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Point Loma
Point Loma’s kelp beds are located off San Diego just south of the dive destination Wreck Alley and has long been overlooked, usually visited |
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Author |
: Bruce Watkins |
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Location |
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Monterey County
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Date |
: March 01, 2008 |
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As you gaze out on most of California’s dive sites it’s sometimes hard to imagine that anything ever happened there. Take McAbee Beach for example. Located in the heart of the City of Monterey, a lot happened here over the years. During the mid to late 1800s it was a whaling station, until all the whales were taken. Then, the beach was purchased by John B. McAbee, who owned a beach resort and boat rental in the early 1900s. Later, it was the location of the Monterey and Sea Beach canneries; and they lasted until the 1950s when all of the fish were canned. Today McAbee Beach is a State Marine Conservation Area bordered by restaurants and shops.
It is almost always calm at McAbee since the Monterey Peninsula and Point Pinos protect the beach from the prevailing northwest swell. Consequently, you will see a number of dive classes here, particularly on weekends. The small to no surf makes the entry a breeze, and a short swim will put you in 20 feet of water. The bottom near the shore consists mostly of sand, giving way to rock and sand. As one proceeds deeper, a rock and boulder bottom predominates.
This is not the kind of dive site where you want to cover a lot of ground; rather, the site is best enjoyed by methodically looking over each rock and kelp holdfast before proceeding to the next. That way you get to enjoy many of Monterey’s fascinating little critters. Lemon nudibranch and ringed dorids can be seen slowly looking for a clump of bryozoans or hydroids. This is a great place to look for and find unusual nudibranchs like Stearns' aeolid or Ricketts’ aeolid, and more common aeolids like the Hermissenda or Hilton’s.
The rocks are covered with an assortment of brightly colored invertebrates: sponges, anemones and tunicates. A number of small abalone may be found deep in cracks and under ledges. This is sea otter country and those abalone that wander out side of their crack are quickly consumed. Look for blue rockfish swimming about, and small fish in the cracks.
For those who are interested in sightseeing or photography McAbee can be a lot of fun. Sea otters are common here and will often swim up and check out a diver. Harbor seals also haul out on the offshore rocks and sometimes will play with or harass divers depending on your perspective. Remember it is illegal to chase marine mammals. The better photographs and more memorable encounters happen when a less timid mammal chooses to play with you.
In 1905 the Gypsy ran aground off what is now the Fish Hopper Restaurant. There is little to see of the wreck today as some salvage was done and the wooden parts did not last long. The boiler can still be found off the restaurant. It is heavily overgrown with marine life and is easily mistaken for a rock. You will, however, find a number of lengths of eight-inch pipe strewn along the bottom. These are not from a shipwreck, but rather from the days of the sardine canneries. The old fishing boats would tie off to an offshore mooring and the pipes were used to pump the sardines from the boat to the factory.
Next time you dive McAbee take a moment and think about what happened there. Close your eyes and picture gray whales on the beach being rendered into oil. Picture dozens of soldiers from the presidio scrambling for bottles of beer that washed ashore from the wreck of the Gypsy. Picture huge nets of sardines being loaded into factories and coming out in cans. Now, open you eyes to see a beautiful beach where marine life is protected, just for divers to enjoy.
Dive Spot At A Glance
Location: McAbee Beach is located on Cannery Row between Hoffman and Prescott in the City of Monterey.
Access and Entry: Moderate walk to sandy beach from parking lot diagonally across the street from the El Torito Restaurant, or in the parking garage on Wave Street. No boat launch is available, kayaks are okay.
Skill level: All
Depths: 10 to 40 feet.
Visibility: 10 to 30 feet.
Hunting: McAbee Beach is within Ed Ricketts State Marine Conservation Area, only finfish may be taken with hook and line, no spearfishing is permitted.
Photography: Good macro and poor wide-angle photography.
Facilities: Pay parking lot, the nearest toilet is a block away from the beach at the parking garage on Wave Street.
Special Considerations: Parking and changing by divers is limited to certain parking lots. Park in the lot diagonally across Cannery Row from El Torito. It is illegal for divers to park in the lots next to El Torito or the Fish Hopper. Disrobing (e.g., getting out of your wetsuit) is legal only in specified parking lots and not on the beach. Restaurants, hotels and shops, surround the beach,
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