United States Underwater Photo Sites (30)

San Benedicto is a very rugged
island that looks like a volcano rising right out of the ocean. The last
eruption was in 1952 and you can easily see where the eruption took place, on
the lower side of the southeast corner of the island.

Shark Caves is located on the East side of the island. A dive briefing
was given prior to our arrival at which time we were informed that gloves,
lights and knives are strictly prohibited while diving any of the islands.

Target lights and focus lights attached to any camera gear are exempt. The
recommended water exit procedure is to climb the ladder with your fins on to
avoid any injury with the potential bouncing, surge and currents that may exist.
This was not difficult with the wide, well spaced steps on the ladder and was
indeed a very good recommendation. Once the anchor was dropped and the RIB’s
were in the water, everyone suited up and jumped in for the first checkout dive.
The dive was to approximately 70 feet. Visibility was poor at only 30 feet, but
I was able to get up close with at least a dozen white tip sharks resting in
their caves. I also spotted a Shovelnose Guitarfish, a very Stingray-ish looking
variety of the shark family.

There were hundreds of Moorish Idol's and even with the reduced visibility,
it was a great dive and the water temperature was a pleasing 76 degrees, 10
degrees warmer than the water in Cabo. Once all of the divers were back on
board, the Solmar V moved to a protected bay with calm water on the south side
of the island and dropped anchor for the evening. It seemed that in a matter of
only minutes, a few Silky sharks showed up and began patrolling the boat a few
feet under the surface. After dinner, we were treated to a shark feeding show
off the side of the boat where tuna parts were hung off the side.

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• Snapper Ledge: aptly named reef with more
  snappers, grunts, and Goatfish than I've ever seen in one place. Visibility
  was much better than other dive sites, with lots less sand and particulates in
  the water. There are lots of other species here too. I spent some of the dive
  watching a bunch of neon Gobies on a large brain coral cleaning a Parrotfish.
  
  



• French Reef is a shallow, relatively high-relief reef with some swim-throughs
  under the coral. There were several medium size barracuda on this reef that
  were not shy at all. I found a black grouper being cleaned, and a southern
  stingray was disturbed by the divers and sailed over the reef. I attempted a
  picture of a pale blue parrotfish but the color captured by the camera just
  doesn't do justice to the beautiful, soft blue that I saw on the reef.
  
  



• Racetrack: An unmoored dive spot consisting of a very pretty, shallow
  reef surrounded by a sandy "racetrack." There are lots of soft and
  hard coral with lot of varied species of fish. We found three little
  nudibranchs Tritonia hamnerorum on a sea fan! I looked at about a
  zillion other sea fans and didn't find any more.
  
  



• Freighter Reef: a shallow, low reef...how many reefs are named after
  the wrecks of ships? There were fewer fish on this site, but lots of stuff to
  look at. I spotted a Parrotfish lying on the bottom and went over to
  investigate. The fish swam off as I approached and I saw why it was there;
  underneath were at least three cleaning shrimp in a corkscrew anemone. The
  Parrotfish was getting as close to the bottom as it could to get cleaned of
  parasites and detritus. Under the corkscrew anemone I spotted the red and
  white striped antennae of a pistol shrimp, but he wouldn't come out to get his
  picture taken.

• Molasses Reef, "winch hole": This probably the most
  heavily dived reef off of Key Largo. There were a dozen boats scattered over
  the many moorings on this large site. I dropped in and stayed under the boat
  for most of the dive until, alas, my hour was up and it was time to return
  to the boat, climb the ladder and put away my gear, not a bad dive to finish
  up the trip.

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• Pickles: The wreck was carrying pickle barrels
  full of cement when she went down. The barrels have all rotted away, but the
  concrete "barrels" are still there. This place is "sea fan
  city;" they're everywhere. I spotted a school of eight Midnight
  Parrotfish, but couldn't get close enough for a picture. Lots of juvenile
  barracuda hovered over the reef watching for some fish to limp. If you wave
  your hand in the water, the Barries are curious enough to swim over to you for
  a closer look. Other divers reported finding a couple of nurse sharks under
  the ledges near the wreck and one big green moray.



• Duane: a Coast Guard cutter that was put down as an artificial reef in
  the 80's. She's upright on the sand at 125 feet with the main deck at 100
  feet. We had great conditions, no current and good visibility. I was the first
  diver in the water, as I wanted to be first on the wreck with my camera. One
  of the dive masters went in with his, gasp, film camera! There were many, many
  big barracuda stationed above the wreck; a school of jacks breezed through,
  scattering the smaller fish. I looked down on the sand off the port side of
  the wreck and spied a six-foot bull shark cruising towards the stern. It was
  too far away for me to get close, but I could see the dive master had gone
  down to try and get a picture, but the shark wasn't having anything to do with
  him. I took some wide-angle shots of the wreck itself and some of the other
  divers in our group. With no current, I was able to do a blue water safety
  stop just below the boat. I thoroughly enjoyed this most excellent wreck dive.



• Wreck of the Benwood: a WWII British freighter that collided with
  another boat running without lights and was run aground in shallow water where
  she sank. She was used as target practice by the Navy and is pretty busted up,
  but is still a very nice wreck with lots of fish, Nassau groupers, black
  groupers, schools of grunts, schools of Goatfish, a few angels, Parrotfish,
  juvenile fish of all kinds, et al. This must be a really nice dive in good
  visibility.



• Spiegel Grove: The Spiegel Grove was sunk as a huge artificial reef
  and is very popular dive spot. The wreck is over 500 feet long and lies on its
  port side in one hundred thirty five feet of water to the sand. To complicate
  what is a deep dive, the current is usually strong here. The tanks supplied
  for this dive were overfilled to 3500 PSI. The dive boat used a "granny
  line" to the mooring line on the wreck and asked divers to go no deeper
  than 100 feet and to return to the mooring line after no more than twenty
  minutes on the wreck. We were moored amid ships and were able to see the
  anti-aircraft guns and look into the open hatches on the deck. A few large
  Jacks cruised the wreck and a school of Baitfish exploded past us, getting out
  of the way of some unseen predator.

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Unless the speed limits have been lifted it will take about 2 hours to drive
between Key West and Key Largo on US 1.

Obey the speed limits - the traffic cops have no sense of humor! If you do
get stopped - stay in the car, hands on the wheel, and wait for the patrolman to
come to you!

At Key Largo I used the Florida State operation that runs the John Pennekamp
Coral Reef State Park. They have first pick of sites inside the reserve (they
run it).

From Key Largo and south down US 1 (the highway) there seems to be a dive
operator at every lamppost, we dived with Amoray and they were good.

Most of the addresses in the Keys have a reference to 'Mile Marker' or 'mm'
on them, so you can work out how far apart they are on US

Dives to do…

The Duane

Purposely sunk Coastguard Cutter. Can have VERY strong surface currents, but
OK on the wreck. Meet Psycho, the 'pet' Barracuda.

Key West

several operators, can't remember offhand who we went with, but we were there at
New Year and it had been a little stormy, but there were a couple of half decent
reefs to dive. I understand that there are some other wrecks accessible from
here, but can't comment on them.

My opinion - do your diving round Key Largo and go down to Key West for the
fun & games on land.

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