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The Coastal Bulletin

What is happening on Southern California beaches right now. Official notices come from the National Weather Service, county health departments, ocean observing programs, and our own data. Community posts come from divers and swimmers who were standing there.

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Advisory · Water quality · Catalina Island

Yellow flag: bacteria advisory Higher than normal bacteria at Descanso Bay and Avalon Beach

Published for Oct 22 · Until Oct 30, 6:12 AM

Los Angeles County health officials have posted a bacteria advisory at Descanso Bay and Avalon Beach, where bacteria levels in the water are higher than normal. Counties post an advisory when water samples test above state health standards, or when runoff is likely to push them there. Swimming, surfing, or diving there raises the risk of getting sick, and the advisory stays in place until the county lifts it.

General photo of Catalina Island
General photo of Catalina Island. It does not depict this event.
From Nautical Nick dataSource: Los Angeles County Department of Public Health
Hazard: State of emergency: California is bracing for a record El Niño winter

Community posts · Catalina Island

2 posts in the last 60 days

Saturday, September 26th

CoreyMyDudeOcean Oracle ProTrusted Reporter
Catalina IslandWildlife sighting
Observed Sep 26 · Posted Sep 27 at 11:28 AM

At Lover’s Cove I saw a sea turtle, a couple of kelp fish, and a ton of lobsters. There are still plenty of fish in lovers Cove even though there aren’t too many at casino point due to the kelp being dead from the El Niño. There usually isn’t kelp at lovers cove, so the fish weren’t very affected.

Wednesday, September 16th

NauticalNickCaptainOcean Oracle ProTrusted Reporter
Casino Point Dive ParkSomething else
Observed Sep 16 · Posted Sep 18 at 1:12 PM

Kelp Forest Die Off: The sustained high ocean temperatures in august and september have been too high for kelp. A whole lot of the kelp on catalina island has died off.

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