First to Freedive the Vandenberg

Very big day: we drove out to the Vandenberg and became, I think, the first people to freedive the USS Vandenberg artificial reef. The vis was so good you could see the ship from the surface. I mean, you could even look down from your boat and see the Vandenberg without getting into the water. It won't be that way forever, as things growing on it will cover the white paint and obscure it more and more. But as it stands now, you can snorkel the Vandenberg!

We spent at least an hour there, and nobody took out any guns. It was just that amazing. There were fishermen trolling the thing- I bet all they caught was barracuda, if anything! It's a little too early, guys! There were some good-sized cudas hovering a few feet off the Vandenberg, unfazed by anything, loving their new home, welcoming visitors.

Also present on the Vandenberg were various groups of scuba divers. Now I know why they call them "bubble makers" or whatever the phrase is. The stream of tiny bubbles flowing out their tanks created a column of bad, bubbly vis that went all the way up to the surface. I think we startled a few of them!

The top deck of the Vandenberg is about sixty feet down, so it was good practice for all of us, since that's just about everyone's limit. Mine is about 45 feet. The satellite dish was fabulous, and creepy at the same time. Great picture taking opportunities and the best day freediving I've had in a while.

Key West Snorkeling- Never the Same Twice

Painters can paint the same scene every day and see something different every single time. Monet did this in his impressionist paintings of haystacks, lillies, and anything else he found to be beautiful. Key West snorkeling is the same way. You can go out to the same spot every day and see a totally different scene. And it's not just that there are different fish there each day, it's the quality of the light coming through the water, just what Monet was painting. It's the vis- some days it's very blue and clear. Freedivers and spearos call this "blue water", which is optimal conditions for seeing and spearing fish. Some days you can only see 10 feet in front of you. This day, the vis was ok in some spots, but tinted a very distinct green. We called it Green Water Day. Take a look.

The Vandenberg!

It's a big deal, and it's here now, soon to be sunk on May 27. The Vandenberg, to be an artificial reef just south of Key West, was a war ship from World War II that's been cleaned and picked apart so there are no contaminants or pollutants which would harm the real reef once it's sunk. This cost millions and millions of dollars, and took at least ten years, I think. It's going to be the second largest artificial reef in the world, at 528 feet long. It'll be in 140 feet of water, good for scuba but not so accessible for Key West snorkeling. If you can freedive down to forty feet, you will be able to see the dishes, which will be at that level. But too bad it's not a little bit shallower for snorkelers.
She has to be sunk by June 1, 2009, which is the official start of hurricane season. Hurricanes can seriously mess up sinking plans! Anyone who has a boat has to stay outside a one-mile radius of the deployment area, so I'll be curious about what we'll be able to see when we go out to watch. It'll be located south of the Cayman wreck, convenient for dive boats out of Stock Island as well as Key West.

Star Gazer Reef

One of the coolest snorkel spots in Key West is Star Gazer Reef. Not really for the fish, but for the whole scene. It's a sculpture, kind of like a series of tables under water, with small balls of coral growing all over. Under the "table" there are lots of mangrove snappers and other fish, and one giant resident Jewfish underneath. There's a pair of angel fish here that are ginormous, too.
Star Gazer Reef is lots of fun to snorkel or dive because it's so strange. You can take some pretty cool pictures, too. The challenge is trying to get as close as possible to the Jewfish. Poor thing, he can't really hide himself here. He doesn't like to be bothered, so you feel kind of rude trying to get close. He will keep his eye on you and keep swimming, although slowly, to different sections of the Star Gazer to avoid you. Best option for getting a good picture is to find a place in the sculpture where there's a hole and look down through it, or peer over the top of the "table" at him.

Coral Beauty

My latest passion is taking pictures of the gorgeous coral all around Key West. Coral has always been the backdrop for fish pictures, but sometimes the fish just aren't around. This is some sort of parasite coral living on a bigger rock style coral. Did you know that the colors on coral is not the actual coral itself? It's algae that lives on the coral. When you see the dead coral fields in front of Key West, all bleached out, that's just coral without its algae. This coral would look bleached too, if you took away its friendly alage.

What is Wrong with this Jellyfish?

Key West snorkeling will show you a whole world of strange new creatures. Take for instance jellyfish. We see them all the time. I know what moon jellyfish look like. But what is going on here? Take a look at this thing and tell me it doesn't look strange. The second picture is untouched. The first picture has some retouching so you can see the contrasts.

Snorkeling at Dry Tortugas

We went snorkeling at Dry Tortugas last week, around the pylons that used to be a dock, and off the beach. It was calm out, maybe just 10 knot wind, but that was enough to stir up the sand around the island and decrease the vis. I'm sure that when the vis is better, or if we had swum around to the moat on the northwest wall where the vis might have been better, it could have been amazing. There were lots of small fish on the old dock pilings and it was beautiful. There was a 25" or so mutton snapper on the furthest out piling, and it wasn't at all afraid of us! It's used to being watched but never shot at or having a hook dangled in front of it. Pretty amazing to see how they learn from their environment and adjust accordingly. Out on the reef, we never could have gotten so close to him. Otherwise he would have been dinner!

Key West Snorkeling

Key West is great in a lot of ways, but for lots of people, it's the coral reef that counts. If what you like is historical architecture and a quaint city and lots of places to eat out and drink at bars, then there are many more cheaper places in the world that will suit your needs. Key West has all this PLUS the reef, the Gulf and the backcountry.

The coral reef in front of Key West is part of North America's only living coral reef, and begins all the way up near Miami and continues out past Key West, to the Dry Tortugas. It's just around six miles to the reef from Key West harbor, making it a short drive. On calmer days, you can get out to the reef for snorkeling, spearfishing, fishing or scuba in a small boat. I've seen flats boats and skiffs make it to the reef on calm days when the ocean is almost as flat as a lake.

For the visitor, snorkeling is the best way to appreciate marine life around Key West. Most beginner snorkelers need very few skills, and snorkel companies in Key West will provide all the gear you need if you take a snorkel excursion while here on vacation. If you've ever gone swimming, then you're half way there. Snorkeling in the ocean on a calm day is easier than swimming in a lake because the salt water helps so much with bouyancy. Plus, you wear a life jacket when you go out on a snorkel trip.

The hardest thing about snorkeling is getting used to the mask and snorkel. If a mask isn't properly worn, it will leak and cause you great misery. If there's a hair under the seal, water can get in. If the mask is too big, you will have trouble making a seal. Best advice for beginner snorkelers is to make sure you get a good fit before jumping into the water. Smooth away all your hair from your face. Put the strap on tight enough so it doesn't slip all around your head. Breath in through your nose and see if the mask tightens around your face, making a seal. Make it secure and tight but no so tight your face hurts. If you're in the water all this is just about impossible and you'll have to get out to fix it.

Lobster Mini Season

Watch out, it's time for Lobster Mini Season again. Craziness for lobsters takes over the entire island as locals and visitors take the first stab of the season at nabbing some lobsters. Hotels in Key West fill up, the city swells from its core of about 20,000 to a temporary whopping 40,000 and everybody brings a boat! It's like bumper cars out in Garrison Bight, only it's bumper boats. Divers beware, because in their excitement to get to the next rock and get a lobster or two or six, crazed boaters seem to forget normal safe boating practice. They drive too fast and too close to dive flags. It's a zoo out there!

Just to be clear, the lobsters we have in the Florida Keys are not the same as the ones from Maine. Our lobsters don't have the same giant meaty claw as the ones from up north. We call 'em the Florida spiny lobster and some call them bugs. The real spiny lobster season starts August 6 and goes until the end of March. The mini season is just two days and it's for non-commercial lobster divers only. During the regular season the big guys put out traps with bait for the lobsters. The mini season is for divers only. Scuba or freediving only. There is no such thing as recreationally trapping lobsters.

Lobster Mini-Season in the Florida Keys used to be on the weekend. So many people took to the waters on these days and basically mauled the lobster population that the season was moved to mid-week. Fewer people showed up but it's still a mob scene. They also made the limit only 6 lobsters per person per day in the Keys, while it's 12 in the rest of Florida. You also can't dive for lobster at night in the Florida Keys. The event gets some divers so excited they just can't wait and every year Marine enforcement officers catch people getting lobsters early, before the season.

How to Catch a Lobster

First of all, there are three kinds of spots where lobster like to hang out.

1. The Reef


2. Rock patches


3. Ledges

The reef has lots of nooks underneath full of lobster, and it's easy to find so it's the most obvious place to get them. Rock patches are harder to locate since they can be anywhere and if you're not from Key West you won't have any clue where to find a good lobster rock that's not right on the reef. A ledge means anywhere like the edge of a field of sea grass, where it changes to sand. Sometimes there's a ledge under the sea grass bed, with lobster inside. Look for color changes in the shallow water where a ledge might exist next to a sand patch. Staking out your own spots is the best way to go but not everyone has this luxury.

If you're snorkeling for lobster, diving skills are a must. You have to be able to dive down to the bottom and see what's under a rock or a ledge. You also have to be able to stay underwater for a while so you have time to coax the lobster out and get him in your net.

Spearfishing for Beginners in Key West

Snorkeling on Key West's Middle Grounds, an area southwest of Key West, you can see the best of what a living coral reef has to offer, without diving down at all. There are purple fans, giant parrot fish, some sharks, zebra fish, porkfish, barracuda and tons of other types of reef fish. There are buoys for your boat, and a short swim towards the marker stick will take you to reef that's just a few feet below the surface. Easy! What's also kinda cool is that the Middle Grounds are not a Sanctuary Preservation Area, which means you can do a little fishing. For me, it was the perfect place to try my first time at spearfishing. It's not really sportsman-like to fish at a marked reef with buoys for snorkelers and divers, however. It's too easy and it bothers the swimmers. But for beginners at spearfishing, it's ok to do it just once.

With gun pointed out in front of you (don't forget to release the safety switch before you dive), swim fast at your target. Middle Grounds is a good place for beginner spearfishing because it's not deep and there are tons of fish. If your target escapes, there's probably another nearby. Bar jacks get big so they make nice targets. Plus, there's often a lot of them together so you get multiple targets. They swim right up to you sometimes, too. Perfect!

Don't forget to take a deep breath before you dive down. It's easy to get so excited about shooting the fish and thinking about how to manage the gun that you forget your diving techniques. Try and wait for the fish to turn sideways to your spearpoint. You want to try and shoot it right behind the gill plate. Get up as close as you can without scaring him away. 

I'm a beginner, and I'm a girl, so my gun is weak.  I shot my first fish on the backbone because I was too exicted to wait for him to swing sideways to me. If your gun is weak, what happens is if you shoot it in the back, you'll hit the bones like I did and your spear will probably bounce off.  That's only if your gun is really weak.  Try to make your gun as strong as possible without using accuracy.  If you power it up too much it will become less accurate.  The fish will jump and swim away so you might as well wait for a better shot next time. You can shoot them from the front, too, according to a poster I saw in a dive shop. Aim for just above the eye, I guess for the brain. Sideways seems much easier.  Best is to have enough power on your gun so that you can blast 'em in the spine.

I see you down there

Yeah, snorkeling is cool. When we first moved here, it was great to take a break from our 8-hour fishing days and take a dip in 85 degree water on a hot summer's day. Float and look, paddle and look. I'd stay in forever but some people get spooked by sharks so we get out and leave. Spookiness is catchy.

Now we've discovered spearfishing and there's a purpose to snorkeling. So much better! Actually, boyfriend is the one with the spear, I'm just a looker, a spotter. The catch gene is fully activated same as when he fishes, so now we get to snorkel -ahem, spearfish, for hours and hours. A match made in heaven!

With the new sense of urgency in finding the right fish to shoot, comes a need to see better and learn new skills. Snorkeling for me has been a purely horizontal affair: I float and look, paddle and look (see above). Spearfishing, and even my dinky job of spotting fish, requires a third dimension. I have to think in 3-D now. I have to get to the fish, because after all I want to someday get promoted from spotter to shooter (it would be a self-promotion). I have to dive down, go straight down to the bottom. I have to get down to those silly fish, looking up at me. I still let them know that I see you down there. And I'm coming to get you.

Let me just say right now that I get mad when I can't do something I really yearn to be able to do. I want to dive down to the ocean floor like a mermaid, like a water nymph, like a ... a... fish? I want to enter the third dimension and stop acting like a tourist on a party snorkel boat. Why so hard? one word: breathing and pressure. My first day trying to dive, and I am out of breath by the time I hit bottom and need to jet upwards to the surface to frantically breathe like a dumb tourist. What's up? I run five miles at a clip, I do yoga.

I am mad.

Was I born with miniature lungs? I see the fish down there, Parrot Fish, laughing at me. I see you down there. I want to get to you so bad. I want to do it, so I practice over and over, dozens of dives. I blow the air out on the way down, kick my fins, and ...zzzzzzzzzzzzzrrrrrrrrrrrttttt.

Did you say blow the air out on the way down? ...my boyfriend asks me later that night at home as I tell my story. Immediately I realize that's wrong. I can just tell by his face when he says this. Why am I doing that? What strange habit have I picked up in my past, where diving down means to expel all my precious air right at the start? It's like starting a hike on empty, no breakfast, no snacks, no energy. It's sabotaging yourself.

Next time out, I'll get down there and I'll swim like a mermaid, just wait and see.