The 10E Buoy

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 90 feet on the floor. Access is boat-only from Morro Bay Harbor, with a short 15-to-20-minute run under power. 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 pinnacle and the surrounding boulders are the rocky reef biome here. The vertical relief from the 90-foot floor up to the 40-foot pinnacle top, with sheer faces along the rock and the smaller pinnacles dropping into the boulder field, makes the site a canyon biome as well. The open water around and above the structure, where larger fish and seasonal pelagic species transit, is a pelagic biome.

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.