Diving Florida's West Coast

[Paul Fabrizi]

Hello,
My daughter in looking to attend college in Florida and the closest coast is the western coast of Florida. I was all excited when she got certified as she wasn't really found of the diving in CT( only lakes and nothing to see), but I was told that west coast is not very visible.

Can someone validate this? Also looking for some shore dives that might be good.

Thanks!

 

[diversteve]

Shore dives for the most part are poor since it's flat and sandy for miles offshore. I only know of one 'dive' near Siesta Key and it's really a better snorkel.

Even many of the boat dives on the west coast are to wrecks offshore.

Not too far from the east coast for weekend trips...or the various Springs for freshwater. Blue Heron Bridge near West Palm Beach is arguably one of the best easy shallow shore dives in the country. It has it's own website.

some options listed here: Scuba Shore Diving Site Listing for: Florida, USA East

 

[drrich2]

The west coast of Florida is a pretty long stretch if coastline; please tell us what coastal city or cities would be close for your daughter to reach.

Richard.

 

[Damselfish]

Iwas told that west coast is not very visible.

viable?
Bad visability?

(Take a look at Google Earth or nautical charts around there, the depths and the distance the continental shelf extends on the west vs east coast of Florida, will give you some perspective on why it's different.)

 

[Ricardo V.]

I’m from the West Coast, specifically from the Naples-Bonita Springs area.
Visibility is very low, shore diving is not going to be possible nor advisable.

Most West Coast dive shops will have students drive to the east coast, specifically to the FL Keys, to Fort Lauderdale or to a freshwater Lake in the middle of the State to complete open water components.

There are several operators that will take divers offshore in Marco Island, Naples, Fort Myers, Sarasota and Tampa. Those are not daily dive charters, but work occasionally, depending on demand and weather conditions.

Now to the best part. In all honesty, the West Coast of Florida has amazing diving; however, it’s not easy to get to a dive spot because of distance. It will take hours on a good day to trek between 20 and 30 miles to reach a good dive site.

It requires a knowledgeable Captain and reliable transportation and an entire day.

You will find advertisements online offering spear fishing trips. It’s very good in Gulf waters; however, it’s best to venture into the West Coast with a robust level of experience and with a responsible operator.

Local counties have artificial reef programs that attract wildlife. Both Collier and Lee Counties have reef locations available to the public. You can find nice videos on YouTube of folks diving the Middle Grounds, others diving sinkholes off of Naples, Fort Myers and Marco. There are charters in Venice Sarasota area that will take you to sites where you can find fossilized shark tooth- and other old manatee bones can be fetched.

Lee County deployed the USS Mohawk. Feel free to search for YouTube videos of folks diving the USS Mohawk in Lee County.
On a rare instance, visibility opens up and you can actually do some diving pretty close to shore; however, that is an exception... not the norm.

Hope this helps. The West Coast is a great place to live, go to school and work. I’m now living in the East Coast for work reasons, as well as for the diving.

Here is a video that will give you an idea of diving in the West Coast:
Cheers,
Ricardo

 

[Paul Fabrizi]

Thanks for all the feed back, the school is in the Sarasota area. not sure if makes a difference. I guess I should look at at map of Florida.

 

[CuzzA]

Plenty of great diving over here. Viz is on average 25-30 ft. Best during the fall through spring where we can have 50+ ft. In the summer months we have to travel out a little further to get to blue water because we have so many rivers dumping on this coast and every year we have the gumbo bloom.

Shorediving is possible, but very limited. We do have a great artificial reef system with everything from culverts, to army tanks and wrecks. The wrecks will be much further offshore, but the tanks and other concrete reefs will be closer to shore. 8-10 miles.

We have an amazingly vast shelf on this coast that provides almost what seems like a limitless amount of reefs and ledges full of tropical and reef fish. There's no doubt all of it has not been explored. There's just too much ground.

Do an internet search in the Sarasota, Pinellas and Pasco artificial reef system.

Here's an older video of one example of a near shore reef of culverts.

Here's some natural ledges.

I'm nursing a bad ankle and so I'm not scheduled to dive until 11/4, but time permitting I try to post one video a month. So check out my other videos.

Finally, a great resource for dive reports can be found here. Very active.
Current Vis - Tampa Bay Region (Homosassa to Sarasota) - Spearboard.com - The World's Largest Spearfishing Diving Boating Social Media Forum

 

[diversteve]

a few shore dives near Sarasota from a 10 year old thread.
:
Florida Dive Spots

Florida Dive Spots

Florida Dive Spots