Soquel Canyon State Marine Conservation Area
Soquel Canyon State Marine Conservation Area (SMCA) is an offshore marine protected area in Monterey Bay. Monterey Bay is on California’s central coast with the city of Monterey at its south end and the city of Santa Cruz at its north end. The SMCA covers 23.41 square miles (60.6 km2). Within the SMCA fishing and take of all living marine resources is prohibited except the commercial and recreational take of pelagic finfish.
Soquel Canyon SMCA was established in September 2007 by the California Department of Fish & Game. It was one of 29 marine protected areas adopted during the first phase of the Marine Life Protection Act Initiative. The Marine Life Protection Act Initiative (or MLPAI) is a collaborative public process to create a statewide network of marine protected areas along the California coastline.
The Soquel Canyon SMCA captures an entire side-branch of the Monterey Submarine Canyon.
This marine protected area is bounded by straight lines connecting the following points in the order listed:
36° 51.00’ N. lat. 121° 56.00’ W. long.;
36° 51.00’ N. lat. 122° 03.80’ W. long.;
36° 48.00’ N. lat. 122° 02.88’ W. long.;
36° 48.00’ N. lat. 121° 56.00’ W. long.; and
36° 51.00’ N. lat. 121° 56.00’ W. long.
The Monterey Submarine Canyon is a unique and biologically productive habitat. The rocky canyon walls and mud-and-sand canyon floor offer ideal habitat for rockfishes including depleted species and it contains communities of fragile deepwater corals and sponges. The area is also an important seabird forage grounds and whale feeding area.
The natural beauty and ocean resources of the Monterey Peninsula draw millions of visitors from around the world each year, including more than 65,000 scuba divers drawn by the area’s easy access, variety of wildlife, and massive kelp forests.
The Monterey Bay Aquarium is a major tourist attraction featuring a 28-foot (8.5 m) living kelp forest. The exhibit includes many of the species native to the nearby marine protected areas. The aquarium also houses sea otters, intertidal wildlife, and occasionally sea turtles.
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