Snorkeling Sea Gardens
Snorkel Key Largo
Snorkeling Sea Gardens was a joy, and we did it by private charter boat. It was just the two of us on the boat (besides our friends Captain Mike and his wife Jen) which was a great experience.
Private charters are a nice way to go because you can visit snorkel spots that are not commonly visited by the big boat tour companies out of Pennekamp. You will often see healthier reefs this way and most certainly have privacy. These trips are well worth the added expense.
Mike & Jen took us to a wonderful shallow patch reef between Key Largo and Molasses Reef. We don't know if "Sea Gardens" is a made up name, because we could not find it on any charts. We believe it was actually the Mosquito Bank area, but are not sure. (Mike likes to keep some of his destinations a little secret to keep folks from overcrowding and damaging the areas).
But we know one thing for sure. The snorkeling was incredible. This shallow patch reef off of Key Largo was one of the healthiest reefs of hard and soft corals we have ever seen. The sea rods and other soft corals where huge, towering from the sea floor almost all the way to the surface. They were bigger than we have every seen.
There were also a huge variety of healthy, colorful sponges including Branching Vase Sponge and Black-Ball Sponge. We saw Finger Coral, Lobed Star Coral, Fire Coral, fans and massive sea rods.
Snorkeling Sea Gardens was perfect for depth and was a fairly big area. But the soft corals and sea fans were so tall that you had to be very careful not to touch them when snorkeling over them. If the bigger snorkel boat companies ever start taking groups here it would quickly be ruined because it is so shallow. It had been windy and rainy for days, so the visibility was not great (hence the lack of great pictures), but it was still very worth seeing.
There were not as many fish at this location as some other places, but a decent amount. Mostly they were medium sized to smaller fish. We saw small parrotfish, Hogfish, French Angelfish, Grey Angelfish, Blue Tangs, small jacks, big barracuda, Chubs, grunts galore, snapper, Yellow Tail Snapper, Bicolor Damselfish, Sergeant Majors, Blueheads, Big Trumpetfish, and Pufferfish. There were also some huge Sea Cucumber.
Return from snorkeling Sea Gardens to Snorkeling Key Largo
Return to Snorkeling Florida Keys
|
