Casino Point

The Avalon Dive Park (which everyone always simply refers to as "Casino Point") is located next to the world-famous Casino Building on Catalina Island. First established in 1962, the park is the first nonprofit underwater park in the country (and maybe the world), and offers the some of the best shore diving in California! To make entry and exit in and out of the water as easy as possible, there are cement stairs with handrails. The Park is about 2.5 acres in size, which means it is large enough to do several dives without traversing over the same areas.  The Park’s boundaries are clearly marked with a line of buoys to keep boats and divers away from one another.  The diverse under-sea world at the Underwater Park offers both beginner and expert divers a dive experience like no other area.

Scuba diving and snorkeling enthusiasts who come to enjoy clear waters and abundant sea life find it free of mainland pollution and surf. The depth ranges from the rocky shoreline to 95 feet deep. Primarily the park consists of Giant kelp (Macrocystis pyrifera), the fastest growing plant in the world.

The park's bottom contour reveals rock walls and outcroppings, boulders, pinnacles and a sandy seafloor on its outer edges, which is truly representative of Catalina Island's different characteristics.

Water temperature ranges from 70-74 degrees in the summer to 55-59 degrees in winter, with September to mid-October being the warmest. It’s not uncommon to enjoy 100’ visibility in the late summer to early fall.

Because of strict local laws prohibiting taking of game or salvaging artifacts, the park has become a home for a large variety of marine life. Plant life of all colors abounds, from the Giant kelp to the smallest algae. Living within the rocky reef are lobsters, abalone, octopus, small fish, and moray eels. Numerous mollusks and nudibranchs also make their homes on the reef.

Swimming freely in the kelp forest are Giant Black Sea Bass, Señorita fish, Sheephead, Opaleye, Blacksmith and our state marine fish, the Garibaldi. Where the rocky reef ends, the sandy bottom begins.  Divers may find angel sharks, bat rays, banded guitar fish and halibut. Numerous wrecks are also found in the sandy areas, which have become home to many types of marine life.

Casino Point has become a mecca to scuba divers and snorkelers worldwide.

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