Cannery Park is a shore accessible salt water dive site, located in Monterey, CA. This dive site has an average rating of 3.78 out of 5 from 9 scuba divers.
Cannery Park (also called San Carlos Beach) is just West of the Breakwater dive site. This is a nice place for a second dive, and to get away from the crowd at Breakwater. The dive area is mainly sandy, so expect to see the occasional Halibut. In Monterey, heading West on Del Monte, bear right onto Lighthouse Ave, then bear right onto Foam St. Make a right onto Cannery Row.
Metridium fields have become our default dive for San Carlos Beach/Breakwater. We’ve found that the worse the visibility, the more Metridium are out. Find the large pipe just north of the bathrooms and pump house. There are several small pipes that could mislead you. The big one is probably 2+ feet in diameter. Once you’ve found the pipe follow it out until its end. Then, take a heading directly at magnetic north and you should reach the metridium within
50-100 feet. We’ve seen lots of sea-life along the pipe... many rockfish, halibut (some several feet long), seals, otters, many nudibranchs.
This is always a long swim. I took the scooter on the first one and followed the large pipe out to Metridium Fields. Good viz and no surge. Saw several Sea Nettles and got to photograph them. We decided not to follow the pipe back in. Instead we took a heading to bring us closer to the breakwater when we surfaced. It’s a long way but we hit our target. The swim out and back is what makes this a tougher dive. Watch your air it goes fast. I use a steel 120 and that gives me a lot more time out there.