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Alligator Reef Is One Of Florida Keys Best Snorkeling & Dive Sites
Rich with marine life, Alligator Reef is one of the best scuba diving Florida Keys sites located at the south end of the Upper Keys.
The Key Largo diving site is heavily populated with a vast variety of Florida game fish and tropical fish, plus it has extensive coral reef formations.
This coral reef is also home to what is considered the USS Alligator which in fact it is not.
The Navy conducted a study and determined that the remains of this sunken ship is another yet to be determined vessel.
There are however, several other unidentified wrecks buried in the sandy bottom around this Florida Keys coral reef, and perhaps one of those will bear this name.
This healthy coral reef is great for Florida Keys snorkeling and Key Largo diving. It provides wreck divers with a look back into time as they explore the sunken ship's ballast piles and wood remnants. It also gives Key Largo divers and snorkelers an opportunity to mingle with a broad spectrum of marine life.
On any given day you can expect to see numerous tropical fish including angelfish, damselfish, blue tang, and parrotfish. Plus there's the ever present snapper, grunt,
spiny lobster, and numerous
stony and gorgonian coral. With so much color around you, this is the perfect place to capture amazing underwater photography.
SPA Map Of Alligator Reef
Courtesy of http://floridakeys.noaa.gov
At-A-Glance Reef Diving Description
And GPS Coordinates
Name
Alligator Reef
Location
Off Matecumbe Key
GPS Co-ordinates
24 51.10N 080 37.10W
Markers
136' lighthouse sits in 10' of water and 4 mooring buoys sit on the main reef several hundred feet north of lighthouse
Level
Novice - Intermediate
Depth
20 - 50'
Visibility
Good
Reef Dive Site Description
This Key Largo dive site is inappropriately named after the believed
USS Alligator which is thought to have wrecked here but perhaps is elsewhere or nearby. It also was once considered to have the largest number of fish species in the world. This is a larger reef that extends over half a mile in length. The Deep is a spur and grove part of the reef area that has a wall extending down to over 95 feet where you'll see larger pelagic fish that aren't often see at other dive sites
Snorkel Site
Good snorkel site especially around the lighthouse and expect to see massive quantities and varieties of fish. Excellent photography site as well
Marine Life
Sea fans, gorgonian and stony coral,
grouper, blue tangs, yellowtail, angelfish, damselfish, butterflyfish, parrotfish, schoolmasters, grunts, yellow stingray, flounder
This popular Florida Keys snorkeling and dive site was once determined to host over 550 species of flora and fauna. It's almost impossible to think that any time spent here would be considered less than fantastic.
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