Florida Keys Scuba Diving

In response to a growing awareness of the intrinsic environmental and cultural value of our coastal waters, Congress created the National Marine Sanctuary Program in 1972. The National Marine Sanctuary Act authorizes the Secretary of Commerce to designate specific areas as National Marine Sanctuaries to promote comprehensive management of their special ecological, historical, recreational, and esthetic resources. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), Office of Ocean and Coastal Resource Management is responsible for management of the nation's Marine Sanctuaries. There are currently twelve National Marine Sanctuaries established in areas where the natural or cultural resources are so significant that they warrant special status and protection.

The Florida Keys is just such an area. North America's only living coral barrier reef and the third longest barrier reef in the world (following Australia and Belize) lies about six miles seaward of the Florida Keys (a 220-mile long string of islands extending south and west of the Florida mainland), making it a unique national treasure of international notoriety. Coral reefs contain more varieties of life than any other marine environment. They are part of a fragile interdependent ecosystem that includes mangroves and seagrasses that grow both on the ocean and bay side of the Florida Keys. In recognition of this important environment, the Florida Keys National Marine Sanctuary was created in 1990. The Sanctuary consists of 2,800 square nautical miles (9,500 square kilometers) of coastal and oceanic waters, and the submerged lands thereunder, surrounding the Florida Keys, and extending westward to encompass the Tortugas islands, but excluding the Dry Tortugas National Park. The shoreward boundary of the Sanctuary is the mean high-water mark. Within these waters are spectacular, unique, and nationally significant marine environments, including seagrass meadows, mangrove islands, and extensive coral reefs. These marine environments support rich biological communities possessing extensive conservation, recreational, commercial, ecological, historical, research, educational, and aesthetic values that give this area special national significance. These environments are the marine equivalent of tropical rain forests in that they support high levels of biological diversity, are fragile and easily susceptible to damage from human activities, and possess high value if properly conserved.

Information from Florida Keys National Marine Sanctuary