Florida Keys National Marine Sanctuary

Designated in 1990, the Florida Keys National Marine Sanctuary wraps roughly 9,900 km² of water around the entire island chain, protecting the only living barrier coral reef in the continental United States along with seagrass meadows, mangrove shorelines, and hundreds of years of shipwrecks. It governs essentially all diving in the Keys — the spur-and-groove reefs of Key Largo and Looe Key, the Christ of the Abyss statue, and the big artificial wrecks Spiegel Grove, Vandenberg, and Duane all lie within sanctuary waters. NOAA manages the sanctuary jointly with the State of Florida, balancing one of the world's heaviest recreational dive loads against decades of coral decline and restoration work.

The rules that bind divers

Sanctuary Preservation Areas and Ecological Reserves at the most popular reefs are no-take zones — no fishing, lobstering, or collecting — marked by yellow buoys. Anchoring on living coral is prohibited everywhere; hundreds of public mooring buoys serve the reefs and wrecks, and boats must use them where available or anchor in sand. Divers must display the dive flag, may not touch or stand on coral, and may not disturb historical artifacts, which are federally protected. Spearfishing is barred in the SPAs and parts of the upper Keys. No general entry fee applies.

Fees & permits: No sanctuary entry fee; standard Florida fishing/lobster license rules apply outside no-take zones.