Pickles Reef
Pickels Reef is another good spot, along with Hens and Chickens reef, for novice divers and snorkelers. It’s only 15 to 25 feet deep and it’s close to Molasses Reef, perhaps one of hte most beautiful and popular dive spots in the Florida Keys. The Bibb and The Duane, twin wrecks, are also close by.
The name comes from pickle barrels filled with cemetn, which were sunk in the late 1800s. The barrels make excellent habitat for pillar corals, and this is the best spot in the Florida Keys for seeing Pillar Coral. There are also lots of ledges and cracks in the rocks and coral, making for lots of good habitat for all sorts of marine life.
Pickles Reef is not marked by any buoys, so if you can find it, it’s less frequented by other divers.
Hens & Chickens
Hens and Chickens is a collection of patch reefs in shallow water good for novice scuba divers and snorkelers. See Star Coral, Brain Coral, and more, and take advantage of the easy access, mooring buoys, and shallow depths for a family day on the water. Giant chrismas tree corals abound, and you’ll love 15 foot tall coral heads everywhere as well. Swim the maze of corals all day long, this is one of the best easy dive spots in the Keys.
The pattern of patch reefs looks, from the air, like a mother hen and her baby chicks radiating out from her. That’s where the name comes from. There’s a 35-foot Navy Tower here, which makes Hens and Chickens easy to find. It’s only three miles from shore, too, so vacationers renting their own boat are often directed to this area. Hens and Chickens is a Sanctuary Preservation Area, so the reef and other marine life is protected. The SPA rules are strictly enforced in this area, too. Don’t take anything from the water, even bits of coral. Use the mooring buoys rather than an anchor to limit impact on the coral here.
The Eagle
The Eagle was built in 1962 in Holland. Past names are:
The Eagle is 269 feet long. Her last run, in 1985, she was being used to transport paper and cardboard to South America. She caught fire, then was cleaned up, holes blasted in her sides, and sunk five nautical miles off Islamorada to become an artificial reef.Eagle had last been a freighter formerly owned by the Eagle Tire Company. It sits off Lower Metecumbe Key in 100 feet of water on her starboard side. There are two parts, since Eagle was broken in half by a hurricane in 1998. Currents are strong, so divers beware. This is considered an Advanced level dive!
There are mooring buoys. Theya re located on the bow and stern of the ship. Divers don’t need to descend all the way to the bottom to see things. The water is very clear here, and the crow’s nest and mast come up to about 65 feet from the surface.
Advanced divers can penetrate the ship in several places. Coral growth on the ship has been very successful, so it’s very encrusted.
Conch Reef
Conch Reef has a variety of marine environments for divers to explore, making it one of the best dive spots in the Upper Keys. It’s accessible from Key Largo or Islamorada, and is located about five and half miles south of Tavern Key. There are pretty good currents here, ranging form medium to heavy, so it’s not considered a novice level dive. Depths range from 20 to 100 feet and the water at Conch Reef is known for its clarity. Conch Reef contains a Sanctuary Preserve Area, and there’s also a Research Only area too. There are mooring buoys here, at pretty shallow depths, like 20 feet of water. Nearby there is the Aquarious, a NOAA vessel providing a habitat that’s currently off-limits to divers. But also nearby is Conch Wall, which is a dramatic dropoff o f 50 to 110 feet. At Conch Wall divers can spot barrel sponges, pillar coral, basket sponges and the namesake conch shells. The topography of Conch Reef is awesome, one of the best in the Florida Keys, making it a very popular dive site for anyone fortunate to go there.
Alligator Reef
Alligator Reef is a huge reef system in the Upper Keys, accessible from Islamorada, and Windley Key. There are over 500 species of marine life at Alligator Reef. Depths range from 20 to 40 and 70 feet, so it’s good for novice divers. Alligator Reef is a Sanctuary Preserve Area, so no fishing or lobstering here. There are buoys and a wreck here, the USS Alligator. Alligator Reef is easy to find because there’s a lighthouse tower there, with its top still intact. The entire reef system here arose from the wreck, which went down in 1820.
The USS Alligator has an honorable past: it was built specifically to halt the slave trade on the high seas. She also rescued American sailors held for ransom by pirates and sailed as far as Africa to capture slave trading vessels. During a trip from Cuba to Virginia, while traveling in a flotilla, she was forced to tack back and forth in order to keep slower pace with the slower vessels. She crashed into the reef but was not damaged very much. But wind pushed her further onto the reef, where she subsequently began to broke apart, so was set afire after cargo and men were off ship.
The wreck now lies close off shore from Islamorada and is frequently visited by divers. You can find wreckage in very shallow water, even snorkeling depths. The lower hull and some ballast piles sit on sand and coral rubble bottom.