Jewfish or Goliath Grouper on Stargazer

Stargazer Reef is not a reef – it’s an underwater sculpture that looks like a series of metal saw horses.  A thin layer of coral has grown to cover the table tops and legs, so there is a small neighborhood of fish living there.  You can always bet on finding mangrove snappers, angel fish, and one huge resident Goliath Grouper, A.K.A jewfish.  The jewfish really stands out, since Stargazer Reef is located on a desert of sand.  The poor thing tries to hide under the “tables” but you can always spot him a million miles away!

Here you can see the one small colony of Elkhorn Coral, which sadly has some rope tangled on it.  The Glass Bottom Boat likes to take its passengers out to see it, so it gets a lot of attention.  There are colorful parrot fish in this area, as well as barracuda, grouper, snapper, lobster, jacks, and lots of other marine life.

At Rock Key, snorkelers will encounter parrot fish, barracuda, angel fish, snapper, lazy nurse sharks, chubs, butterfly fish, lots of tiny colorful species of wrasses, gobies, file fish, puffer fish, and more.  You might also see rays, eels, sea turtles, and other creatures of the marine world who exist on and near the main reef system.

Most of the snorkel boats take their passengers out to Sand Key, which is right on the reef, about six miles out.  The lighthouse was built in the 1800s and marks the reef where it becomes so shallow it’s even a danger for smaller boats to navigate.  Living on the reef at Sand Key are barracuda, sting rays, sargeant majors, angel fish, snapper, grunts, the occasional moray eel hiding under the rocks, gentle nurse sharks sleeping in the sand, and thousands of small reef fish like blennies, wrasses, butterflyfish, and porkfish.  Also cruising through you’ll see bar jacks, and if you’re lucky other types of jacks as well.

For now, the USS Vandenberg artifical reef is snorkel-friendly.  If you get there when the vis is good, you can even see stuff from the boat.  The top deck and satellite dishes are painted white and nothing is growing on them yet, so snorkelers can totally have a good time snorkeling the Vandenberg! Here are some pics, taken during a freediving session. Some of these Vandenberg pictures were taken at or near the surface.

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Star Gazer Reef is lots of fun to dive or snorkel.  The dark lines of the steel legs stand out against the white sand making for nice pictures.  It also makes it easy to find the Jewfish.  Look for a pair of huge Angel Fish, too.  They are platter-sized!

Star Gazer reef is located near the main reef, six miles southwest of Key West, near Sand Key.  There’s a mouring buoy there for easy access.  It’s definitely worth a visit, for its uniqueness and almost guaranteed sighting of a Goliath Grouper.

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Tax Day, and that means time to head out for some Key West snorkeling to soothe the soul.  Calm day, about 7 knots, water temperature is around 82 degrees.  Perfect!  These are pictures taken directly south of Key West, about five miles, in the area of the Nine Foot Stake.  It was about 30 feet deep.   We snorkeled and drifted with the boat, diving down for closer looks at coral, fish, and marine plants like the cabbage-ish stuff in the photo below.  We were close to two Key West dive boats, who were sending down tank divers.