Key West Snorkeling » Key West Snorkeling

Late Summer Snorkeling

admin — Mon, 30 Aug 2010 14:27:11 +0000

Summer brings bath-like water temperatures in the mid to high eighties, even warmer in the inshore waters in front of Key West. These Key West snorkeling pictures were taken during the last days of August.

In general in summertime, the bigger fish on the reef head out to deeper cooler waters. The fish you can count on for always being there in droves are mangrove snappers, and all kinds of colorful ornamental fish. Here you can see colorful yellow grunts and mangrove snappers, and the ever-present angel fish.

Note the sand dollar, too. These beautiful specimens are sand-burrowing urchins who should be left alone, no matter how tempting a souvenir they make.

The triggerfish is very curious, but also very careful. As you can see, he’s keeping an eye on the photographer but trying to camoflouge himself behind a rock. We call him a Jersey-style triggerfish because he’s not like the gray triggerfish usually seen out on the reef in Key West. He’s more colorful and a bit smaller.

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.

Winter weather coming to an end

admin — Sun, 28 Mar 2010 13:36:55 +0000

Black grouper and an angelfish in the back ground

Well I guess our stretch of unusually cold winter weather is over, temperatures are up to 75 and the sun is starting to get hot ( so remember your sunscreen). Thew water is still cold enough to warrant a shorty wetsuit if you are going to be in the water any length of time. Water visibility has been variable, but has greatly improved this last week with 35-40 feet of visibility at Eastern Dry Rocks, Rock Key, and Sand Key light house.

Cooler Weather but clear Water

admin — Sun, 20 Dec 2009 17:29:41 +0000

Well cold weather has become the norm in Key West, time to break out the wetsuits. The water never gets too cold to dive and snorkel here but it does get cold enough where a wetsuit will make you a lot more comfortable if you plan on staying in the water. With the light winds the past couple weeks we have been going out to the reef’s edge and even snorkeling over top some of the wrecks in front of Key West.

Some interesting things we have seen the past couple weeks; hogfish and gag grouper, both seen at the 9 foot stake. A giant antique anchor and other sea life. Water clarity has ranged from 30 feet to over a hundred.

When the water is clear, there are a few wrecks you can see from the surface close to Key West. These would include Joe’s tug, Cayman Salvager and the Vandenberg. On a clear day you can see most if not all of Joes Tug. The Cayman and Vandenberg are larger and in deeper water so not much chance of being able to see the “whole” ship. The normal snorkeling boats will not take you to those wrecks, you will have to take either a private charter or jump on a dive boat to see them. You can learn more about wrecks of Key West here.

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.

Snorkeling Gulf Side

admin — Mon, 06 Jul 2009 18:08:07 +0000

Recently the Atlantic waters south of Key West have been green and not very clear, but for a change the water on the gulf side has been pretty clear. There was has been about 20 feet of visibility on the gulf side the past couple days.

The gulf tends to congergate fish, due to large areas of it being a virtual desert, we saw a large variety of fish on one little patch reef.

A little green but still good

admin — Mon, 25 May 2009 13:08:29 +0000

The water is kind of green out there right now, green water tends to have less horizontal visibility then blue water. But the conditions are not bad, the water is warm, and seas are flat.

Here are some photos

Great Conditions for Snorkeling

admin — Fri, 15 May 2009 13:02:12 +0000

Well the water is very clear and warm. There has been 40-80 feet of visibility and calm seas. You really don’t get conditions much better then that.

Couple pics, a sea turtle

some sort of old anchor

and a nurse shark, totally harmless. Nurse sharks actualy have sand paper for teeth and are very docile. They are very common on the reef.

Some other pics from yesterday

[View with PicLens]

Vis is back to around 30-35 feet

admin — Thu, 23 Apr 2009 20:44:31 +0000

Vis is back to around 30-35 feet

no photos

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.