How deep are the coral reefs in Key West?
How deep are the coral reefs in Key West? In the Florida Keys, much reef diving is shallow and easily navigable. The only living coral reef in the continental United States lies just a few kicks from the surface in waters as shallow as 5 feet and often only as deep as 50 feet.
Is the Florida Keys reef dying?
This mass bleaching event has made an already bad situation worse. Well before summer, the area of healthy reefs in the Florida Keys had already declined by 90 percent, due to past heat waves, diseases, ocean acidification, and other threats. The majority of Florida's reefs that remain, meanwhile, are eroding.
Is the water in Key West like Bahamas?
Key West beaches are similar to The Bahamas, with white sand, coral rocks, and shallow turquoise water with tropical fish right off shore.
How healthy is the reef in the Florida Keys?
Since the late 1970s, healthy coral cover in the Florida Keys has fallen 90 percent due to disease, heat stress, and damage from boats and storms. Mission: Iconic Reefs aims to restore 7 key reefs to self-sustaining levels by 2040.
Is it safe to swim in the ocean in Key West?
You can also swim and enjoy other water sports like windsurfing and snorkeling as well as kayaking and paddleboarding in the clear, clean water inhabited by tropical fish.
Why is Key West water so blue?
Our shores have shallow waters often resulting in sandbars, so the sun can reflect off the white sea floors and the surrounding microscopic plankton, which creates the gradient effect of clear-to-emerald-to azure-to-navy waters as you progress further out into the Gulf.