Key West Snorkeling » key west snorkeling photos

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.

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.

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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Snorkeling the Gulf and Towers

kat — Sat, 20 Jun 2009 14:48:35 +0000

I’d always thought the Gulf side of Key West didn’t have much to offer in terms of snorkeling, but yesterday we drove way northwest from Key West and the coral and fish were plentiful. At the New Grounds, the coral seemed really healthy, more so than the coral in front of Key West. We drove really far and snorkeled a Navy Tower, which was basically like a vertical reef. When we first got there, Goliath Groupers were all over the tower, at thirty feet down. Then they moved deeper once everyone jumped in. There were schools of barracuda and permit.

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Green Water Day

kat — Sun, 24 May 2009 11:58:41 +0000

The vis was kinda green, but you could still see things in the water, even from the surface. It was just a little tinted, that’s all. Saw some beautiful coral types I hadn’t seen before, pictured here. Went in shallow enough water towards the end of the day, 20 feet, so one could sit on the bottom for a second and let the fish come closer. If only I could hold my breath longer! The water is for sure SO much warmer, even from last week. It almost feels like I could go from a 3mm to a 1mm wetsuit already. These pictures were taken mostly at Eastern Dry Rocks area. The frigates swooped down close by, snatching up snacks that were near the boat. The barracuda was lurking near us, waiting for snacks, too. You can see what the vis was in his picture, which was taken near the surface in about 25 feet of water. Not too bad.

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More Key West Snorkeling Pics

kat — Tue, 12 May 2009 16:38:23 +0000

Here are some more Key West snorkeling pics. These were taken directly south of Key West, east of Sand Key but not as far east as the Sambos. More specifically, it’s just west of the Nine Foot Stake. The vis was pretty good, as you can see, and the water has really warmed up. I have downgraded my wetsuit from the michelin-man 5mm to a 3mm. Some folks can now go with just a rash guard. But 3mm is for sure enough now that the water is so much warmer. We saw a nice brain coral, nice and healthy. Nurse sharks are common but pose no danger at all for those who want to go Key West snorkeling. They have sandpaper-like teeth and are not aggressive towards people. See how close I was able to get to this one nurse shark, and he didn’t care at all about me.

The picture of the fish under a rock is a mystery fish, which occasionally happens during Key West snorkeling trips. There are so many species out there on the reef it’s hard to id them all.

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Elkhorn Coral

kat — Mon, 11 May 2009 13:18:19 +0000

This is one of the last remaining elkhorn coral in Key West. This species is gorgous but now rare in our waters. Elkhorn coral is abundant in the Abacos Islands are of The Bahamas. Anyway, today conditions were awesome. The wind was only 8 knots, the water is warmer and clear, and we saw lots of beautiful fish and coral. Here’s a few pics from yesterday:

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All About Visibility

kat — Sat, 09 May 2009 12:41:50 +0000

Every day snorkeling in Key West is different. Besides the obvious factors like where you choose to go snorkeling, the weather, and whether the fish are there that day, there’s one other very important factor that has a huge effect on your experience: the visibility, or vis. The outgoing tide can bring cloudy water from the Gulf side up over the reef, which is one way the vis can go bad. We measure the vis in terms of how many feet you can see. This day we had about twenty feet of vis. The pictures in this gallery taken from the surface are meant to show you what 20-foot vis is like. The picture of the spearfishing person was taken in about twenty feet of water. The close up pictures of coral and fish were taken at the bottom, obviously, and you can see that if you dive down, the vis seems to clear up and you can see much better.

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