Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute

Moss Landing, formerly Moss, is an unincorporated community and census-designated place (CDP) in Monterey County, California, United States. It is located 18 miles (29 km) north-northeast of Monterey, at an elevation of 10 feet (3.048 m). It is on the shore of Monterey Bay, at the mouth of Elkhorn Slough and at the head of the submarine Monterey Canyon.

Moro Cojo Estuary State Marine Reserve (SMR) is a marine protected area established to protect the wildlife and habitats in Moro Cojo Slough. Moro Cojo Slough is located inland from Monterey Bay on the central coast of California, directly south of the more widely known Elkhorn Slough. The area covers 0.46 square miles (1.2 km2). The SMR protects all marine life within its boundaries. Fishing and take of all living marine resources is prohibited.

The Moss Landing Power Plant is a natural gas powered electricity generation plant located in Moss Landing, California, United States, at the midpoint of Monterey Bay. Its large stacks are landmarks, visible throughout the Monterey Bay Area. The plant is owned and operated by Houston-based Dynegy and currently has a generation capacity of 1020 MW (net) from its two combined cycle generation units. It was once the largest power plant in the state of California, with a generation capacity of 2560 MW, before its two large supercritical steam units were retired in 2016. It is the site of a new battery storage power station for grid battery storage of over 567 MW / 2,270 MWh of power, potentially the world's largest when completed. A fire occurred on site in 2022 during construction, and PG&E and Tesla took corrective actions. The project still moved forward and Phase III was completed and went into operation in June of 2023.

The Moss Landing Marine Laboratories (MLML) is a multi-campus marine research consortium of the California State University System, headquartered at Moss Landing, California.

Moss Landing Wildlife Area is a California State wildlife preserve on the shore of Elkhorn Slough.

Moss Landing State Beach is a state park on Monterey Bay, in Monterey County, California.

Salinas River State Beach is a beach at the river mouth of the Salinas River at Monterey Bay, in Monterey County, California. It is located at the south end of Moss Landing, California. The park can be accessed from the Potrero exit off of Highway 1, in Moss Landing. It is part of the 99 miles of Monterey County coastline.

Elkhorn Slough is a 7-mile-long (11 km) tidal slough and estuary on Monterey Bay in Monterey County, California. It is California's second largest estuary and the United States' first estuarine sanctuary. The community of Moss Landing and the Moss Landing Power Plant are located at the mouth of the slough on the bay. Elkhorn Slough harbors the largest tract of tidal salt marsh in California outside the San Francisco Bay and provides much-needed habitat for hundreds of species of plants and animals, including more than 340 species of birds. It has been designated as a protected Ramsar site since 2018.

Zmudowski State Beach is located on Monterey Bay, in Moss Landing, Monterey County, northern California.It is operated by the California Department of Parks and Recreation. Coastal erosion has greatly affected Zmudowski State Beach, along with other beaches in California. It has also been impacted by an influx of marine debris, causing changes in its wildlife populations.

Castroville is an unincorporated town and census-designated place (CDP) in Monterey County, California, United States. At the time of the 2020 census the population was 7,515, up from 6,481 in 2010. Castroville is known for its artichoke crop and for the annual Castroville Artichoke Festival, leading to its nickname as the "Artichoke Center of the World". The community's origins lie in Rancho Bolsa Nueva y Moro Cojo, a Mexican-era rancho granted to the Castro family of Californio rancheros. Following the American Conquest of California, Juan Bautista Castro founded Castroville in 1863.

Monterey Canyon, or Monterey Submarine Canyon, is a submarine canyon in Monterey Bay, California with steep canyon walls measuring a full 1 mile (1.6 km) in height from bottom to top, which height/depth rivals the depth of the Grand Canyon itself. It is the largest such submarine canyon along the West coast of the North American continent, and was formed by the underwater erosion process known as turbidity current erosion. Many questions remain unresolved regarding the exact nature of its origins, and as such it is the subject of several ongoing geological and marine life studies being carried out by scientists stationed at the nearby Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute, the Moss Landing Marine Laboratories, and other oceanographic institutions. Monterey Canyon begins at Moss Landing, California, which is situated along the middle of the coast of Monterey Bay, and extends horizontally 95 mi (153 km) under the Pacific Ocean where it terminates at the Monterey Canyon submarine fan, reaching depths of up to 3,600 m (11,800 ft) below surface level at its downstream mouth. It is a part of the greater Monterey Bay Canyon System, which consists of Monterey, Soquel and Carmel Canyons. The canyon's depth and nutrient availability (due to the regular influx of nutrient-rich sediment) provide a habitat suitable for many marine life forms. The Soquel Canyon State Marine Conservation Area protects a side-branch of the Monterey Submarine Canyon. Like an underwater park, this marine protected area helps conserve ocean wildlife and marine ecosystems.

Rancho Bolsa del Potrero y Moro Cojo (or Pocket of the Pasture and the Lame Moor and La Sagrada Familia or The Holy Family) was a 6,916-acre (27.99 km2) Mexican land grant in the northern Salinas Valley, in present-day Monterey County, California. Tradition holds that Lame Moor refers to a lame, black (moor) horse found in the property.It was given in 1822 by Governor Pablo Vicente de Solá to Joaquín de la Torre. The grant was bounded on the north by Tembladero Slough and in the south by present-day Castroville.