Key West Snorkeling

Stargazer Reef

kat — Wed, 10 Mar 2010 13:55:54 +0000

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!

Eastern Dry Rocks

kat — Thu, 04 Mar 2010 15:05:56 +0000

Eastern Dry Rocks is loved by everyone, from snorkelers to riders on the Glass Bottom Boat. This is practically the only remaining spot in Key West where you can see Elkhorn Coral. Parrot fish are everywhere on Eastern Dry Rocks, and at times you can see schools of tarpon here. It’s truly a beautiful Key West snorkeling spot, and it’s also about six miles out, in line with Rock Key and Sand Key.

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.

Rock Key

kat — Sat, 20 Feb 2010 14:27:28 +0000

Rock Key is a Key West snorkeling spot on the main reef, and popular with the boats that go out every day. The rocks jut right out of the water at this location, and on windier days they break the waves and make snorkeling more pleasant. Rock Key is right next to Sand Key, which is about six miles from shore. The ride takes anywhere between twenty and forty five minutes, depending on your vessel and the weather.

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.

Sand Key

kat — Wed, 10 Feb 2010 13:58:15 +0000

Sand Key Lighthouse is the most popular Key West snorkeling spot, by far. And no wonder: the reef comes up to withing a foot of the surface, making the coral, fish, and everything else incredibly vibrant and easy to explore. Snorkeling Sand Key is extremely easy and fun, so everyone can get a taste of the coral reef system, no matter how much of a beginner he or she may be.

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.

Queen Conch

kat — Mon, 18 Jan 2010 21:49:28 +0000

This is a Queen Conch, shell plus conch inside. The underside is beautiful pink fading to cream colored glossy lining while the outside is sand-colored and blends in with the bottom of the ocean floor. It isn’t nice to take the shell plus conch out of the ocean, but I had to get a picture. You cannot harvest conch meat in Key West, even though you see it for sale in restaurants . “Conch fritters” appear on almost every menu and are considered a local specialty.

The conch itself is like a crab, and sits way inside the shell. you can see his claw if you look closely at the crevice in the shell. It’s a mollusk, also the second most well-known snail in the world, after escargot from France.

The shells are sold in tourist shops in Key West, but since harvesting Conchs is illegal, these shells come from Haiti. So, if you’re in town doing some Key West snorkeling and you come across a Queen Conch, admire it but leave it there.

Old Anchors

kat — Wed, 09 Dec 2009 16:12:18 +0000

While doing some Key West Snorkeling this week, we found three very old anchors just sitting in the sand west of the nine foot stake. They were almost due south from Casa Marina, east of the shipping channel.

That’s a Gag grouper there under that rock. You don’t see them every day in Key West. They look kind of like snappers from the surface. There’s also a picture of a hogfish.

Hump Near Sand Key

kat — Sun, 11 Oct 2009 01:28:48 +0000

Sometimes you want to explore new areas for snorkeling and taking pictures. Sand Key is SO popular. This area is just west of Sand Key. All kinds of diverse marine life here. There’s a picture of a starlet coral. Maybe it’s a star coral, I can’t tell. Also check out the pillar coral, fronted by chubs. We found lobster, a spotted hind, and a grouper as well. Also see mangrove snappers on the bottom.

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Cottrell Key on the Gulf Side

kat — Wed, 19 Aug 2009 14:26:33 +0000

The Gulf side of Key West has its own charm.

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Back Country Coral in Key West

kat — Sun, 12 Jul 2009 14:32:43 +0000

Butterfly Fish

This is a Butterfly Fish. You see them all over the reef and other snorkeling spots around Key West. Today we had a short run to clear vis in the back country. This area north of Key West revealed some beautiful coral heads. The Back Country is the Gulf side of Key West, usually very murky and green. We took advantage of the clear waters and had a great day of Key West snorkeling on the Gulf side for a change.

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Backcountry Snorkeling in Key West

kat — Sat, 11 Jul 2009 12:03:46 +0000

Recently the vis on the Gulf side has been super clear, so we tried some backcountry snorkeling. Usually, if you go north out of Key West the water is murkier and greener than on the Atlantic side. For just a few days, however, it cleared up and we got to see what’s in the water out there. Turns out there are some nice coral patches that look very healthy. Take a look.

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