Florida

Miami-Dade County

Divers will travel far and wide to find the best diving. But those who live in the United States have plenty of great diving on their doorstep as well, with plentiful access to the Atlantic Ocean, the Pacific Ocean and the Gulf of Mexico. From warm-water reefs to temperate seas, here are some of the top places to scuba dive in the United States.

United States

Emerald Reef is a small shallow-water patch reef one mile east of Key Biscayne. It's considered by many to be one of the most beautiful reefs in Miami, rivaling those found further south in the Florida Keys.

The reefs are in 10 to 20 feet of water and support living elkhorn and pillar coral, a variety of sponges, and schools of juvenile tropicals. The clarity and color of the water makes this a spectacular snorkel or dive location. Please protect our reefs and dive carefully. 



Miami

Emerald Reef

The Neptune Memorial Reef project is the largest man made reef ever conceived and provides an extraordinary living resting place for the departed, an environmental and ecological masterpiece, a superb laboratory for marine biologists, students, researchers and ecologists, and an aesthetically exquisite, world-class destination for visitors from all walks of life.

3.25 miles of the east of Key Biscayne, FL. 


Neptune Memorial Reef

This is a great reef for the beginner diver. It is located south of Patty's reef and it is another excellent dive. It is a medium in profile but it has tropical fish, hard and soft corals everywhere.


Mooring balls lie in a N-S line.

Rainbow Reef

The Orion was sunk as a part of the artificial reef program in 1981. It is a steel hulled tug boat. 

The wheel house broke off during hurricane Andrew and lies off to one side. It is often passed over for the larger ships in Key Biscayne, but it is a well established and a very nice for a shorter second dive.

3 miles off Key Biscayne (SW corner of the reef). 

Orion wreck

Chances are if you received your certification in Miami, you dived The Belzona Barge on your third dive. This 115 foot steel barge was originally sunk in 72FT of water, just north of the South Seas, in August of 1991. However, in August of 1992, Hurricane Andrew moved her to only about 40 feet of water. Like most of the barges, it inverted when it was blown up by the Miami Bomb Squad, and rests upside down on the bottom. The wreck is extremely dark inside and it is not a good idea to try to penetrate it, but there is a great deal of surface area to explore. The top of the wreck, which is really the bottom of the hull, is fully covered with soft corals and the flowing gorgonians constantly waving in the current, make the wreck look more like a coral reef than a rusty old vessel. Located within fairly easy swimming distance of the Belzona Barge (80 feet to the south) is the Belzona Two, a 90 foot steel tug boat sunk in February of 1991 which sits in about 60 feet of water.



Belzona Barge

The Spirit of Miami is a Boeing 727 jet (130' long). It was sunk as an artificial reef September 8, 1993.
It is broken in several part, some of them are very damaged.

Key Biscayne Artificial Reef
3.5 miles off of Miami

The Spirit of Miami

In 90 feet of water lays Sheri-Lynn, a 235-foot freighter. It took 400 pounds of high-explosives to bring this ship down. Dutch-built, she carried a small crew as she was launched in 1952 and used for shipping. When she had been docked for several years without use, it was assumed that this ship was abandoned and ownership was gained by the Department of Environmental Resource Management.

The vessel took a hard hit from Hurricane Andrew in 1992 and was spread across a wide area. Her bow lies 60 feet away from the rest of the wreck. This allowed for increased marine life to inhabit the remains. Although prior to this she was intact and upright, she now has a larger variety of sea life. She has many foot holes cut through bulkheads that allow for exploration. South of the bow lies 50 Chevron tanks, each 30 feet long and 8 feet in diameter with the ends cut off. Twenty cement-mixer tanks also lie near by. The variety of wreckage provides home to large amounts of pelagic life.



Sheri-Lynn

The US Customs Reef is located four miles east of Key Biscayne and contains four cargo ships. These ships include the Bradywine, Minguana, Etoile de Mer, and Tacoma which were all sunk in 2001. The Tacoma was not one of the initial ships sunk to form an artificial reef but was added after it was seized during a drug smuggling.

These ships lie in approximnately 130-145 feet of water and are within 200 feet of each other. In total, 925 pounds of cocaine valued at $7.7 million were seized from these ships. The ships lie near each other and are all upright and intact.



Customs Reef is also known as Etoile de Mer.

Customs Reef

Sunk in february 2002

Out of kay Biscane

Tacoma

Rio Miami was featured on a 1989 episode of 20/20 where Hugh Downs detonated the ship for sinking and dove the site less than 24 hours later. The remote-controlled detonation with which Downs sunk the ship was the first of this type to be used. The publicity brought some popularity to this location.

Today, this 105-foot tug lies in 72 feet of water after being shifted by Hurricane Andrew. She is upright and her cabin and ladders are intact and rise up to 30 feet from the surface. This is one of the most intact wrecks in the area and is easily penetrated.

Barracudas, angelfish, jewfish, grunts, yellowtails, colorful sponges, sea fans and many forms of hard and soft corals are just some of the beautiful organisms that can be seen on this dive.



Rio Miami

The DEMA Trader is a 165-foot freighter. It was deployed October 28th, 2003.

Approximately 3.5 miles west of Key Biscane

DEMA Trader is also known as GGD Trader.

Emerald Reef

Snorkeling and Scuba Diving at Emerald Reef