Key Largo Dive Sites
Sail Fish Scuba Dive Shop – Florida Keys
Key Largo is the diving capital of the World. Sail Fish Scuba in the Upper Florida Keys is the most centrally located dive shop with the best access to over 60 marked dive/snorkel sites. Plus we are always searching for new, deeper reef sites and possible wreck sites.
Just a few of the dive sites we visit in the Florida Keys are listed below. We continue to explore, map and research new sites via our very own Key Largo Diving Club.
Check out some of our actual dives!
We visit all dive sites from North of Elbow Reef, off Key Largo mile marker 107, the entire way down to Snapper Reef off Tavernier Key mile marker 90 ~ which is more than any other dive shop in the Florida Keys.
At Sail Fish Scuba, our first booking on any giving trip, of any given day gets to pick 1 of the 2 sites (weather permitting) that our tour will go to for that trip! Yep, we love your opinion that much! So if you want to have some say in where you will be diving each day, give our shop a call plenty in advance of your dive vacation to the Fl. Keys and let us know what all you would like to dive!
Our sites range from shallow (Macro Photography Dream Sites) snorkeling sites with max depth 15 feet deep filled with Corals, reef fish, Nudibranchs, Pelagic Tunicates, Sand Dollars, Sea Anemones, Shrimps, Flatworms, Sea Slugs, and much more ~ To the deepest of the shipwrecks in the Florida Keys, The Bibb with max depth 138 feet deep.
Shipwreck Sites
Scuba Diving in Key Largo with Sail Fish Scuba
Artificial Reefs
Historic Wrecks
Built by Campbell and Co. in 1881, the Scottish steamship Acorn, collided with Elbow Reef on February 8, 1885. Heavy seas for 10 days afterwards prevented any salvage effort and thoroughly smashed the steel-hulled ship on the reef, turning it 180 degrees in the process.
The Acorn was 165 feet long and carried general merchandise, such as grain, lard and oil. It was identified in 2017 by archeologists directing a team of volunteers under the auspices of the Florida Keys National Marine Sanctuary.
Stories go, that years ago cement was being shipped in old pickle barrels on a barge that accidentally ran aground on the reef where this old shipwreck & cement barrels still lay to this day.
Wellwood Wreck and Restoration Area Reef is the most Northern corner of the World famous Molasses Barrier Reef system in Key Largo, Florida Keys.
Anchor Chain Reef dive and snorkel site in Key Largo, Florida Keys is part of the Elbow Reef barrier reef system of North America.
Reef Sites
Scuba Diving in Key Largo with Sail Fish Scuba
The Third Largest Barrier Reef in the World
Wall Diving in Key Largo is not done by many dive shops, but we love the wall dive in front of the Benwood shipwreck. It is thriving coral covered and a thrilling site to explore.
Hamburger shaped corals can be found at this reef. Bun on top and bottom and the center looks just like a ground burger with lettuce sticking out, no joke!
North Dry Rocks Reef is a small patch reef site just North of the Key Largo Dry Rocks Reef, which is home to the famous Christ of the Abyss statue. North Dry Rocks Reef is also known as Minnow Caves. It got this nick name Minnow Caves due to the cavernous coral cave at the one end of the patch reef.
One of the most popular sites in Key Largo, located in John Pennekamp Coral Reef State Park in the reef named Key Largo Dry Rocks. Max depth 32 feet. Great location for all levels of divers and snorkelers alike. Amazing corals and lots of schools of fish!
This patch reef lies just North of the famous Key Largo Dry Rocks, home to the Christ of the Abyss site. Horseshoe Reef has an amazing patch of Elkhorn coral and to the west is a mysterious huge anchor ( if you can find it ). Amazing site for divers & snorkelers alike. Max depth 26 feet. If you know where to find them, there are 2 different swim-throughs. Tons of fish at this site, great location to complete your Fish ID specialty – check out our instruction page for this wonderful class taught at an amazingly low price!
If you want to get your heart pumping being surrounded by more great barracuda than you could possibly count, then request this dive/snorkel site when booking your next tour with us. Request to pair this site with Banana Reef & you will have a 2 location match you’ll talk about and show your disc of the days photos from for years to come! Max depth for this dive is only 22 feet deep, and right under the boat and around the base of the mooring is a sea-grass bed with a max depth of only about 10 feet and this is where these huge fish love to hang out everyday of the year!
On the backside of Key Largo Dry Rocks reef is a beautiful shallow reef site called Anemone Garden, and you quickly see why it gets its name. The boulder reef is covered in colorful anemones.
Key Largo diving offers many unique sites, but none as cool as the FORD Model T car! Very few know even where this site is, much less how to find this cool old car sitting at the bottom of the ocean is 21 feet deep water, except our Owner Jen Kerr.
Little Grecian Reef snorkel/dive site is just a little ways off the main Grecian Rocks Reef line. This patch does not have a mooring ball, so prudent anchoring needs come into play when visiting this site.
On the East side of the Main Grecian Rocks Reef line, is 1 single mooring ball. This is Grecian Proper. Frequently see southern stingrays and nurse sharks at this site.
This site we discovered recently is So Beautiful & the Elkhorn corals did not get any damage from Hurricane Irma at all! Sand Island Reef got its name because (so folklore claims) back before Hurricane Donna 1960, there was actually 1 lone Coconut Tree growing on a tiny sandy island at this very location.
Sand Bottom Caves at French Reef is not actually cave diving, it’s just cavernous swim through areas under the living coral reef. French Reef has many mooring ball sites, and the favorite of everyone is Sand Bottom Caves. This site gets its name from the numerous areas where the living coral reef is washed out under the bottom allowing divers to explore the cave like areas.
Molasses Reef Dive Sites
Scuba Diving in Key Largo with Sail Fish Scuba
Molasses Reef
A favorite among divers and snorkelers visiting Key Largo, Florida. All alongside it there are many remains of ships that wrecked against this dangerous coral barrier reef. This reef is located 6 miles off the coast line of Key Largo. Expect to see French grunts, blue-striped grunts, white grunts, trumpetfish, gray angelfish, French angelfish, queen angelfish, yellow tail snapper, chubs, tangs, scrawled filefish, trunkfish, scrawled cowfish, sergeant major, yellowtail damselfish, butterflyfish, Atlantic spadefish, porkfish, bar jack, yellow goatfish, porcupinefish, blue chromis, grouper, great barracuda, every type of parrotfish, and so many more we can’t even name them all! Everyone describes their time at Molasses Reef as like being in an aquarium.
There are so many mooring balls at this site, it would take you at least six two tank trips to see the entire reef system! Request a ” double dip ” when booking and you won’t be sorry!
There are a few memorials placed to former Scuba Instructors whose ashes were placed here over the years. Shallowest 23 feet deep Max depth 43 feet. Some huge sponge formations, often see Nurse sharks & Reef sharks. Lots of Blade Coral, Branching Coral, Elkhorn corals, and staghorn corals. Slow down and you may find a few large colorful Giant anemones among the living coral reef and crawling in the sandy areas a few Florida Horse Conch, Florida Fighting Conch, and maybe a Queen Conch. Please remember all Conch are protected in Florida, so look but don’t touch or take.
As with all dive sites at Molasses Reef, you may come across some signs of old shipwrecks
Hole In The Wall Reef is a site at Molasses Reef that has exactly what it’s name says, A large Hole In The Reef Wall that is big enough for any scuba diver to swim thru. We love taking your photo as you are swimming through, and it makes a nice pic to get all your social media friends super jealous!
At this site divers and snorkelers alike will be delighted by seeing nurse sharks, bull sharks, black tip reef sharks, Caribbean reef sharks, just to name a few of the sharks you may get to see and swim with while scuba diving or snorkeling at this Florida Keys dive site.
This site is part of the Molasses Barrier Reef, and is littered with remains of shipwrecks of the past who did not navigate the shallow waterways very well. Many call this Pirate’s Reef, due to all the old ship wreckage at this site. You may find the old very huge sail boat mate, and structure, as well as many many other parts of old sailing boats
At the far South end of Molasses Reef, just at the base of mooring ball number 21 you will find the massive old Spanish Anchor. If you are scuba diving, you will need ascend a bit to get a nice from above view, to make out the Anchor as it is completely coral encrusted.
This end of Molasses Reef tends to get a bit of current, sometimes even making it not dive-able. You might see sea turtles, loggerhead turtles, Reef Sharks, Bull Sharks, Hammerhead Sharks, all sorts of corals and reef fish.
Winch Hole dive site at Key Largo’s Molasses barrier reef is home to a huge winch over 10 feet long laying in a sandy spot with a depth of 32 feet deep.
Wellwood Wreckage Area Molasses Reef is the shallower North West End of the World Famous Molasses Reef. It is named this due to the M/V Wellwood a 400 foot long freighter who ran aground here in 1984.