Stretching from the Palos Verdes Peninsula north to Point Dume, the Santa Monica Bay is part of the Southern California Bight (all the submerged land from Point Conception south to Cabo Colonet in Baja California). It’s technically the submerged portion of the Los Angeles Coastal Plain, which is why it slopes relatively gently towards the open ocean. At its deepest point, the Bay is about 265 feet deep, but it drops off into the Santa Monica Basin, which is more than 2,500 feet deep.

Within the Bay, there are three submarine canyons (Dume, Santa Monica and Redondo) as well as Short Bank (which is the central plateau of the Bay), and the Palos Verdes Shelf.

As you can learn more about in our watersheds section, the area of land that drains naturally to the Bay, known as the Santa Monica Bay watershed, stretches from the Santa Monica Mountains, and the Ventura-Los Angeles County line to Griffith Park, extending south and west across Los Angeles to the area east of Ballona Creek and north of Baldwin Hills. The southern boundary of the watershed is south of Ballona Creek. Within the Santa Monica Bay watershed there are 28 smaller sub-watersheds, including Ballona Creek, Malibu Creek and Topanga Creek.

For more information, you can visit the Santa Monica Bay Restoration Commission at www.santamonicabay.org.