How big is Spanish Rocks?

[Likes2Cruise]

I have dove Spanish Rocks twice in my long and illustrious diving career (All 14 dives of it). The first time, viz was about 4' and issue caused us to abort the dive after only about 20min. The second time was yesterday and had a pretty decent time of it, total bottom time was about 45 min.

What I was trying to understand was the layout of the area known as Spanish Rocks. the basic instructions are always "go down the beach 6 houses, and out 50 yds".

That's all well and good - and I DID find stuff on both dives. But what I was curious about was the extent of the area.
How far north/south/east/west does it extent?
Is it broken into multiple areas? (we seems to have ended up over sand bottom for a while before wandering back over the rocks)
As we were starting our swim back, a friend lost her mask and we dropped to look for it - where we dropped seemed to be a better area than where we had been diving all day. This was directly out from the parking lot - so further north than the entry point. Is this meant to be a drift dive north?

I'd appreciate if the Spanish Rocks experts to provide a little insight into the dive site.

Heck a map would be great

Thanks in advance

 

[K Mejean]

I'm no expert but as far as I know the rocks don't go that far north. I'm not sure of how far north or south they go but there are two sets of rocks. The first set is sround the 75 yard mark and the second is out about 125 yards. Everytime have been I just kinda went around in circles to check out the rocks I was around. I'm thinking about diving it some time this week so maybe I will do a north to south run and see if I can give a better idea about them.

 

[Sh@rkW@tcher]

The ledges that make up spanish rocks are part of a pre-ice age shore line that extends south almost to the dry tortugas and north to the panhandle. There are several ledges that run parellel to the shore starting at about 15-20 fsw, and the most offshore of the ledges is in about 65 fsw. the ledges off Venice, Longboat Key and "third pier" are part of this submerged shoreline. In some areas the sand has covered the ledge system, or the ledges themselves have subsided and then covered over.

 

[barbaralove62]

Please explain fsw, I don't know that abv.

 

[AstroDad]

In this context - Feet of Sea Water.

Please explain fsw, I don't know that abv.

 

[barbaralove62]

Thanks Chris, I checked out your profile, that is some scope, bet you see a lot of great stuff with that. You are a true explorer!

 

[ScubaJW]

What is the current visibility for Spanish Rocks? How was the temp? I may head out there this weekend. Thanks in advance for any info!

 

[Likes2Cruise]

What is the current visibility for Spanish Rocks? How was the temp? I may head out there this weekend. Thanks in advance for any info!

Call me lazy :

http://www.scubaboard.com/forums/greater-tampa-bay-area/211211-good-dive-spanish-rocks-today.html

 

[ScubaJW]

Call me lazy :

http://www.scubaboard.com/forums/greater-tampa-bay-area/211211-good-dive-spanish-rocks-today.html

Thanks!

 

[AstroDad]

Thanks Barbara. Actually, that's my little scope! Not so much an explorer; more like a gadget freak. At least that's what my wife says... When it's too cold to dive, come join us sometime and turn your head skyward! We're all over the bay area - keep an eye on our calendar for event schedules...

St. Pete Astronomy Club Forum: Calendar