[6] During the 1600s and 1700s, significant contraband took place near Ponce shores as well as attempts to attack, ransack, and invade the Playa settlement.

In both August 1800 and October 1801, for example, a fleet of British warships attempted to capture the shore settlement but were repelled by the Municipal Guard and Ponce militia.

[15] It significantly damaged the Spanish Customs House in Ponce, this being one of the few building left standing after the fire.

[17] In 1887 the Spanish government built the Caja de Muertos Light on an island by the same name just off the coast of barrio Playa.

[20][21][22] In 1898, Bahía de Ponce was the entry point of the invading forces of the United States on 27 July.

[24] In a speech to Congress three weeks later President Roosevelt explained "I could not [dis]embark at San Juan because the harbor has not been dredged out and cannot receive an American battleship.

"[25] By 1913, Playa was "a dynamic neighborhood with a self-sustained urban development with a population of 5,169 distributed through a residential area dominated by wooden houses, sugar cane farms, churches, schools, hospitals, a cemetery and local industries that promoted the formation of a strong artisan and industrial workers class.

[27] In 2009, Barrio Playa was a mostly working class barrio of Ponce,[28] with a modern shopping mall, a 4-star hotel, several parks, and numerous sports and recreational facilities, among others, and its bay is home to the most important commercial harbor on the Puerto Rico's Caribbean coast and the second largest in the island.

[38] The continental shelf at Bahía de Ponce is over 5 miles wide, after which it dips steeply into the Venezuelan Basin.

Bajo Tasmanian is a mile-long bank to the east of the harbor entrance, with several points with shallow depths (16 to 18 feet deep).

Oriented in a northeast direction, Las Hojitas, northwest of Isla de Cardona, is 0.8-mile long and has a small patch awash near its southwest end.

Cayo Viejo, located 0.8-mile west of Isla de Cardona, is about 0.3-mile in diameter and awash at its shoalest point.

Cayo Arenas, located 0.5-mile east of Isla de Ratones, is surrounded by a reef and shoals that extend up to 200 yards from its shore.

[43] Wind patterns at Bahía de Ponce are generally from the east, with a southeast onshore component.

[49] A March 2001 enhancement also brought the one outfall from Avenida Hostos to diffuse much further into the Sea than before, to where bay depths are 1,200 feet.

The post-improvements study demonstrated conclusively that discharges into the Bay by Autoridad de Acueductos y Alcantarillados did not adversely affect the water quality.

[51] The primary treated submarine sewage outfall to Bahia de Ponce was relocated to discharge at a depth of 150 m down the insular slope below the pycnocline.

[53] Among marine species the more visible one is the Atlantic tarpon (Megalops atlanticus), also easily spotted at Paseo Tablado La Guancha.

[55] The brown pelican nests at Isla del Frío just to the east of Bahía de Ponce and roosts at the Punta Cucharas end of the bay.

[59] These are also at the Punta Cucharas western end of the bay: Puerto Rican oriole (Icterus portoricensis), brown pelican (Pelecanus occidentalis), peregrine falcon (Falco peregrinus), Puerto Rican vireo (Vireo latimeri), and white-cheeked pintail (Anas bahamensis).

[66] The U.S. Coast Guard is located at the former Spanish Capitania del Puerto building in Barrio Playa.

[77] Participants are ferried to Isla Cardona from where they swim across the bay to the shore in front of Parque Enrique González park in barrio Playa.