Well Conditions have drastically improved over the last couple weeks here in Key West. There is awesome visibility out on reef, at 60 or 70 feet on the reef edge at places such as Sand Key and Western Dry rocks. The tricky thing is that that’s at high tide , its at about half that at low tide so plan your trip accordingly. We saw all the usually reef denizens such as hog snapper
and red grouper
We saw ton of see life and even had a pod of dolphins swim in to check us out, unfortunately the underwater camera was in the boat at the time.
We also rescued a sea turtle that was caught on a crab trap line while we where coming home.
There is 40-60 feet of visibility yesterday on outer edge of the reef.
One tip, during high tide the visibility is often better then it is at low tide. So when you plan your trip you should consult a tide chart to see when high tide is. The try to be out in the water on the high tide.
Here is a tide chart for Sand Key, one of the most popular snorkeling spots in Key West
Well the waters in front of Key West are bit chalky but the visibility is ok for snorkeling. The water is blue but it just isn’t got the crystal clear quality we had the past couple weeks. You can see fine down but horizontally not as much.
Here is a little video of snorkeling in the shallow inshore waters of Key West, it was all taped in water less then 12 feet deep and within a half mile of shore.
The past couple weeks have been very windy, and although there was very clear water on the outer edge of the reef , then wind and waves made it difficult to get to and rather uncomfortable once you get there.
We went out a couple times to some inshore spots. Inshore to me generally would mean, within a mile or so of land. The big key west snorkeling spots such as Sand Key are around 6 miles from shore. Fortunately in Key West we are blessed with some coral and rock formations that are very close to shore but are teaming with life. Even though large fish are few close to shore we did see a large barracuda and a baby Goliath grouper.
So when the wind is howling there is still some pretty interesting stuff to see while snorkeling in Key West, even in the shallow inshore waters.
The visibility is great despite all the wind from the last couple weeks. This week there was up to 80 feet of visibility. It fluctuated with the tide a bit but pretty much good visibility all day, although yesterday was a bit chalky at the low tide and the vis got down to 30.
Here are some pics
some sort of angel fish?
Close up of coral
Another soft coral
A jewfish or Goliath grouper, don’t let the picture fool you he was almost as big as a person
Visibility the past couple weeks has been good to great, ranging from 30- 80 feet. Perfect for snorkeling in Key West.
We have seen a variety of species while snorkeling including large amber jacks and massive King Mackerel.
That is a Remora, often referred to as a shark sucker. They often will try to follow you while your snorkeling hoping that you will be its new friend and provide it with shelter and free meals.
This is some type of reef squid, he also was pretty friendly and curious
This Gabi snorkeling and looking for stuff to take pictures of.
Sort of pufferfish, you can often see these hiding under rocks.
Probably the best snorkeling spots in Key West Florida that are reachable without chartering a private boat would be the four main sanctuaries south of Key West. The sanctuaries are called Sand Key , Rock Key, Eastern Dry Rocks and Western Sambo.
They are farthest offshore, which in general often means clearer water and their sanctuary status means larger fish are common and more likely to be visible.
Sometimes in windy weather these spots won’t be accessible and there can be awesome snorkeling a stones throw from Key West but conditions are more iffy.
