Imperial Beach

Imperial Beach is the southernmost beach city in California, immediately north of the US-Mexico border. The shoreline is long, flat, and sand-bottomed, anchored at its center by the Imperial Beach Pier at the foot of Evergreen Avenue. The Imperial Beach Promenade runs along Seacoast Drive behind the upper berm. The Tijuana River mouth sits roughly 1.7 miles south of the pier, and the Tijuana River Mouth State Marine Conservation Area covers the water from the river mouth south to the border.

The bottom is sand throughout, with breaking surf and no offshore reef or kelp structure, which makes the spot a surf zone biome. Surfing, swimming, and hook-and-line fishing from the pier and from shore draw the most use. With no rocky structure or kelp to hold fish and consistently poor water clarity, spearfishing, snorkeling, and scuba are uncommon. Water-quality advisories from Tijuana River contamination regularly close the shoreline and pier to all water contact, especially after rain events, and closures can extend through the pier and along several miles of beach.

Free street parking lines Seacoast Drive and the surrounding residential blocks, with several pay lots near the Imperial Beach Pier. Spaces fill on summer weekends but the area is rarely jammed. Spearfishing is prohibited within 1,000 feet of the Imperial Beach Pier under California Code of Regulations Title 14 Section 1.88. Imperial Beach city rule additionally prohibits armed spearguns on the beach and requires that any speargun be used at least 1,000 feet outside the shoreline, which functionally bans shore-access spearfishing along the named beach. Take inside the Tijuana River Mouth State Marine Conservation Area is restricted to coastal pelagic species by hand-held dip net only. Outside these restrictions, fishing and spearfishing are legal under standard California regulations.