Best Scuba Diving Spots in the Palm Beaches | Waterfront Properties
For those who love the water, thankfully you can scuba dive while practicing responsible social distancing. Here are some of the best scuba diving spots in the Palm Beaches.
Turtle Mound
This dome-shaped patch reef rises 12 to 15 feet above the sand. On the west side sleeping and feeding turtles, large stingrays and cobia can almost always be found. Turtle Mound will usually be the last leg of your dive on Breakers Reef.
Fourth Windows
With a beautiful ledge and fingers that protrude inshore, divers find masses of tropical fish, sea turtles, moray eels, and nurse sharks. With depths of 45 to 59-feet, you explore deep undercuts as you approach the northern portion of Breaker’s Reef as it wraps northwest. Along Fourth Windows, you will come across a heavily encrusted communications cable.
The Flower Garden
A gorgeous area with scattered patch reefs on the inside and a honeycombed reef on the outside, with plenty of area for the numerous species that live here to hide. Part of the reef is called The Fish Bowl, where there are so many fish that you can’t see the reef. Like the Breakers Reef, you can find just about anything here, including flying gurnards and batfish.
Breaker’s Reef
This spectacular coral reef ecosystem offers divers miles of continuous ledges, undercuts, crevices, and patch reefs to explore at depths ranging from 42 to 60-feet. Located directly offshore of the Breaker’s Hotel and continuing south, you drift effortlessly past hundreds of species of marine life including soft and hard corals, angelfish, parrotfish, rays, eels, sea turtles, and loads of macro life (if you can spot it amongst the dense coral backdrop). Definitely bring your Fish Identification slates and books for these dives! If you’re interested in exploring South Florida reefs, look no further!Â
Awesome Alley
This beautiful reef line, located close to the inlet, has lots of coves, gullies, and brightly colored sponges. During turtle mating and nesting season you can see as many as a dozen turtles on one dive! Moray eels, lobsters and many other creatures live on this reef. It is a great dive when the current is strong because it is very long and easy to follow. Spearman’s Barge is located at the north end of the ledge in 65 feet of water.
Jolly Jack’s
This reef has a nice 6 to 8 feet ledge. Under the ledge, you can find sleeping nurse sharks and turtles. At least one goliath grouper calls this reef home. There are numerous species of fish such as grunts, spadefish, parrotfish, and horse-eye jacks (which the reef is named for), and there are plenty of invertebrates. Lobster can be found in the cracks and crevices. A very pretty dive site, great for photos and video!
The Palm Beach Triangle
This site has 3 wrecks, the Eidsvaag Freighter (aka the Owens), the Phillips Barge and the Rolls Royce. The marine life here is amazing. There are so many animals to see, including green moray eels, sharks, goliath grouper, turtles and schooling fish. This site is just 10 minutes south of the inlet.
Governor’s River Walk Reef
Lies in 55 to 90 feet of water just south of the Palm Beach Inlet. These 4 ships were turned over to the County by US Customs as part of Operation River Walk, a program to eliminate drug smuggling operations on the Miami River. The names of the wrecks are the Shasha Boekanier, Gilbert Sea, St. Jacques, and Thozina. There is a great variety of tropical fish, turtles and sharks to be seen here. There is a memorial statue placed by the Delray Beach police and firefighters at the northern tip of the Shasha Boekanier.
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