Key West Snorkeling » key west visibility reports

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.

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

[Show as slideshow]

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

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.

Vis is bad

admin — Wed, 01 Apr 2009 13:53:17 +0000

as of this past Monday the visibility was pretty bad in front of Key West , like 10 feet of vis.

But the gulfstream is close and the winds of March have finally stopped so we will see what this weekend brings.

Visibility 20-40

admin — Wed, 18 Mar 2009 13:00:17 +0000

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.

Saw some new animals last time we were out

Some type scorpion fish

Baby Black Grouper

Spider Crab

Ray

Water visibility from 20-40 Inshore Snorkeling

admin — Mon, 02 Mar 2009 23:16:41 +0000

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.

Key West Snorkeling visibility 30-80 feet

admin — Tue, 13 Jan 2009 15:02:59 +0000

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.