Santa Monica Bay is a
bight of the
Pacific Ocean
The Pacific Ocean is the largest and deepest of Earth's five oceanic divisions. It extends from the Arctic Ocean in the north to the Southern Ocean (or, depending on definition, to Antarctica) in the south, and is bounded by the contin ...
in
Southern California
Southern California (commonly shortened to SoCal) is a geographic and cultural region that generally comprises the southern portion of the U.S. state of California. It includes the Los Angeles metropolitan area, the second most populous urban a ...
,
United States
The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territori ...
. Its boundaries are slightly ambiguous, but it is generally considered to be the part of the Pacific within an imaginary line drawn between
Point Dume, in
Malibu, and the
Palos Verdes Peninsula
The Palos Verdes Peninsula (''Palos Verdes'', Spanish for "Green Sticks") is a landform and a geographic sub-region of the Los Angeles metropolitan area, within southwestern Los Angeles County in the U.S. state of California. Located in the S ...
. Its eastern shore forms the western boundary of the
Los Angeles Westside
The Los Angeles Westside is an urban region in western Los Angeles County, California. It has no official definition, but sources like '' LA Weekly'' and the Mapping L.A. survey of the '' Los Angeles Times'' place the region on the western side ...
and
South Bay regions. Although it was fed by the
Los Angeles River
, name_etymology =
, image = File:Los Angeles River from Fletcher Drive Bridge 2019.jpg
, image_caption = L.A. River from Fletcher Drive Bridge
, image_size = 300
, map = LARmap.jpg
, map_size ...
until the river's catastrophic change of course in 1825, the only stream of any size now flowing into it is
Ballona Creek
Ballona Creek (pronunciation: “Bah-yo-nuh” or “Buy-yo-nah”
) is an channelized stream in southwestern Los Angeles County, California, United States, that was once a “year-round river lined with sycamores and willows.” Ballona Creek ...
. Smaller waterways draining into the bay include
Malibu Creek
Malibu Creek is a year-round stream in western Los Angeles County, California. It drains the southern Conejo Valley and Simi Hills, flowing south through the Santa Monica Mountains, and enters Santa Monica Bay in Malibu, California. The Malibu C ...
,
Topanga Creek, and
Santa Monica Creek.
The Santa Monica Bay is home to some of the most famous beaches in the world, including
Malibu Lagoon State Beach (Surfrider),
Will Rogers State Beach
Will Rogers State Beach is a beach park on the Santa Monica Bay, at the Pacific coast of Southern California. Located in the Pacific Palisades neighborhood of Los Angeles, the beach is owned by the California Department of Parks and Recreation; ...
,
Santa Monica State Beach
Santa Monica State Beach is a California State Park operated by the city of Santa Monica.
Description
The beach is located along Pacific Coast Highway in Santa Monica. It is long and has parks, picnic areas, playgrounds, restrooms, as well as s ...
, and
Dockweiler State Beach.
Several piers extend into the bay, including Malibu Pier,
Santa Monica Pier,
Venice Pier,
Manhattan Beach pier,
Hermosa Beach pier, and
Redondo Beach pier.
Marina Del Rey is a dredged marina. The Bay is also a very popular fishing destination year-round.
Chevron Reef
Chevron Reef, also known as Pratte's Reef, was an artificial reef constructed in 2000 in Santa Monica Bay, offshore from Dockweiler State Beach. It was the first artificial surfing reef in the United States and was the second to be built worldwide. ...
is an artificial surfing reef in the bay.
History
In the 1930s,
gambling ship
A gambling ship is a sea vessel of any kind on which gambling takes place.
Historically, international waters began just from land in many countries. Gambling ships, like offshore radio stations, would usually be anchored just outside the th ...
s anchored beyond the regulated three-mile limit, then kept measured from the beach. The ships were popular, and a fleet of ever-larger ships and barges appeared until the State Attorney General recalculated the limit to exclude the bay. The largest ship held the state police off for nine days with
submachine guns in what the newspapers called ''
The Battle of Santa Monica Bay''.
Once a major commercial
fishery, Santa Monica Bay's water quality declined drastically in the 20th century as development of
Los Angeles County resulted in large amounts of
sewage and trash-rich storm runoff being dumped into its waters. Through restoration projects mandated by the
Clean Water Act and advocated by groups such as
Heal the Bay and the
Surfrider Foundation, the bay's water quality has improved fairly dramatically from its early-1980s nadir.
Hyperion sewage treatment plant
The Hyperion Water Reclamation Plant is a sewage treatment plant in southwest Los Angeles, California, next to Dockweiler State Beach on Santa Monica Bay. The plant is the largest sewage treatment facility in the Los Angeles Metropolitan Area an ...
's output is now far cleaner than before. However, during the region's rainy winters, the bay suffers from
algal bloom
An algal bloom or algae bloom is a rapid increase or accumulation in the population of algae in freshwater or marine water systems. It is often recognized by the discoloration in the water from the algae's pigments. The term ''algae'' encompass ...
and other
water pollution
Water pollution (or aquatic pollution) is the contamination of water bodies, usually as a result of human activities, so that it negatively affects its uses. Water bodies include lakes, rivers, oceans, aquifers, reservoirs and groundwater. ...
-related maladies, periodically forcing most of the famous beaches along its shore to close.
On January 13, 1969,
Scandinavian Airlines System Flight 933
Scandinavian Airlines System Flight 933 was a scheduled international flight from Denmark to the United States that on January 13, 1969, crashed into Santa Monica Bay at 19:21, approximately west of Los Angeles International Airport (LAX) in Ca ...
crashed into the bay while on approach to
Los Angeles International Airport, killing 15 of the 45 people on board. Five days later on January 18,
United Airlines Flight 266 crashed into the bay after takeoff from the same airport, killing all 38 people on board.
In 1990, actor
Wallace Reid Jr. was killed when his
homebuilt plane crashed in the bay amid heavy fog.
In 2006, game show host
Peter Tomarken and his wife Kathleen were killed in a plane crash into the bay. They were heading to
San Diego
San Diego ( , ; ) is a city on the Pacific Ocean coast of Southern California located immediately adjacent to the Mexico–United States border. With a 2020 population of 1,386,932, it is the eighth most populous city in the United State ...
to pick up a cancer patient who needed transportation to UCLA Medical Center for treatment when their airplane crashed.
Communities and settlements
*
El Porto
*
El Segundo
*
Hermosa Beach
Hermosa Beach (''Hermosa'', Spanish for "Beautiful") is a beachfront city in Los Angeles County in the U.S. state of California, United States. Its population was 19,728 at the 2020 U.S. Census. The city is located in the South Bay region of th ...
*
Malibu
*
Manhattan Beach and
Bruce's Beach
*
Marina del Rey
*
Pacific Palisades
*
Palos Verdes Estates
*
Playa del Rey
Playa del Rey (Spanish for "Beach of the King") is a seaside community in the Santa Monica Bay and the Westside region of Los Angeles, California. It has a ZIP code of 90293 and area codes of 310 and 424. As of 2018, the community had a populat ...
*
Rancho Palos Verdes
Rancho Palos Verdes (Spanish for "Green Sticks Ranch") is a coastal city located in Los Angeles County, California atop the bluffs of the Palos Verdes Peninsula, neighboring other cities in the Palos Verdes Hills, including Palos Verdes Est ...
*
Redondo Beach
*
Santa Monica
Santa Monica (; Spanish: ''Santa Mónica'') is a city in Los Angeles County, situated along Santa Monica Bay on California's South Coast. Santa Monica's 2020 U.S. Census population was 93,076. Santa Monica is a popular resort town, owing to i ...
*
Torrance
*
Venice
Venice ( ; it, Venezia ; vec, Venesia or ) is a city in northeastern Italy and the capital of the Veneto region. It is built on a group of 118 small islands that are separated by canals and linked by over 400 bridges. The isla ...
See also
References
External links
Heal the BayEPA Santa Monica Bay Watershed Profile
{{Authority control
Bays of California
Bodies of water of Los Angeles County, California
Bights (geography)
Geography of Los Angeles
South Bay, Los Angeles
Westside (Los Angeles County)
Tourist attractions in Los Angeles County, California