[Ron Reefman]

G Sanab922, thanks for the information. We have taken trips out to some of these reefs in the past and they have some very nice dive sites, but are a bit deeper than I like for snorkeling. It's fun to see great coral heads and tropical fish. I know that is what most tourists are really looking for when they think reefs and coral. These are all good locations. But I'm not inclined to take an 11' Zodiac out 5 miles into open water... especially at the tender age of 66.

My issue is that I'm not just out to see big corals and tropical fish from a distance in deep water. I like to snorkel shallows and see the shallow reef ecosystem up close and personal. If you are snorkeling it's nearly impossible to see any smaller animals in water that is 20' or more deep. What I'm looking for are shallow reef like ecosystems where it's 10' deep or less.

I didn't expect to find much in the Upper Keys, but I'm always open to suggestions, like the grounded boat near Garden Cove. It looks interesting and probably worth a visit. Thanks for telling us about it. If you know of a boat ramp near there where we could launch from, that would be useful as well. We snorkeled the Penekamp State Park beach and were very disappointed as there is almost nothing to see there. We tried a couple of Florida Bay side sites in the Upper Keys and it was interesting. Lots of marco algae and upside down jellyfish. For those who aren't familiar with them, they do pack a sting if you touch them with bare skin, but 99% of the time they are just laying on the bottom, tentacle side up, thus the name 'upside down' jellyfish. And they don't move much at all so there is very little danger.

I think most of the good shallow water snorkeling sites will be in the Middle and Lower Keys. As I said in my first post, we go to a number of sites in the Middle Keys off Vayca Key (Marathon) and down to Spanish Harbor Key (SW of Bahia Honda). Has anybody snorkeled around Pigeon Key near the middle of the Seven Mile Bridge? Looking down on it from the walking bridge has our interest level up. We saw some very cool big wildlife there from 50' up on the bridge.

We may try and go out to Munson Rocks once we get a bit more familiar with the new Zodiac. We snorkeled there 10 years ago when we had a 26' McGregor sailboat.

The areas we are looking for don't need to be reefs or even reef like. As long as they have lots of marine life that we can enjoy. We snorkeled in Coupon Bight many years ago and it was interesting. It's nice and shallow, has lots of macro algae and lots of anemones. We weren't as informed about other marine life back then as we are now and some day I'd like to go back and see it again.

As for jellyfish in the Sept -Jan months, we have noticed it a bit, but nothing like G Sanab922 describes it. We see more washed up on the beach at Bahia Honda than we see in the water. And on the Florida Bay side we almost never see Jellyfish other than the upside down ones mentioned above. As for wind, waves and turbid water... that can happen any time of year. That's why having an alternative like a lee side of the Keys site to snorkel is worth the effort to find, as well as having other attractions to visit, like the History of Diving Museum on Islamorada or any tourist trap in Key West.