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.

The bottom is sand throughout the named beach, with breaking surf and no shore-accessible rocky reef or kelp. The rockier substrate at El Porto is a small local variation and does not amount to a reef structure, and the artificial reef at the pier end is reachable only by hook-and-line from the pier deck. The spot is a surf zone biome.

Surfing is the dominant in-water activity, with El Porto the most well-known break at the north end. Beach volleyball is also prominent. The courts immediately south of the pier host the AVP Manhattan Beach Open, the most prestigious tournament in domestic beach volleyball. Hook-and-line fishing from the pier is common and targets the artificial reef offshore. Swimming runs the full length of the beach in summer. With no rocky structure or kelp to hold fish, spearfishing, snorkeling, and scuba from shore are all uncommon.

Paid municipal lots sit at the foot of Manhattan Beach Boulevard and along the Strand-adjacent blocks at hourly rates during the day, with metered street parking on Highland Avenue and a separate paid lot at El Porto at the north end. Spaces fill before 10 a.m. on summer weekends. No rule sets a spearfishing exclusion around Manhattan Beach Pier, and fishing and spearfishing are legal under standard California regulations. The beach is county-operated, so Los Angeles County Code section 17.12.450 bars using or carrying a fishing pole, spear, sling, or other spearfishing gear in the ocean within 100 feet of anyone in the water who is not using the same, and lifeguards can close any stretch to fishing.