Manhattan Beach
Manhattan Beach · Los Angeles County · California
Visibility Breakdown
Visibility by position
Solid = diver report · outlined = our reading
Break Zone: The range of water where the waves break and sediment is stirred up.
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.
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Coastal Bulletin
About Manhattan Beach
Why it reads 12–16 ft
Medium 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
Manhattan Beach, CA 90266
Paid municipal lots at the foot of Manhattan Beach Boulevard and along the Strand-adjacent blocks, hourly rates during the day. Metered street parking on Highland Avenue. The El Porto lot at the north end is a separate paid unit. Spaces fill before 10am on summer weekends.
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See the offshore water on Pelagiscape →Clarity, temperature breaks and kelp off this beach.
About Manhattan Beach
Manhattan Beach is a sand-bottom municipal beach in the South Bay of Los Angeles County, anchored by Manhattan Beach Pier at the foot of Manhattan Beach Boulevard. The pier is a 928-foot concrete structure built in 1920 to replace an earlier 1912 wooden pier. At its seaward end stands an octagonal Mediterranean-style building that houses the Roundhouse Marine Studies Lab and Aquarium, operated by the Roundhouse Aquarium Teaching Center. A concrete artificial reef sits in the water about 65 feet past the end of the pier and serves as a pier-fishing target; it cannot be reached from shore. Behind the beach runs the Strand, a paved pedestrian and bicycle path that traces the full length of Manhattan Beach and continues south through Hermosa Beach into Redondo Beach as the South Bay Bicycle Trail. The northernmost segment of the beach, between 38th and 45th streets, is known as El Porto and sits next to the Hyperion Treatment Plant and the Chevron facility. The substrate at El Porto is rockier than the fine sand along the rest of the shoreline.
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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