Diving Overview for Florida
Experience the warm waters and clear visibility of Florida, the USA’s most popular diving area, offering everything from beautiful reefs, wrecks, caves and even sinkholes to explore.
Southeast Florida from North Palm Beach to Fort Lauderdale lies parallel to a huge reef system, abundant with marine life which is nurtured by the Gulf Stream and offers some great drift diving. Expect to see Goliath Groupers, sharks, stingrays, morays and hundreds of colourful fish and corals. Lobster hunting is legal from July to March (in most areas) but you will need a saltwater fishing licence for any loberstering or spearfishing.
The Northeast coast, from Jacksonville to Coco Beach, has some great wrecks and artificial reefs. The Southwest coast also offers several wreck diving opportunities but there is considerably less flora and fauna unless you head to the Gulf of Mexico where you can find huge numbers of groupers and other big fish.
For springs and caves head to central Florida, there are hundred of miles of underwater caves and tunnels to explore towards the north.
The Florida Keys are world famous for their diving. The National Marine Sanctuary is working hard at restoring these reefs to pristine condition. Expect to see grouper, huge barrel sponges, corals, eagle rays, nurse sharks and thousands of brightly coloured reef fish. There are several famous wrecks that are worth exploring, the star attraction is the 510 ft long Spiegel Grove, a Navy transport ship forming the backbone of a huge artificial reef teaming with marine life including huge barracuda and jacks.
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