Key West Snorkeling » key west snorkeling spots

Gulf Side Snorkeling

admin — Mon, 14 Jun 2010 15:58:08 +0000

Well the gulf side of Key West has been crystal clear and great for snorkeling. We have seen turtles, numerous types of fish, a curious nurse shark and many types of live coral. Water temperature has been in the high 80′s so you can forget about wearing a wetsuit. Honestly I will let the photos of our trip this week do the talking.

Cottrell Key Snorkeling

admin — Mon, 03 Aug 2009 13:38:58 +0000

When the winds are blowing hard, especially out of a southern direction, the water on the reef can be very rough. On days like that, there are other options to snorkel in Key West.

Cottrell Key Key is north of Key West on the gulf side, and there is a lot of rocky structure and many large coral heads. There is also wreckage from possibly a ship of some sort. Although on average the water is not as clear here as the snorkeling spots that are offshore closer the gulf stream, the water can be reasonably clear with around 20 feet of visibility.

Much of the structure is in less the 15 feet of water and in some places closer to 8 feet deep. You will see a variety of snapper and tropical fish here. We also saw a jewfish, nurse shark and a school of small cero mackerel. There were also schools of small minnows in some areas.

Alexander Wreck – USS Amersbury

admin — Mon, 03 Aug 2009 13:33:11 +0000

The Alexander wreck is located on the gulf side west of Key West and is broken into two pieces. The wreck sits in 20-30 feet of water and is home to a large variety of sea life. The visibility can be very variable on this wreck. When we snorkeled it there was close to 20 feet of visibility which is considered good for this area.

The wreck was filled with lane snappers and although we looked inside we did not see any grouper or jewfish. Perhaps they are all the on the other piece of the wreck, we only explored one piece. It is rumored there is a 600 pound jewfish that lives in and around that wreck but we didn’t see him. There were huge schools of bait hovering over the wreck and spade fish, blue runners, parrot fish and cero mackerel swimming on and around it.

Stargazer Reef Snorkeling

admin — Mon, 13 Apr 2009 12:09:32 +0000

Between Rock Key and Sand Key there is an artificial reef structure which apparently is some sort of tribute to ancient mariners. Its in 20 feet of water and is now a home to dozens of mangrove snapper, large angelfish and a large jewfish.

[View with PicLens]

Its a good depth for snorkeling and is surrounded by white sand which creates a great contrast between the bottom and the stucture.

Visibilty 40-70 feet Awesome Snorkeling

admin — Mon, 06 Apr 2009 15:39:15 +0000

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.

Best Snorkeling Spots in Key West

admin — Sat, 22 Nov 2008 14:39:27 +0000

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.