Book provides detailed description of scuba diving sites within Monterey County, California with maps, marine life information, and photography tips.

Anyone who has ever stood on the shores of Monterey Bay, watching the rolling ocean waves and frolicking otters, knows it is a unique place. But even residents on this idyllic California coast may not realize its full history. Monterey began as a natural paradise, but became the poster child for industrial devastation in John Steinbeck’s Cannery Row,and is now one of the most celebrated shorelines in the world. It is a remarkable story of life, death, and revival—told here for the first time in all its stunning color and bleak grays. The Death and Life of Monterey Bay begins in the eighteenth century when Spanish and French explorers encountered a rocky shoreline brimming with life—raucous sea birds, abundant sea otters, barking sea lions, halibut the size of wagon wheels,waters thick with whales. A century and a half later, many of the sea creatures had disappeared, replaced by sardine canneries that sickened residents with their stench but kept the money flowing. When the fish ran out and the climate turned,the factories emptied and the community crumbled. But today,both Monterey’s economy and wildlife are resplendent. How did it happen? The answer is deceptively simple: through the extraordinary acts of ordinary people. The Death and Life of Monterey Bay is the biography of a place, but also of the residents who reclaimed it. Monterey is thriving because of an eccentric mayor who wasn’t afraid to use pistols, axes, or the force of law to protect her coasts. It is because of fishermen who love their livelihood, scientists who are fascinated by the sea’s mysteries, and philanthropists and community leaders willing to invest in a world-class aquarium. The shores of Monterey Bay revived because of human passion—passion that enlivens every page of this hopeful book.

In December 2002, a group of specialists on water resources from the United States and Iran met in Tunis, Tunisia, for an interacademy workshop on water resources management, conservation, and recycling. This was the fourth interacademy workshop on a variety of topics held in 2002, the first year of such workshops. Tunis was selected as the location for the workshop because the Tunisian experience in addressing water conservation issues was of interest to the participants from both the United States and Iran. This report includes the agenda for the workshop, all of the papers that were presented, and the list of site visits.

The city of Salinas is named for the broad saltwater slough that once seeped in from Monterey Bay, saturating this plain between the Santa Lucia and Gavilian Mountains. Originally used as range land for cattle, a town developed from a stage stop after the Gold Rush, and the drained land produced grain and other crops. After World War I, immensely profitable large-scale lettuce, broccoli, and artichoke production, known as "green gold," made Salinas one of the wealthiest cities in the United States. Isolated from its neighbors by mountains on both sides, early Salinas seemed a world unto itself, and its residents, both humble and wealthy, and the seemingly infinite green rows that surrounded it, provided similarly endless inspiration to novelist John Steinbeck, who recorded life here in the first half of the 20th century and imbued it with meaning.

Since the early 1900s, Monterey was known for its fishing, mostly for salmon and the abalone that was plentiful in Monterey Bay. The migration of the Sicilian Italian community is credited for reaping what was called the "Silver Harvest." The Silver Harvest is the name that was given to the fishing of sardines in Monterey, which mostly was done by the Sicilian Italians who established the working fabric in the sardine industry for nearly five decades. Most of that generation is gone, and only a few are memorialized in books. It is this author's attempt to capture the working class that made Monterey the "Sardine Capital of the World."

People of African heritage have traveled to Monterey since the 1770s, when African Spaniard Alexo Nino, a ship's caulker, traveled with Fr. Junipero Serra to Monterey via the San Antonio. For centuries since Nino, black men and women migrated to the Monterey Bay area in search of a new life. In the 20th century, some African Americans established businesses, bought homes, and encouraged family members and friends to settle in Monterey County. Others pursued military careers. Out of these communities came churches, schools, service organizations, and social groups. For the next century, the history of Monterey County's African American communities have mirrored the nation's slow progress toward integration with triumphs and setbacks that have been captured in images of employment opportunities, churches, business successes, and political struggles.