What California looked like before it was fished, a granite underwater landscape of walls and canyons inside one of the oldest…What California looked like before it was fished, a granite underwater landscape of walls and canyons inside one of the oldest marine reserves in the state, with a kelp forest overhead, harbour seals and sea otters through it, and the head of the Carmel submarine canyon dropping away offshore. Set aside in 1960 as the first underwater reserve in the United States, on a headland that had been a whaling station, an abalone cannery and a granite quarry before anyone thought to protect it. The whalers' cabin still stands above the cove. Anchorage: Not an anchorage. Yachts lie in Monterey harbour, 12nm north, and this is reached by road; small boats may launch inside the cove with a permit. Hazards: Cold water year round, and surge along the outer reefs. Diver numbers are capped and the reserve is no-take, both enforced. Meer