keys viz Report?

[mushkee]

heading down to the keys this weekend, hows the viz in islamorada?

[keyspearfisher]

Don't know about up there, but from Marathon to Key West it has not been good because of the wind and rain.

[junior]

I was just in Islamorada for a week and the viz was excellent. On the wrecks it was 70-80' and on the shallow reefs it was an easy 40-50'. Have fun:cool:

[mushkee]

nice!!!did you sLay any fish?
I was just in Islamorada fo\r a week and the viz was excellent. On the wrecks it was 70-80' and on the shallow reefs it was an easy 40-50'. Have fun:cool: [/QUOTE]

[junior]

We tried to shoot on the wrecks, but the current was super strong. It was just me and my wife so we could not get too crazy in the current. You could not even let go of the line and since there was no one on the boat, getting blown off the wreck was not an option. I did not know to many other good spots so our production was pretty limited. Tried a few shallow spots and saw lots of babies. Any deeper than forty feet and the current was just moving too fast for anything but drifting. Good luck.

[keezdiver]

was just diving off of long key yesterday.

all the water out to 90+ feet is VERY green. the vis was measured at 12meters or about 35' using a secchi disk (scientific means to measure vis). real world that is probably only 30 or so feet judged by the average person.

the inshore patches in 20-30 feet was only 7meters...which is 15'!

so basically it sucks, partially due to the west winds and partially due to the green water.

another thing we noticed was a CRAZY current, even in shallower water. i'm talking MOVING!! would make for very difficult spearing unless you wanted to do a drift dive.

i should be out in the middle keys later this week...

[junior]

Here's a sample mushkee

[keezdiver]

vertical vis in less than 10 feet is almost useless when looking at visability.

like i said the water was really green, which made vis horrible, or at least horrible for the upper keys.

[junior]

Originally posted by keezdiver
vertical vis in less than 10 feet is almost useless when looking at visability.

like i said the water was really green, which made vis horrible, or at least horrible for the upper keys.

I know what you are saying, but after a year of being away from the keys romping around in the green and BROWN water over here on the west coast that photo just makes my mouth water. Although, the horizontal and vertical viz in 30 feet was damn phenomenal as well.

I think the Key Largo/Tavernier area may benefit from not having as many bridges for the bay water to move through and out onto the reef as you have a little further south.

[keezdiver]

just talked to some coworkers who were off lower Key Largo yesterday...

100+ feet vis

unfortunatly she said it was a RIPPING current, worse than the other day...that sucks!

it's amazing what a few days of low wind will do, she said it's still green but it's CLEAR!!

enjoy :D

[mushkee]

damn! my boat might not be able to go saturday b/c my marina( dry storage racks) is extending there repairs which were supposed to be fixed by the noon of friday...

im so bummed out...100 ft viz...for the keys, thats rare...in 20-30 ft. of water i'll be happy if i can see the bottom...any wind, usually messes with the viz...

here in miami, the viz is always good...even on the roughest days, you can still see top to bottom, in 30-40 ft...ask freedive slayer...im talking about the elliot key reefs...

[keezdiver]

100ft vis off key largo isn't all that unusual.

i dive there monthly and typically have 25-30 m of vis out in 50 or so feet of water.

not all the time, but fairly regular...

now in the middle and lower keys...once in a blue moon!

[mushkee]

yea..i was refering to summerland key....i thought it was all the same...but i guess as you go up in the keys, the better the viz...because elliot key(the beginning of the keys) has awesome viz all the time....