South Coast (California)

South Coast
The South Coast: San Diego to Oxnard, and east to Riverside-San Bernardino
Country	United States
State	California
Population	~ 20 million

The South Coast is a term used in the West Coast region of the United States to refer to both the south Pacific Coast of California and the adjacent resort and residential communities.

It refers for the most part to the Southern California coastal counties of Ventura, Los Angeles, Orange, and San Diego due to the cosmopolitan "SoCal" atmosphere and location of major urban coastal centers. Of these counties only the western two thirds of San Diego, coastal half of Ventura, most of Los Angeles and all of Orange are included.

However, some sources include the coastal half of Ventura, western part of Riverside, and southwestern part of San Bernardino Counties because of their proximity to the Pacific Coast and because they are in the same bio-region and watershed.

During the prohibition era the waters of the South Coast were a popular smuggling route in for alcohol. Largely forgotten in the later parts of the 20th Century, with increased security at the Mexico–United States border smuggling has increased; during the 2011 fiscal year, more than 200 smuggling vessels were observed. Most of the vessels attempt to off load their cargo of drugs and/or illegal immigrants in San Diego County; however, destinations are as far north as the California Central Coast. Often, vessels used for smuggling operations are abandoned upon making landfall.

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