Scripps Institution of Oceanography

The San Diego Marine Life Refuge Area of Special Biological Significance (SDMLR-ASBS) is located in La Jolla Bay, adjacent to Scripps Institute of Oceanography, La Jolla, San Diego County. The SDMLR-ASBS is part of the San Diego-La Jolla Underwater Park. The park has a total surface area of 5,977 acres while the surface area of the SDMLR-ASBS is approximately 92 acres. The SDMLR-ASBS includes three distinct habitats: a broad, sandy shelf; a concrete pier piling system; and an intertidal mudstone reef complex of dikes, boulders, and ledges. Therefore, the SDMLR-ASBS contains organisms representative of a sandy substrate and a rock reef, while the pier exhibits a limited rocky biota. This SDMLR-ASBS is immediately north of the San Diego-La Jolla Ecological Reserve ASBS, with which it shares many of the same species and organisms.