Morro Bay

Morro Bay is in Central Coast California and is one of the main fishing ports and important tourism centers. People from Bakersfield and other inland cities California flock to Morro Bay to escape the heat. The summers are pleasant and the attractions in Morro Bay are exciting and fun. The beaches in Morro Bay are good and used to have lots of clams, but the sea otters have decimated all the mollusks.

Morro Bay has lots of interesting attractions, especially on the waterfront, with some great seafood restaurants, with rockfish, halibut, albacore, oysters that are farmed in the back bay.

Hungry for some exceptional seafood? Don’t miss the renowned Stax Wine Bar and Giovanni’s Fish Market. You’ll thank us for the tip.

A vibrant abalone fishery in Morro Bay was a very important resource from 1922, until the sea otters ate their way down from Point Lobos, consuming all the abalone before they matured enough to reproduce. There are no abalone now, just the ones raised on land, beyond the sea otters reach. Native Indians kept the otter population in check before the government got involved and put the sea otters on the endangered list. With no predators, the sea otters destroyed numerous species, sea urchins, crabs, lobsters, chitons and hundreds of species of mollusks to the point of extinction — a classic case of man’s good intentions running amuck.

Part of Morro Bay is a renowned bird sanctuary and a birder’s paradise. Morro Bay was also declared a California Marine Reserve by the California Fish and Game Commission.

Morro Rock, a prominent feature at the mouth of Morro Bay is a natural breakwater and thought to have been created by a prehistoric volcano moving beneath the sub-strata. The army Corp of Engineers completed the job. Note! If you are not an experienced mariner the channel into Morro Bay can present a very dangerous situation when the ocean swell is running high. Many boats have capsized trying to get through in bad conditions.