KEY LARGO DRY ROCKS & THE
CHRIST OF THE DEEP STATUE
The Christ of the Deep statue was put in place in 1966. The bronze
statue, 9 feet high and weighing 4000 pounds, was the third to
be cast in Italy from a mould designed by the Italian sculptor
Guido Galletti. The other two castings are underwater at Genoa,
Italy and St. George’s Harbour, Grenada. The statue at Key
Largo Dry Rocks was commissioned and donated by Egidi Cressi,
the Italian dive equipment manufacturer.
The statue stands in 25 feet of water in a sandy clearing surrounded
by the reef. It is a popular site for underwater weddings as well
as for the general diving community. Key Largo Dry Rocks is closer
inshore than the neighbouring reefs meaning that it is shallow
and calm with good visibility. Some divers find that its popularity
means that the site is rather crowded for them and some of the
coral has been damaged by careless or inexperienced divers. Many
of the fish have become very bold as they have been fed so often.
The reef is a magnificent example of a spur and groove reef on
the seaward side. There are cleaning stations where neon gobies
wait to clean the parasites from larger fish. Brain corals predominate
on the seaward side with elkhorn coral and star coral on the landward
side.
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MOLASSES REEF
This reef gets its name from a barge that grounded on it carrying
a cargo of barrels of molasses. The reef is near the southern
boundary of the Key Largo National Marine Sanctuary and is easy
to locate from its 45 foot light tower.
The reef has 33 mooring buoys, designated as M1 to M33, marking
out specific sites. The whole of Molasses Reef is a Sanctuary
Preservation Area making it a strict “no take” zone.
Molasses Reef extends from 3 feet to 80 feet deep with the marine
life varying with the depth. In the shallows are hard and soft
corals on a sandy bottom with rope sponges and vase sponges imparting
beautiful colours.
At about 30 feet soft corals become more abundant with large
barrel sponges and tube sponges. These attract green turtles and
hawksbill turtles as well as midnight parrotfish. At about 50
feet sponges and sea fans dominate the sea floor.
The reef has large schools of various types of jacks, yellow
goatfish, small-mouth grunts, barracuda, chub, snapper, grouper,
blue tang, angelfish, parrotfish and silvery snook.
Night diving is very popular because of the abundance of marine
life and almost every night dive will bring sightings of spiny
lobsters, long-legged spider crabs and octopuses.
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| Devils Den Cavern
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arrival to Devils Den, you must walk down a set of steps,
that have been carved by nature out of limestone, down to
around 60 ft. to the main underground cavern. Once there you
enter the water making a controlled decent to one of the platforms
positioned for checkout dives. Maximum deep in Devils Den
is 55 ft. There are numerous caves off the spring but are
open to cave certified divers only.
This is a underground spring inside a dry cave. The remains
of many extinct animals form the Pleistocene Age ( 2 million
- 10,000 years ago) were discovered at Devils Den , including
the bones of early man dating back to 75,000 BC. |
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Visibility in this beautiful cavern is typically
60 to 100 ft. and you are surrounded by lots of large boulders as
you dive through the large and small swim-throughs.
Throughout your dive, you will experience millions of fossils embedded
in the limestone walls . Marine life is mostly goldfish and catfish.
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Kings Spring
in Crystal river
The spring's basin itself is 75 ft. in diameter with a
depth of 28 ft. Perfect for beginner divers. There is a
cavern off the spring's basin that dips to a depth of 55
ft., so that you do not lose natural daylight and the visibility
in the cavern is always crystal clear.
It is reported to be the finest freshwater dive site in
the state owing to its excellent visibility, size, convenience
of access, and potential for photography. On calm days ,
or at low tide it has a slight boil or "slick".
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Swimming out of the spring is incredible as there are often hundreds
of fish congregated around the two exits. Large tarpon , manatees,
mangrove snappers, blue crabs and large catfish all make the spring
home.
A statue of a manatee is in the basin in about
25. ft.. The water is a constant temperature of 72 F..
Kings Spring is located in Kings Bay of portion
Crystal River. There are about 150 springs in the bay withy Kings
Spring being the largest.
Visit www.FloridaManateeTours.com
Visit www.fun2dive.com
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| 3 Sisters Spring in Crystal
River
Three crystal clear springs all in a row, all about 20 ft. deep.
Perfect for a Discover diver and scuba training classes. Lots of
manatees love these springs. Hundreds of fish congregate in the
warm waters. Perfect for photography.
Visit www.FloridaManateeTours.com
Visit www.fun2dive.com
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Rainbow
River Springs
This spring fed river is known for its pristine beauty
and natural conditions. Considered a "BLUE
RIBBON WATERWAY". Disposable items and fishing
are not allowed on the river so it remains in a natural
state.
There are numerous small caverns, boils and popcorn springs
along the way. The river has a 1 knot current making this
a gentle drift dive. Our boat takes the divers upstream
and then they float downstream with the current. There are
numerous species of freshwater fish such as Catfish, Bass,
Brim, Long-nose Gar, Alligator Gar, Sunfish and Blue Shad.
Red & Yellow-Belly Cooters (turtles) and Snapping Turtles..
Beautiful grasses flow in the current, float pass large
rock formations and sand boils. If you get lucky , might
find an old sharks tooth, a million years old. Average depth
is 15 to 20 ft. deep with a maximum depth of 25 ft. Great
place for open-water checkouts and discover divers. and
any diver wanted a relaxing easy dive. Snorkelers and divers
love this crystal clear pristine steam, as up to 500 million
gallons of pure water each day flows from the many springs
that form this aquarium like river.
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