Dana Point | MARINe

Click here for Long-Term trends

Click here for Biodiversity Survey findings

Dana Point is located in the South Coast region of California, within the Dana Point State Marine Conservation Area, and is near the Dana Point Mussel Watch site. The Ocean Institute is located at the entrance of the long reef and provides educational materials to the numerous schools that visit this site, some that make the hike to the monitoring location at the end of the reef. The site is located at the upcoast portion of this reef and is characterized by granitic boulders mixed with flattened benches.

Dana Point is dominated by a mixture of consolidated bedrock and sandy beach, and the area surrounding the site is comprised of a mixture of consolidated bedrock and boulder fields. The primary coastal orientation of this site is south.

Long-Term Monitoring Surveys at Dana Point were established in 1996, primarily funded by the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management. The site is sampled by California State University Fullerton and California State Polytechnic University, Pomona. Long-Term MARINe surveys currently target the following species: Chthamalus/Balanus (Acorn Barnacles), Mytilus (California Mussel), Silvetia (Golden Rockweed), and Pisaster (Ochre Star). In addition, motile invertebrates, mussel size structure, and water temperature are monitored at this site. Click here to view Long-Term trends at this site.

Biodiversity Surveys were done in 2001, 2006, 2010, 2013, 2018, 2020, and 2022. The Biodiversity Survey grid encompasses one section that is approximately 30 meters (along shore) x 25 meters (seaward). Click here to view Biodiversity Survey findings at this site.

Voucher specimens of selected invertebrate and seaweed species were collected from this site by California State University Fullerton in 2016 and 2017. The MARINe vouchering effort was designed to collect and archive samples of species that are monitored using MARINe protocols. Archived samples from this site at the Smithsonian Institution (invertebrates) and University of California Berkeley Herbarium (algae) are identified as BOEM-MARINE-DAPT-111216 and BOEM-MARINE-DAPT-052217.

For more information about Dana Point, please contact Jayson Smith (jaysonsmith@cpp.edu) and Jennifer Burnaford (jburnaford@Fullerton.edu).