Jade Cove Collection Zone

Federal sanctuary rules carve out one narrow exception to the ban on removing minerals from Monterey Bay: jade may be collected from the area bounded by 35.92222 N latitude — the beach access stairway at south Sand Dollar Beach — and 35.88889 N at the westernmost tip of Cape San Martin, from the mean high tide line seaward to the 90-foot isobath. Only jade already loose from the submerged lands counts. The only tools permitted are a hand tool no greater than 36 inches with no moving parts, such as a dive knife, pry bar, or abalone iron, plus lift bags with combined capacity of no more than 200 pounds; pneumatic, mechanical, electrical, hydraulic, and explosive tools are all excluded. Each person may collect only what they individually carry, and anything above the tide line is outside the exception — that is the boundary that gets people cited.