Morro Bay North T-Pier

The Morro Bay North T-Pier is a public pier on the Embarcadero in Morro Bay Harbor, on the inner harbor channel directly across from Morro Rock. The pier is shaped like a T, with a long approach extending out from shore and a perpendicular crossbar at the seaward end. Coast Guard, harbor patrol, and commercial fishing vessels work from the structure. Divers occasionally enter the water beneath the pilings to inspect the macro life growing on the wood.

The dive site is the pier itself: pilings driven into the harbor bottom, in roughly 10 to 20 feet of water at high tide, dense with encrusting growth. The harbor channel at this spot has reduced wave energy and tidal exchange, making the location a bay biome. The pilings and the adjacent riprap form a hard-substrate community typical of harbor pier dives, adding a rocky reef biome. Both biomes are reachable on the same dive without leaving the pier footprint.

The dive site is slack-tide only. The harbor channel rips on incoming and outgoing tides, and divers who attempt the pier on a moving tide are pushed out under boat traffic. Divers must check in with the Morro Bay Harbor Department before entering the water and stay under the pier, clear of the active boat lanes. Scuba diving is the only activity here. The pier is too short and too close to active boat traffic for hook-and-line fishing to be a focus.

Free and metered street parking is available along the Embarcadero, with some metered spots near the harbor. The pier sits inside the Morro Bay State Marine Recreational Management Area, which prohibits all take except waterfowl and, north of latitude 35° 19.7' N, recreational finfish. The pier is north of that line, so hook-and-line fishing and spearfishing for finfish are legal there under standard California regulations, and no invertebrates may be taken. The Morro Bay Harbor Department allows scuba and free diving only outside the marked navigation channel and asks divers to stay within 100 feet of a dive flag.