Wreck Diving in Florida

Awesome wreck diving for scuba divers in Florida

Wreck diving is a type of recreational scuba diving diving that involves exploring submerged wreckage such as ships, aircraft and various other artificial submerged  structures.

Wreck diving is becoming ever more popular form of scuba diving. It blends diving, archaeology and the exploration of marine life within a singular activity that can not be reproduced anywhere else. Wreck diving is a specialty in scuba diving and as such requires the appropriate training before attempting.

There are many great wreck dives throughout the world. However, there are many superb wreck to  explore there in the US. many of these can be found in Florida.

Key Largo has been identified as the best place to explore big wrecks in Florida, while the Pensacola, Destin and Panama City area is designated as the best places for exploring Florida’s historic wrecks.

Whenever you are in Florida or planning a trip to Florida you can easily get the details, check dive trip availability and book a next day dive trip with ScubaSchedules.com.

Read more details about these sites below:

Best Place to Explore Big Wrecks: Key Largo

The colorful reefs and mind-numbing profusion of fish in Pennekamp Coral Reef State Park is reason enough to pack up the family wagon and head south. But if you are looking for some really big wrecks, the 510-foot Spiegel Grove at the Florida Keys National Marine Sanctuary may be the main attraction. Two other great wrecks not to be missed are the former Coast Guard cutters Bibb and Duane. Toothy fish like barracuda and oceanic jacks have made these sites their home base. You can see why this is known by many as the best scuba diving in Florida.

Best Places to Explore Historic Wrecks: Pensacola, Destin and Panama City

Pensacola: This military town has not only shaped the city’s commerce, but its dive sites as well. Wrecks include the 500-foot World War I battleship, USS Massachusetts, the Russian freighter San Pablo, a Navy barge and an A-7 Corsair that fell off the deck of the carrier USS Lexington. You’ll find Vietnam-era tanks and various other naval ships. USS Oriskany, a retired aircraft carrier, is another massive Pensacola artificial reef.

Destin: Military buffs will find the waters off this beach town littered with sunken barges, tugs, liberty ships, landing craft, airplanes, army tanks and bridge rubble populated with grouper, flounder and cobia.

Panama City: The marine institute has sent ships, Navy scrap metal, pontoons, towers, bridge spans, tanks, hovercraft and even a Quonset hut to the bottom of the Gulf since the 1970’s. Perhaps the most famous wreck is the Empire Mica, a 479-foot British tanker that was torpedoed by a German U-boat in 1942. It now rests in 115 feet of water 20 miles off Cape San Blas.

Read for more details here on VisitFlorida.com

Lets not forget about treasure diving.  There are vast untold amounts of sunken treasures in and around the Florida keys due to its difficult to navigate shorelines and frequent storms. As a result there are many sunken Spanish Galleons loaded with treasures of all kinds that didn’t make the Trans-Atlantic return voyages… And they are loaded with untold treasures.

Treasure diving the wrecks of the Florida keys offer the opportunity to learn and experience the excitement of treasure diving.

Wreck diving can be very dangerous (equipment failure, loss visibility, entanglement, exposure protection and navigational errors) and the proper training and certifications are recommended.

Watch this wreck-trek for a taste of what wreck diving is like in Florida.

Images Source: YouTube Clips 1, 2

Thee  M/V Spree has been sold and is now the M/V Oceans For youth. The M/V Oceans for Youth is a 100-ft. motor vessel designed as a sustainable exploration & educational platform that supports ecosystem monitoring in the Gardens of the Queen National Park, Cuba.

Related Posts:

Treasure Diving Spanish Galleons in Florida