Location: Barracuda Reef buoy that is part of the Mooring Buoy Program that runs along the coast of Florida. This one is a half-mile east of John U. Lloyd state park.
LAT/LONG 26.072944, -80.096466
Description: The site has a reef ledge that rises 10 to 15 feet from the bottom. It has a healthy concentration of staghorn, star and brain corals. Fish life is plentiful and lobsters, crabs and moray eels can be found underneath ledges that rise about four feet from the bottom. The depths here run from 20 to 35 feet.
Notes For this Snorkel: After an earlier snorkel spent fighting a strong current that was running near the shore on a shallow reef we headed out to deeper water and hooked our boat to a mooring buoy in hopes of better snorkeling conditions.
On some days this reef is beaming with life and on other days it is pretty barren. Today wasn’t one of its better days as far as visibility or having a lot of activity.
This reef is deeper that I prefer but its lack of a strong current made for an enjoyable although brief snorkel. Moon jellyfish were everywhere so we all wore full body rash guards.
Critters seen on this snorkel: Scatted schools of small fish, small patches of coral, sea fans, sponges, lobster poking out from under ledges and lots of Moon jellyfish.
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