North North Dry Rocks
The whimsical name is memorable, and so is the assortment of ever-present angelfish. Every angelfish species in the Keys, including yellow-and-black rock beauties as well as queen, blue, gray and French angelfish, munches on the abundant elephant ear and brown clustered tube sponges that line the ledges of this reef. Copper sweepers also frequent the reef, sheltering beneath the overhangs and sometimes circling ceaselessly beneath the flat arms of an elkhorn coral colony.
Only 5 to 8ft deep atop the coral ridges, the reef bottoms out at 25ft in the sand. The ridges here are among the highest profile in the Keys, rising 20ft in some places and creating substantial canyons that will play havoc with your ears if you try to go up and over each one instead of around the end. North North is not a large reef, but it is too big to cover in a single dive. If you explore two or three canyons on a dive, you’re probably going about the right pace to enjoy the scenery and marine life. If you’re looking for little creatures, you probably won’t leave the canyon where you enter the water.
The largest individual coral colonies are near the seaward end of the ridges. Some of the star corals (Montastraea annularis) are as tall as a diver. Over the years bright yellow and red boring sponges have invaded the structure of these mounds, lifting the edges of living coral like shingles. Macrophotographers will find excellent subjects like saddled or redlip blennies perched on the coral polyps or peeking out from a convenient hole.
Reproduced with permission from Diving & Snorkeling Florida Keys 2001 Lonely Plant Publications www.lonelyplanet.com