page_title: Point Lobos
section_title: Marine Protected Areas
hierarchical_section_title: Point Lobos / Recreation and visitor impact / Marine Protected Areas
caption_attribution_description: English: Phalacrocorax penicillatus (Brandt's Cormorant) colony on Point Lobos in California, United States.
context_page_description: Point Lobos and the Point Lobos State Natural Reserve is the "crown jewel" of California's 280 state parks. Australian-born landscape artist Francis McComas described the point as the "greatest meeting of land and water in the world." Adjoining Point Lobos is "one of the richest marine habitats in California." The ocean habitat is protected by two marine protected areas, the Point Lobos State Marine Reserve and Point Lobos State Marine Conservation Area. The sea near Point Lobos is considered one the best locations for scuba diving on the Monterey Peninsula and along the California coast.
  Point Lobos is just south of Carmel-by-the-Sea, California, United States, and at the north end of the Big Sur coast of the Pacific Ocean. Point Lobos features a number of hiking trails, many alongside the ocean, and a smaller number of beaches. The historic Whalers Cabin, built by Chinese fishermen and later used by Japanese and Portuguese fishermen, is now a museum.
  Point Lobos nearly became the site of a town. In 1896, the Carmelo Land and Coal Company subdivided the land into 1,000 lots and named the new town "Carmelito".
context_section_description: The original Point Lobos Ecological Reserve was created in 1973. It has become "one of the richest marine habitats in California." Divers may not take any fish or mollusks within the reserve. The Point Lobos marine protected areas provide shelter to a wide range of fish, invertebrates, birds, and marine mammals, from those that rely on the near-shore kelp forest to those that inhabit the deep waters of the Carmel Submarine Canyon.
  In 2007, the California Department of Fish and Game expanded the ecological reserve and renamed it as the Point Lobos State Marine Reserve and Point Lobos State Marine Conservation Area. A no-take zone was extended from the east side of Monastery Beach to the mouth of MalPaso Creek. They were two of 29 marine protected areas adopted during the first phase of the Marine Life Protection Act Initiative, a collaborative public process to create a statewide network of marine protected areas along the California coastline.
caption: Brandt's Cormorant colony
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