Located off the 1,100 miles of California coastline, the California Coastal National Monument comprises more than 20,000 small islands, rocks, exposed reefs, and pinnacles between Mexico and Oregon.

The California Coastal National Monument is a biological and scenic treasure. Its thousands of islands, rocks, exposed reefs, and pinnacles are part of the near shore ocean zone, which begins just off shore and ends at the boundary between the continental shelf and continental slope. The Monument, established by presidential proclamation in 2000, provides feeding and nesting habitat for an estimated 200,000 breeding seabirds, as well as forage and breeding habitat for marine mammals including the southern sea otters and California sea lions.