Florida Keys snorkeling locations

[Ron Reefman]

NiTrOx911, are you looking for great corals like the big reef, or shallows that are easy to get to, like off a beach and where you can play 'rock turner'? Or both?

BTW, to anybody who is interested in the rock turning. I only turn over smaller ones and then I'm carful to turn them back and try not to injure any critters. certian animals like being on the sunny side of a rock and others only like the dark side of the rock. And this is especially try of sponges which are made up of thousands of live animals in a big (or small) colony. When it come to bigger rocks, I just pick up one end and then try to set it back down the way I found it and do it as gently as possible. Also, dive gloves are a good idea as many rocks have sharp edges or critters with sharp edges and even some that animals that can hurt you, fire worms, mantis shrimp, bigger crabs, heck, even moray eels! (see the 4th photo in the very first post).

 

[NiTr0x911]

Hi Ron,Interested in both but my Wife will enjoy the Rock Turning option better.When I lived in West Palm I remember taking our jet ski to an Indian Historic Island I believe off Islamorada? This trip down would want to go off the shore.Thanks!

 

[Ron Reefman]

Hi Ron,Interested in both but my Wife will enjoy the Rock Turning option better.When I lived in West Palm I remember taking our jet ski to an Indian Historic Island I believe off Islamorada? This trip down would want to go off the shore.Thanks!

Do you mean go snorkeling off the shore or go 'off shore' as in out to the big reef?

I'm going to assume you mean snorkel off the beach. Bahia Honda State Park is the very best I've been to for seeing good stuff and being able to touch and play with the critters (but no collecting). Rent a kayak there and take it out to Little Bahia Honda and there are tons of things too see. Especially if you want to look under rocks! And having been there a lot, we are looking for new sites to try if anybody has any alternatives? Two issues to be aware of: visibility and tides.

Visibility: If there is (or was yesterday) a strong onshore wind to the oceanside of the island, visibility will be reduced. If the winds are making the oceanside too rough, try the other side of the island. Especially at the eastern side of the outlet from the marina. Everybody stays in the swimming area to the west side. But with a diver down flag you'll be OK off the other side. It's a small area and I only recommend it as a 'last resort' if conditions are bad out on the oceanside. The other alternative is the next island down, Spanish Harbor Key at the 'Horseshoe' which is an old quarry. You can see it on the 2nd aerial photo in Post #3. The rubble all around the outside is interesting, tons of rocks to look under and you can legally collect if you want. Also, directly over the other side of the island from the Horseshoe is kind of like the oceanside at Bahia Honda. Not as big and not as diverse, but pretty good, less people, free and just a walk over the highway and down the hill. Water entry can be a bit tricky with rocks and holes.

Tides: We have seen people kayak out to Little Bahia Honda almost every time we have been there (once or twice a year). But be aware of the tides as getting back to shore on an out going tide can be a fairly hard paddle. Also, snorkeling at the SW end of the island in either tide can be a lot of work. Trying to catch it an hour before high tide or low tide gives you a couple of hours of fairly comfortable water conditions. Tides and wind have very little effect on conditions at the Horseshoe because it's pretty well protected.

I know where Indian Key is and we have wondered if it would be worth going out to take a look. Can you give us any idea of what it was like there? There are several other near shore Keys in the area like Lignmvitae Key Teatable Key, Shell Key, Cotton Key, or just outside of Long Key Bight. Has anybody ever snorkeled any of these sites or know of any other good beach or near shore snorkel sites?

 

[JDM_SOHC]

Looks awesome Ron! I've been telling my girl that we need to go down to Bahia and do a lil snorkeling adventure.. How are your tanks holding up..?

 

[Ron Reefman]

Tanks are doing well. Thanks for asking. The 180g is getting overgrown with corals again and I need to start fraging. The 75g is becoming a FOWLR, the 65 now has all the great rock flower anemones and other local stuff. The frag tank was cleared out recently and is now filling up with frags from the 180. I just did 5 frags of the ORA Purple Stylophora and I hope to frag a few more later this week.

 

[Ron Reefman]

Anybody got anything more they could add?

I won't be back to the Keys to snorkel until sometime Sept. But I'm more than happy to discuss ideas and options here.

 

[water is wet]

I wish I did. We are still hoping to go back in the fall for a short visit with a longer stay planned for late winter.:bounce1:

 

[G_Sanab922]

Ron, have you tried Sombrero Beach?

 

[Ron Reefman]

I wish I did. We are still hoping to go back in the fall for a short visit with a longer stay planned for late winter.:bounce1:

Stay in touch. We go about 4 or 5 times over the Spring and Fall. Summer is great too, but afternoon rains are a regular issue and hurricanes can really screw up a vacation! Winter is OK. The water is kind of cold for us Floridians, but like gardens up north, the shallow reefs near shore tend to look a lot more barren in the winter.

Ron, have you tried Sombrero Beach?

I've been to Sombrero Reef, out by the lighthouse, and I've walked Sombrero Beach, but never considered snorkeling there. Have you snorkeled there? If so, how was it.

To everybody else: I'd like to try and keep this thread active if we can. I'm always up to learn more about snorkeling the Keys in any way, shape or form! So even if you are a newbie or just going to go try it for the first time, share your ideas, questions and results.

Thanks

 

[Ron Reefman]

After 3 long weekend or mid week snorkel trips to the Keys in just 3 months, I'm starting to have withdrawal issues. LOL!

I want to get back for more of this:

Bahia Honda State Park at the far ENE end.


A Gorgonian forest.


Zoas that came home from the Keys as 10 polyps (5 for me and 5 for my wife because 5 polyps per person per day is the limit). But they have grown well and even done some weird morphing in my frag tank.


Our friend the tiny octopus.

 

[G_Sanab922]

An octopus that size is so much fun. Found one very similar when I went to the Turks & Caicos. Great pics as usual :thumbsup:
Nice Zoas Ron!
To answer your question, no I haven't snorkeled there but it's an idea. It's a nice beach either way.

Came up with another spot, it's a popular hang out spot for boats. It's currently in construction so not accessible by car.
It's called American Outdoor, it's on the bayside. The Seawall has mostly sand but you can find plenty of critters there. Then if you get deeper, from 4-5ft you'll find more critters. Not a great spot, but still nice and shallow and one of the best sunset views. Anyone with a small boat can get there.

 

[Ron Reefman]

Thanks for the lead, now how about some location info. I Googled American Outdoors and found nothing in the Keys. Just an America Outdoors near Naples? Any help would be very appreciated.


The little octopus was great fun. My wife had picked up a really big chunk of 'finger' coral, a little bigger than the size of a softball. In it there was an emerald crab, a nice serpent star and the octopus.

We found one living in a pin shell that had washed up on the beach of Sanibel (SW Florida near Ft Myers) after a winter cold front had passed through. We had about 15 or 20 'snowbirds' huddled around us looking at it and asking questions about what we were doing. After a few minutes I walked the octopus out into the water and let it go. As I turned to walk back to the beach, there were 2 people in uniforms with official looking patches and name badges waiting for me. As I walked toward them I went through my mental checklist. We had our saltwater fishing licenses, so we are allowed to collect certain animals, there were only some small porcilian crabs, small pistol shrimp and a couple very small serpent stars in our bucket, all legal. So I said to myself, "I'm OK."

One of the officers said, "Can I ask you a question?" I said, "Sure." The officer asked me where do I teach? I'd don't teach, I'm retired and never was a teacher. The officer told me that given the 'lecture' I was giving to everybody on the beach about what we were doing, I must have been a marine biologist at the local college or high school. LOL!

For a few seconds there, I was concerned that I had done something wrong or collected something I shouldn't have and didn't know it. The really funny thing is, back 45+ years ago I was very close to getting my college degree in teaching. But back then, teachers were a dime a dozen and had terrible times trying to get jobs. I really wanted to teach. But I switched to business school and got my degree in marketing. I still get a kick out of 'teaching' interested people about things they don't know. Some of the group that were gathered around when I had the octopus were from places like North Dakota, Arkansas and Vermont! They vacation in SW Florida, but they don't know the secrets we locals do. LOL!

Here is a pic of the Bahamian Star that I almost stepped on as I got out of the boat while at Money Key. We don't see a lot of these in the Keys, but when we went to Bimini about 10 years ago, they were everywhere. I even found one that was full size, was perfectly formed, but only had 4 legs. My guess is it was born that way, or lost one leg when very young and it didn't grow back?

 

[G_Sanab922]

https://www.facebook.com/pages/American-Outdoors/191286314237015

This is the best link I could find. The facebook page has a map showing where it is.

Got a pic of that pistol shrimp?

 

[Ron Reefman]

Sorry, but no. When we get them out of the orange sponges that wash up on the beach, the stars, shrimp and crabs are so small they would be hard to get a good photo. I'll give it a try this Fall or Winter when we get a strong NW wind from a cold front. The tricky part is, you need to get to the beach as soon as you can. Like at the tail end of the windy day or the early the very next morning. Otherwise the sponges will have dried out and all the critters inside will have died. So the collecting we do is really saving their lives. And after I put them in the aquarium I almost never see them. Hear them, yes, see them, hardly ever. Even 2' down in a 180g aquarium, when they snap that front claw it sounds just like somebody who was standing in front of the aquarium and snapped their fingers.

 

[chrisqueenz]

I have snorkeled sombrero beach and there is quite a bit of wild life there. We were just there in May and saw a variety of things such as urchins, barracudas, blue tangs, sting rays, snails, star fish, etc.. I was quite impressed as I didn't expect to see much there. My camera had malfunctioned on this trip if not I would post some pics.. It was pretty to sit back and watch the barracudas feed of the schools of small bait fish there.

This was all yards from the beach

 

[Ron Reefman]

Chris, thanks a lot for jumping in and sharing your experience in the Keys.

In all the times my wife and I have been snorkeling in the area, we never really considered going off Sombrero Beach. We've walked the beach a couple of times, but never snorkeled there. So next time we go, probably in late Sept or Oct, we will give Sombrero Beach a try.

I hope if you ever get back to the Keys some of the info we've shared here can make your experience more enjoyable.

 

[chrisqueenz]

It has already! We love the Keys and try to make it down as much as we can, my parents live in Hallendale FL so we escape to the Keys quite often. I am always looking for a lively spot to snorkel, so this thread has been extremely insightful for me.

 

[G_Sanab922]

Sargassum shrimp I caught.

 

[Ron Reefman]

Just for fun, here is my photoshop version of the Flagler Railroad Bridge at Bahia Honda State Park that was taken out at Little Bahia Honda Key. The bridge really does have the missing section, but I removed the US-1 car bridge out from the background. It was too distracting.




Here is one of my favorite pics, a Flamingo Tongue. Just for those who don't know, this snail lives exclusively on Gorgonians and the great looking colors aren't the shell. The shell is very plain vanilla off white. The great look you see is the snail's mantle that it stretches out and cover the shell. And for info purposes, don't try collecting a Flamingo Tongue to put in your aquarium unless you have a lot of Gorgonian corals already there. It's the only thing they eat.

 

[water is wet]

Ron that is exactly the area we spent most of our time when we were at Bahia Honda except much closer to shore. And that picture was taken from little Bahia Honda? That doesn't seem very far at all.