Sutil Island
Santa Barbara 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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Why it reads 39 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
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See the offshore water on Pelagiscape →Clarity, temperature breaks and kelp off this beach.
About Sutil Island
Sutil Island is a steep three hundred-foot rock about seven hundred yards off the southwest side of Santa Barbara Island, large enough on the chart to look like a small island and small enough on the water to circle in a single dive. The rock is about ten acres in area above the water, drops in vertical walls on all sides, and supports thick kelp on the protected east and northeast faces. The dive site wraps the rock, with depths from twenty-five feet on the shallower kelp shelf to eighty on the seaward walls. Several dive areas circle the rock, but most charter traffic stays on the east side where the kelp is densest and conditions are most settled.
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
Canyon
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