French Reef
French Reef is best known for its swim-throughs and caverns. As on other outer bank reefs, the coral ridges run in roughly parallel lines from shallow water to deep, though on French they twist and turn, transforming the reef into a living maze. The high-profile coral ridges evoke big city streets lined with tall buildings. In some places the ridges are fused into a single wide wall; in others just the tops are joined, forming elegant arches. Circular pockets with sand bottoms have formed in several areas, especially toward the north end of the reef. Depths on the main reef range from about 12 to 40ft. The water gets steadily deeper as you move seaward away from the coral ridges, but the most interesting part of the reef is fairly shallow.
You may notice that live coral coverage is somewhat sparse compared to other reefs, but healthy colonies of elkhorn, star and brain corals are still scattered about the reef. Thanks to the reef’s designation as a sanctuary preservation area, all common reef fish species are abundant, particularly parrotfish. Stoplight and queen parrotfish nibble the corals singly and in pairs, while midnight parrotfish scavenge in schools of a dozen or more.
French Reef encompasses many individual dive sites, including Hourglass Cave, named for its hourglass-shaped supporting pillar, and Christmas Tree Cave, which is topped with a somewhat tree-shaped star coral formation—provided your imagination is limber enough. The latter is about 6ft wide, 4ft high and 15 to 20ft long. Two other caves at French are Sand Bottom Cave, which of course has a smooth white-sand floor, and Hard Bottom Cave, with a gray fossil coral floor. None of the arches or caverns at French Reef are difficult to traverse, but care should be taken not to injure marine life on the bottom or overhead as you pass through.
Reproduced with permission from Diving & Snorkeling Florida Keys 2001 Lonely Plant Publications www.lonelyplanet.com