Looe Key National Marine Sanctuary

Looe Key national Marine Sanctuary

A special “sanctuary preservation area” within the greater NOAA Florida Keys National Marine Sanctuary. Although I went for fun on my birthday this year, it was interesting to see the reef from a coral scientist’s perspective. It would appear at first glance to indeed be in better shape than many of Florida’s battered reefs, though there are few acroporids or brain corals, their niches having been effectively replaced by the alien-like Palythoa (a type of zooanthid) that is over-growing Miami’s reefs.

Reef framework overgrown with *Palythoa*

It was nice to see enormous, disease-free Orbicella faveolata colonies, though, to be fair, you can also see this in the Upper Keys.

“Best of” Looe Key. Scroll down to see all photos for each of the two sites visited.

First dive of 2021-12-9

Second dive of 2021-12-9