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petpoor
05/02/2001, 11:12 PM
Is the snorkeling in the keys going to be worth the 2 long days drive to get there? And can you see much just snorkeling as neither one of us are ceertified to dive.
Tom

billsreef
05/03/2001, 08:14 PM
It's been awhile since I've been down to the Keys, but the snorkeling should still be good. You might want to ask landescaper where the best places to go are. I here the comercial dive operations tend to keep the good places a secret.

As far as snorkeling being worthwile compared to diving, well I do both and enjoy it either way. There is a lot of neat stuff that can be found in shallow water that a lot of diehard SCUBA divers miss because they are too concerned with going deep. The shrimp in my sig picture was only in 10 feet of water just to give you an idea ;) Also consider checking out the mangrove swamps (pay close attention to where you are so you don't get lost) and sea grass beds. While not a place to see coral they have an abundance of really neet sea life :D

Tsarren
05/04/2001, 01:19 PM
My husband and I took our honeymoon there, and it took us a day and a half of driving almost nonstop. I'm certified and he is not, so I was hoping for soom good snorkeling. I was rather dissapointed.

It really depends on where you've been before. I've been to Grand Cayman (some of the best snorkeling in the world, a hundred yards off the beach; great diving) and Cozumel (decend snorkeling but great diving). After those two, the Keys were a dissapointment.

Problem 1: beach access. Most of the beaches in the keys appear to be private! This is very lame. There are a few places that you can get access, but not many. There is one place just south of Islamorada (or in S Islamorada), west side, that's the parking lot of a restaurant that has a small pier. This place isn't corals, it's the grass beds - lots of jellyfish (they stay on the bottom), occasional fish, huge lobster, and other interesting things.

There is another place that I think is in Key West, on the east side, that is this little back road that you drive on for 10 minutes and you get to kind of a state park type thing, with parking spaces every 50 yards or so, and beach access. This place is reffered to as a 'coral nursery', there is a reef in the process of growing near some grass beds. There were more fish in general here than up north. If you want the exact location, I can look at yahoo maps and get it for you. Do NOT snorkel here around sunset; Mark and I got the crap bitten out of us by some little tiny flying insects of some sort, so small they look like flecks of pepper, and the sting.

There are state parks here and there with beach access, but not much in the way of snorkeling (and watch out for urchins when wading)

Problem 2: even when you find beach access, most if not all of the reefs are 2-8 miles offshore! So unless you're content with grass beds and the occasional fish, you have to pay someone to take you out on a boat. This costs around $20 or $25; usually a half-day trip. If you get all the way down to Key West, there is an operation called Reef Chief that I highly reccomend (you can find flyers of him almost anywhere). They have something like a 75' sailboat that is a pleasure to ride in, the people are friendly, they provide drinks for free, and it's not crowded. One of their people told us where the coral nursery was.

Problem 3: visibility wasn't all that great. You are not going to get the 300-yard plus visibility like what you see in magazines (and what I was used to from Cayman and Cozumel). Vis is more like 75-100 yards.

HOWEVER, if you have never been snorkeling in anyplace like the Bahamas, USVI, BWI, Cozumel, etc., then I say go for it - we spent a week there, went snorkeling 3 times (once on Reef Chief and the other two at the other places I mentioned), lots of non-chain restaurants, of course the seafood was great, and spent one day shopping in Key West (there is this one place that has bronze sculptures of sea life... astounding and beautiful) - all in all, it was a great vacation.