Long Point
Front Side · Catalina Island · California
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Updated 6:00 AM PT todayThe clarity holds through the day, with a light afternoon onshore the only disturbance to the entry shallows.
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33.407° N · 118.369° W
Catalina Island, CA 90704
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Long Point is the only full State Marine Reserve on Catalina, the strictest MPA designation in California, which makes this the most heavily protected stretch of water around the island. The point sits five miles up the coast from Avalon and eight down from Two Harbors, a low rocky finger jutting from the front side with a small cove on its northwest face. The cove holds two boat-in campsites and a sandy beach that locals call Little Italian Gardens, after the more famous Italian Gardens dive site just to the west. The SMR designation went into effect in 2012, so the spot has now had more than a decade of full no-take protection.
Underwater the point is a slope of rock and patch reef with sparse kelp on the shallow shelf. The bottom runs out as a mix of sand and reef to about 80 feet and continues to drop offshore beyond that. The current along the outer edge of the point can run hard. Inside the cove the water stays calm and shallow.
The bare rocky slope with its patch reef and modest ledges is horizontal hard-bottom without significant kelp cover, which makes Long Point a rocky reef biome.
Access is boat or kayak only. Take is prohibited within Long Point State Marine Reserve.
Rocky Reef
The rocky reef biome is bare rock, boulder, and cobble structure without a kelp canopy above it. The hard relief and its crevices shelter invertebrates and reef fish, and the structure concentrates life that the surrounding sand cannot hold. Learn more about this biome and the species found in it by clicking the link below.
Learn more in the Biome GlossaryMarine Life
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