Prisoners Harbor
Santa Cruz Island · Channel Islands National Park · California
Visibility Breakdown
Visibility by position
Solid = diver report · outlined = today's forecast
Post Break: The range past where any waves are forming, where the water starts to have a significant increase in visibility. There might be some sediment here, but swell energy is diffused and the water is calmer.
Open Water: This zone is far out enough from the shore that the water is at its clearest. It’s deep enough that sediment is not disturbed by the wave energy at the surface. Haze can sit near the surface, so the water is usually clearer the deeper you go.
Through the day
Today's visibility readings at this spot, shown at the hour each one was taken.
Every bar is a reading for the Post Break zone.
This chart shows measured diver reports only.
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Coastal Bulletin
About Prisoners Harbor
Why it reads 36 ft
Today's forecast runs
The clarity holds through the day, with a light afternoon onshore the only disturbance to the entry shallows.
High confidence
7-Day Forecast
Today is the live headline above. Tomorrow onward is the algorithm's forecast from predicted swell, wind, and rain, updated each morning and at 6 PM Pacific.
Map and parking
Channel Islands National Park · California
There is no car parking on Santa Cruz Island. Access is by Island Packers ferry from Ventura Harbor, about a one and a half hour crossing, with several days a week of service to Prisoners Harbor in season. The ferry lands at an NPS pier on the boundary between the eastern Channel Islands National Park land and the western Nature Conservancy land. A cobble beach and a small day-use area sit at the head of the pier.
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See the offshore water on Pelagiscape →Clarity, temperature breaks and kelp off this beach.
About Prisoners Harbor
Prisoners Harbor sits in the middle of the north shore of Santa Cruz Island, midway between the eastern Scorpion landing and the western end of the island. The NPS pier at the head of the harbor marks the boundary between the eastern quarter of Santa Cruz, which the National Park Service owns and the public can access, and the western three quarters, which The Nature Conservancy owns and which requires a permit to land. The dive site is the cove around the pier, a shallow cobble and sand bottom that supports an eelgrass bed and a rocky shoreline.
Biomes here
Species found here
Researched habitat and range candidates. A listed species may be seasonal or depth-limited; this is not a confirmed sighting at this location.
Spot strategies
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