The Florida Keys...a 100-mile ribbon of low-lying mangrove hummocks and coral cays that extends westward from the southern tip of Florida, dividing the Gulf of Mexico and Atlantic Ocean. Contrary to advertising pitches, the Keys are not part of the Caribbean — nor are they actually tropical — but they do possess a certain laid-back island ambience that the connecting link of US-1 is unable to totally dispel. Things are just somehow 'different' — even different from nearby Miami, one of the most different cities in the US.
I was surprised, when I first visited the Keys, at how un-glamorous Key Largo (as the name suggests, it's the largest Key) is, in general. I was also pleasantly surpised that it wasn't quite the typical American 'highway strip' that I'd been led to believe it was (one of the very few times my trusty and increasingly venerable copy of Let's Go, USA has ever given me the wrong impression about a place). It's a rather workaday place, with its share of disadvantaged people, more then its share of eccentrics, and definitely more than its share of Jimmy Buffett imitators and deeply tanned men with sun-bleached blond hair, cap, sunglasses, medallion, suitably nautical-looking earrings, and tank top. Most of the Keys share this surprisingly 'normal' atmosphere (behind which beats an off-kilter pulse that is typical of many tropical and subtropical islands), reinforced by familiar grocery chains, K-Marts, and fast food outlets. Offshore, however, lay reefs and shipwrecks laden with fishes, coral reefs under threat of extinction, and old Spanish treasure. The Florida Keys National Marine Sanctuary encompasses the entire Florida Keys (incorporating the former Key Largo NMS, Looe Key NMS, and other areas such as Pennekamp State Park) and it is there that I conducted a good deal of my research on the great barracuda, a predatory species found in high density (and at often very large sizes) in these waters.
Things change markedly, however, when one reaches the terminus of US-1 in Key West, affectionately (or not) known as 'Key Weird' by locals. Key West has always been a haven for eccentrics, artists, and people who just don't seem to fit anywhere else. Although the city has grown and is often over-run by tourists (and more Jimmy Buffett imitators than you could shake an anole (lizard) at), that aspect of Key West is alive and well...Hemingway would be proud.
My underwater photos from the Keys
South Florida Environmental Reader
Current weather observation for Molasses Reef, FL
Key West & Florida Keys Tourist Information
InfoSeek Guide: Search Results
Internet Divers' Guide: Florida Keys
The Florida Keys & Key West — Diving
The Lower Keys — Diving and Snorkeling
Florida Keys National Marine Sanctuary
The Final Management Plan for the Florida Keys National Marine Sanctuary