AD 2017 Q4

and ecological reserves (ERs), while some areas are
open to spearfishing and hook-and-line anglers. The
idea behind the sanctuary was to encourage selective
recreation offshore, but FKNMS had to ban some
activities such as coral collection and, later, collection
of endangered conch. The protected areas serve as
nurseries for the rest of the reef ecosystem and include
the most popular sites among visiting divers. The idea
of protected nurseries guided the evolution of these
zones; they are the foremost reason Key Largo hosts
more and greater diversity of marine life than just
about anywhere else in the Western Hemisphere.
Acquired from the Navy, the 510-foot Spiegel Grove was sunk
off Key Largo on May 17, 2002. It landed upside down but was
repositioned onto its starboard side. Incredibly, three years later
Hurricane Dennis set the shipwreck perfectly upright.
John D. Pennekamp was an editor and columnist for
the Miami Herald, and his editorials combined with
the observations of respected marine scientists such as
Gilbert Voss, Ph.D., helped sway public opinion toward
support for the park. State waters extend only three
nautical miles from the coastline, and most of the best
fringing reef habitat lies six miles offshore. In terms
of protecting the true reef tract, the park was more
perception than reality in the early days. But for the
next 15 years Pennekamp Park provided presumptive
protection to the coral reefs offshore. Effective
preservation of the main coral reef came in 1975 with
the federal government’s establishment of the Key Largo
National Marine Sanctuary, which extended protection
from the edge of state waters to the 300-foot depth
contour (isobath). Protections were expanded further
in 1990, when the National Oceanic and Atmospheric
Administration (NOAA) established the Florida
Keys National Marine Sanctuary (FKNMS), which
incorporated the existing Key Largo and Looe Key
sanctuaries. Managed jointly by NOAA and the state of
Florida, the FKNMS covers 2,900 square nautical miles
of water, protecting the entirety of the Florida Keys.
The genius of the FKNMS is in its system of
marine zones, each with specific purposes and
regulations. With certain exceptions, fishing is
prohibited in sanctuary preservation areas (SPAs)
MOORING BUOYS
Mooring buoys are so pervasive throughout the Florida
Keys (and the diving world) that it is strange to think of
a time when they were not in use. But that is how it was
when I first began diving Key Largo. Navigation towers
marked a few of the reefs, most notably Molasses Reef and
the Elbow, but captains still had to know the best spots to
drop their divers. Long before GPS, captains might line
up the legs of a tower in a certain way or triangulate some
barely visible shoreline references to figure out where they
should deploy the anchor. If they were careful and lucky,
the hook might land in the sand, but as often as not the
line or the anchor dragged through fragile coral.
Thanks to the influence and hard work of local
residents John and Judy Halas, who developed a
mooring buoy anchoring system, mooring buoys were
installed throughout the Florida Keys, and anchor
damage to the reefs was significantly diminished. More
than 490 mooring balls are now available throughout
the Florida Keys, and their significance in the
protection of the area’s corals is incalculable.
MARITIME HISTORY
Given Key Largo’s extensive shallow reef system,
numerous ships have come to ruin here. The upside
of these tragedies is excellent habitat for marine
life and fascination for divers. While there are
numerous smaller wrecks of uncertain origin, such
as the Civil War Wreck, two that are large enough to
regularly host groups of visiting divers are the City of
Washington and the Benwood.
The City of Washington had reached the end of its
utility as a 320-foot island freighter when it ran aground
near the Elbow tower in north Key Largo while being
towed in 1917. Built in 1877, the ship entered the
collective consciousness in 1898 for being moored near
the USS Maine when the Maine exploded in Havana
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