Soft Corals

Sambos Reef is divided into three parts: Western Sambo, Middle Sambos, and Eastern Sambo. They are convenient to Key West scuba charters, especially those that go out of Stock Island marinas. They are south and a little bit east of Key West and can be combined with a dive trip to the Vandenberg, Joe’s Tug, or the Cayman.

Just four miles out from land, the Sambos are a nice spot for a quick scuba trip.  You can get down to about 40 feet at Middle Sambo, making it a nice dive for novices.  Take note of the abundance of soft corals here, as well as at the other Sambos.

Spotted Eagle Ray at Western Dry Rocks

Western Dry Rocks is about six miles southwest of Key West, and west of Sand Key Lighthouse.  There are large banks of coral and rocks here, sliced through with alleyways through which it’s lots of fun to swim and look for marine life.  You can catch rays cruising these alleys, as well as barracuda.  This Spotted Eagle Ray was cruising the coral alleys at Western Dry Rocks.  There are lots of different species of fish that live here, and at the outer western edges of the coral banks there are some lovely coral patches standing alone on the white sand.

Western Dry Rocks has white buoys you can tie up on, making it a great spot for some easy diving.  The depth ranges from 0 to 30 feet, with the rocks stick out of the water near the marker stick.  This Key West dive spot is also a good snorkeling spot, so there’s something for everyone.  It’s close to Sand Key, so you can do both in one day if you like.

In addition to rays, barracuda, grouper, snapper and lots of small colorful reef fish, you can also find parrot fish, eels, nurse sharks (they are not aggressive) and all sorts of coral species.

Stargazer Reef is the most unusual Key West dive spot.  As much a work of art as it is anything else, this artificial reef sits in about 25 feet of water.  Consisting of a series of metal tubes welded into sawhorse-like structures and entirely silhouetted against white sand, Stargazer Reef is not exactly a fish haven but it is interesting to see.  There is a huge jewfish (Goliath Grouper) that hangs out underneath. and some Angel fish and Mangrove Snappers hang around, too.  But as you can see from the pictures, there just isn’t much surface area on Stargazer for coral to take a hold of.

Stargazer Reef is a nice stopoff spot on the way in from any number of Key West dive spots, and it has a convenient mooring bouey.

Star Gazer Reef from the Surface

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Nine foot stake is great for both scuba divers and snorkelers, but better for snorkelers because it’s so shallow.  It’s fifteen to thirty feet deep, depending which area of the spot you go to.  The actual nine foot stake is in the shallower water, so it will be easy for just about anyone to find the wreckage.  And what is the wreckage?  It’s really a bunch of debris, like pilings and bars, sitting on coral patches that are actually quite full of fish and other marine life.

<p>Find hogfish here, as well as barracuda and, in winter, mackerel.  Also look  for bar jacks, and large coral heads with urchins, eels, lobsters, grouper and other sea creatures underneath.  Also good for practicing your underwater photography, because of the shallowness and diversity of coral and fish here.

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Joe’s Tug has a great story behind its sinking, although much of the circumstances around the actual events remain a mystery to most, even to this day.  Joe’s Tug is an old shrimp boat sunk in not very deep water, just south of Key West.  Because it was made of steel, you can still see the shape of the hull, and it makes a good beginner’s dive since it’s not that deep.  For snorkelers and freedivers, if the vis is good and you can dive down a bit, say around 50 feet,  you will see Joe’s Tug.

Back  in the 80′s, when apparently nobody kept an eye on the harbor too much, Joe’s Tug was docked and ready to be towed to Miami to become an artificial reef.  She had been stripped of dangerous pollutants and readied for sinking.  Sometime in the night, some locals decided they’d like the new reef a little closer to home.  So they stole it and planned to sink it in their own secret spot.

They didn’t make it to their secret spot and the thing sank in 65 feet of water where it is now.  Her position has been slightly modified by past hurricanes and it sits upright in the water.  A lot of the local dive shops that run boats for scuba divers love to take their customers to Joe’s Tug.

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The Alexander Wreck is named after Chet Alexander who purchased the ship for scrap in 1962. The actual name of the vessel is the the USS Amesbury. It was meant to be sank in deeper water but ran aground and then broke apart in a storm.  The wreck lies in two pieces, one of which is so shallow it is a navigational hazard and is marked with a buoy.

The ship is in 20-30 of water and the visibility of the water in the area is highly variable. The wreck is good spot to dive when there are strong easterly or southern winds, making the the Atlantic side less friendly.  The ship is home to thousands of fish, and if you look inside you will see schools of lane snappers, jewfish , spade fish and others.

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Alexander Wreck is unique because it’s the only shipwreck that’s explorable by beginner snorkelers.   This shipwreck offers even those who stay in the boat a glimpse of a real live shipwreck and the colorful coral that grows everywhere on its surface.  For those interested in shipwrecks or underwater photography but who might still be beginners in either  hobby, this is a defiinte Key West dive site to put on your list.

Since it’s in the Gulf, where vis can be a little murky much of the time, it’s good to arrange your snorkeling or dive trip to include other spots as well.  Try Cottrell Key on the way to Alexandar’s Wreck.   Both Cottrell Key and Alexandar’s Wreck are also good destinations when the wind is blowing hard from the South.  The land mass of Key West will protect you a bit from the choppiness.