I know of four of these, but there may be more. These rock piles were all deposited when breakwaters were being built outside the Santa Monica Pier and Marina Del Rey Harbor. That was a long time ago. Rock was quarried at Santa Catalina Island and barged across to Santa Monica Bay. During stormy seas a barge might sink or be forced to dump its load at sea. Since these were moored outside their working areas at the time, that’s where they were turned into underwater structures. Later these were rediscovered as good places to fish and dive on. Two are located just outside of Marina Del Rey, and two are located near the Santa Monica breakwater. I’m pretty sure that three of the four were accidentally created, but one is in much deeper water, and may have been dumped on purpose to create a structure for a sport fishing barge. I’m not completely sure of how they got there, but I do know where they are, and that they’re great places to fish and dive. Local sport fishing boats regularly visit at least two of these sites, maybe three. All of these structures are small, twenty to forty feet across, and all are somewhat roundish in shape. They are covered in gorgonians and serve as a home to large populations of sand bass, sculpin, rockfish, and other finny creatures. Halibut like to hang out in the sand next to the rocks to feed on some of the smaller aquatic animals there.
My dive log was created for my personal use, and I didn’t always take longitudinal or latitudinal coordinates. Most of the time I used landmarks and GPS way points to get to the area. That old GPS unit is no longer available to me so I can’t go back and recover information I stored in it. I’m going to give you my landmarks. At first it will be a bit of a puzzle for you, but you’ll get over the initial confusion and be well rewarded if you keep at it. A good sonar unit will help, too. Here’s the first of them:
Marina Pile North
This site is located just outside of Marina Del Rey Harbor in 47 feet of water. We nicknamed this pile “Frustration,” because it’s made up of larger rocks with lots of deep holes between them for bugs to hide in. Still, over the years we’ve caught a lot of nice lobsters there, maybe you can do the same. Exit the north end of Marina Del Rey breakwater and head to sea at about a ten o’clock heading. It’s just a tad over a quarter of a mile to the rock pile.
More to follow.