Pecho Rock

Pecho Rock stands 40 feet above the water 3 miles west-northwest of the Point San Luis lighthouse and half a mile offshore, reached by boat from Port San Luis Harbor. Smaller rocks lie near it, one 0.3 mile to the east and another 0.4 mile to the southeast, and foul ground marked by kelp fills the water between the rocks and the shore. Depths around the structure run from about 20 to 50 feet. Lingcod and rockfish are the fish the site is known for.

Rock rising clear of the water and continuing below it as boulders, ledges and broken ground out to 50 feet gives Pecho Rock a rocky reef biome. Kelp anchors on that ground and over the foul ground inshore of it, running up through the water column to the surface, which is a kelp forest biome. Outside the kelp, the open water that larger fish and seasonal pelagic species move through is a pelagic biome.

Spearfishing is the main activity, with scuba and underwater photography close behind. The structure is shallow and there is enough of it to fill a dive without leaving the rock. What limits the site is exposure: Pecho Rock sits on the open coast west of Point San Luis rather than inside the bay, so it takes northwest swell directly and only goes on a settled day.

There is no MPA at this site, and the rock falls outside both the Point Buchon State Marine Reserve and the Point Buchon State Marine Conservation Area to the north. Hook-and-line fishing and spearfishing are legal here under standard California regulations. The Diablo Canyon security zone, closed to all vessels without Coast Guard permission, lies 2.9 miles northwest.