Scuba Diving · Sonoma Coast

Scuba Diving in Bodega Bay

Sonoma County's fishing harbor and the gateway to the rugged North Coast. Salmon and rockfish offshore, Dungeness crab in season, and cold, nutrient-rich water that runs green more often than blue. Big swell and strong wind define the diving windows.

Live conditions, water-clarity forecast, and water temperature for scuba diving in Bodega Bay, CA. Open the app for a live verdict and a tappable factor breakdown, free, no signup. Pro extends the forecast to 8 days.

Open live conditions →

Conditions snapshot: Oct 5, 2026

Visibility

14 ft

9–23 ft range

Water

58°F

Wind

1 kts

Wave

3.5 ft

Swell

2.2 ft

Period

8.4s

Snapshot from Oct 5, 2026. Live values, factor breakdowns, and 8-day forecast in the app.

Notable species

Bodega Bay is known for:

RockfishLingcodCabezonChinook SalmonDungeness Crab

Typical water visibility

Summer visibility around Bodega Bay is commonly reported in the 5–20 ft range, a community-guidance estimate, not a measurement. Rain, river discharge, swell mixing, and seasonality can shift real conditions dramatically day to day.

That's exactly why Submarius exists. The in-app clarity forecast starts from this coast's typical clarity for the time of year, built from in water measurements and satellite ocean color, then subtracts wave stirring, river and runoff plumes, and tide movement to estimate how far you'll actually see, shown as a low to high range, not a seasonal average.

How the clarity forecast works →

Clearest months at Bodega Bay

Model climatology from the baked clarity ceiling: the typical day and the best case (90th percentile) visibility for each month, with a seasonal algae bloom proneness flag. These are labelled model estimates, not measurements.

Month	Typical ft	Best case ft	Bloom risk
Jan	14	23	low
Feb	20	23	low
Mar	20	23	low
Apr	20	23	low
May	10	23	low
Jun	10	23	low
Jul	11	23	low
Aug	14	23	low
Sep	14	23	low
Oct	14	23	low
Nov	10	23	low
Dec	13	23	low

Ceiling artifact global-reef-v10-obis-world; table baked Oct 5, 2026.

What Submarius shows for Bodega Bay

Verdict score (0–10). Aggregates wind, swell, tide, moon, and water clarity into one decisive number.
Best window. The 2–3 hour stretch each day when conditions peak.
8-day forecast. Auto-scaled line graph showing which day this week is trending good.
Water clarity forecast. Secchi-depth estimate with uncertainty bounds and the next best vis window.
Free, anonymous. Check conditions with location on, no signup until you want to save spots or post reports.

Safety in the water

Submarius ships OCEARCH tagged-shark alerts, community shark sightings, SOS, and buddy GPS sharing, permanently free, regardless of subscription tier. For Bodega Bay specifically, the app shows any recent tagged sharks within range and lets you enable push notifications for sightings on your active tiles.