Tillamook cheese. Logging and lumbering are becoming a significant economic force again due to the reforestation of most of the 'Tillamook Burn' area. With seventy-five miles of coastline, four bays, and nine rivers, recreational and tourist facilities are numerous. The 1997 population of Tillamook County of 23,800 represented an increase of 10.3% since 1990.

Like an unfinished dike to Hawaii, Cape Lookout's narrow, cliff-edged headland juts two miles straight out into the Pacific Ocean. A popular 250-site campground at the northern base of the cape features a beachside picnic area, a 0.4-mile nature trail loop, and access to the five-mile-long Netarts sand spit.