Bay of Life

From its headwaters in the hills of the Los Padres National Forest, the Salinas River heads northwest through central California, carving a narrow green ribbon on its way to meet the sea at Monterey Bay. Beyond the river’s end, hidden beneath the waves, a vast submarine chasm cleaves the seafloor in two, rivaling the Grand Canyon in size and splendor. These unique geographical features knit together land and sea to create a dazzling ecosystem unlike any other.

Cold water wells up from the undersea canyon, cooling the air above to shroud the coast in fog. That misty microclimate has helped the Salinas Valley establish itself as the “salad bowl of the world,” producing berries, broccoli and nearly half the nation’s lettuce. The upwelling of canyon waters also ferries a steady stream of nutrients into the water column, feeding a stunning diversity of marine life. Long before Europeans arrived, Indigenous people relied on that bounty, harvesting resources like abalone and salmon. Later, European fur traders came for the otters, and a booming commercial fishing industry sprung up to harvest anchovies and sardines, giving rise to Monterey’s famed Cannery Row.

But after World War II, anchovy and sardine populations fell off a cliff. “It was one of the first visible signals that our oceans are not infinite,” says Tom Dempsey, oceans program director for The Nature Conservancy in California. “And it wasn’t just happening in the water. From overexploitation of fisheries to loss of forests and coastal dune removal, a history of mismanagement left significant impacts on the bay.”

The 21st century has delivered new threats. Transformed by development, much of the shoreline has lost its natural buffer against rising sea levels. Beneath the surface, warming waters spark a domino effect of ecosystem changes that upend food chains and put iconic species like blue whales and giant kelp at risk. Yet this area also has a long history as a hub for marine research and conservation.

Still, ocean conservation can feel like a game of Whac-A-Mole. As soon as one threat is contained, two more pop up in its place. In the last decade, unprecedented marine heat waves and disease have triggered a cascade of changes in the region’s once-dense kelp forests. To keep tabs on the threat, TNC staff and research partners developed Kelpwatch, a web-based visualization tool that collects data from satellite imagery to track real-time changes in the kelp canopy. The tool documented a 90% decline in the kelp canopy around the Monterey Peninsula over the past 10 years.

Yet Monterey Bay is emerging as a model for a new kind of conservation—one that looks across borders and biomes to consider the natural system in its entirety. “These ecosystems are interconnected,” Dempsey says. “Here in Monterey, we’re demonstrating that by leaning into those intersections, we can secure a future of abundance and resilience.” 

These photos from Frans Lanting and writer Chris Eckstrom’s book, Bay of Life, showcase what’s at stake around Monterey Bay—and reveal how work to protect this natural wonder is leaving a lasting legacy on the Central Coast of California.