18EB Buoy

The 18EB Buoy, which local divers knew for years as the 10E Buoy, is a navigational buoy roughly 1.5 miles north of the Morro Bay Harbor entrance, marking an offshore pinnacle and the surrounding boulder field. The pinnacle top sits at about 40 feet, and the surrounding boulders and smaller pinnacles drop to roughly 80 feet on the floor. Access is boat-only from Morro Bay Harbor. The defining feature of the site is dense giant plumose anemone cover across the pinnacle and surrounding rocks, the same anemone community as the Metridium Fields breakwater dive in Monterey but reached without a long surface swim.

The rock rising from an 80-foot floor to a top at 40 feet, with sheer faces along its sides and smaller spires dropping away into the surrounding boulder field, makes the site a pinnacles biome. Larger fish and seasonal pelagic species transit the open water above the structure, a pelagic biome over the top of the rock.

Scuba is the dominant activity. The moderate depth and the option to spiral up the pinnacle from the bottom make the site work for both intermediate and advanced divers. Spearfishing is regular. Currents at the buoy are usually mild but can pulse on a moving tide, and swell sensitivity is moderate.

There is no MPA at this site. Hook-and-line fishing and spearfishing are legal here under standard California regulations.