Scuba Diving in Miami: 9 Fantastic Diving Sites for Adventure Seekers

Diving opens a new world in front of you, a world of unexplored beauty in the deep blue waterways. The beauty of Miami is not only concentrated on its mighty land, but the diversity in Miami’s underwater is far beyond explanation. The rich archeological preserves in the underwater is unimaginable and the only way to get through the divinity beyond is to dive beyond and afar.

Here are the few best places to scuba dive in Miami

9 Best Places for Scuba Diving in Miami

1. Biscayne National Park

The only way to explore the resplendence of Biscayne National Park is by diving under the blue waters of Biscayne and forgetting the touch of the cacophony of the outside world. South Florida’s Biscayne National Park harbors 25 miles long coral reef, shipwrecks, barrier islands, and amazing aquatic life for the perfect experience of scuba diving in Miami. No doubt you can be friends with sea turtles, hammerheads, tiger sharks, and pretty manatees. Tropic Scuba, the only scuba diving operator of Biscayne Park, will surely take care of your diving experience, providing you with an instructor all the time. Depending on the site selection, your customized half-day five hours trip under the aquatic world through the Maritime Heritage Trail, Trump reef, and Fowey Lighthouse will be divine. Permitting only one boat a day with 50 capacity, you need to hurry and book your scuba diving trip now or never.

Price: $800
Maximum Depth: 12 Feet
Feature: Artificial Reef and Wreck

2. Dry Tortugas Underway

Once you enter the Dry Tortugas of Miami, you will see less than 1 percent of the area is land while the rest remains drowned in water. Located southwest of the Florida Keys reef system, the Dry Tortugas region is the warehouse of unhindered coral exhibit, reef fishes, and cultural artifacts, scattered all along the waterways. The eastern gulf current will keep you afloat but surely do not dare to touch the corals, shells, or marine wildlife. Be aware of your encounter with dangerous jellyfishes, and lionfish. Seagrass keeps the entire carpet of Dry Tortugas waterbed colorful and enigmatic. Divers can explore the region through Garden keys, Texas Rock Coral Reef, and never forget the Windjammer dive spot, offering the best visibility during the flood tide. Established in 1875, Windjammer dive spot, also known as Avanti is crowded with fishes and aquatic life. Forget not to collect your underwater map to explore the nooks and corners properly.

Price: $200 on average
Maximum Depth: 100 Feet
Feature: Artificial Reef and Wreck

3. Sheri Lynn

Sheri Lynn of Miami is one of the very popular wreck dive spots, attracting divers to explore this 235-foot Dutch freighter. Built-in 1952, this wonderful Dutch ship has remained abandoned for long years and was later ultimately acquired by the Department of Environmental Resource Management. Living a life beneath 90 feet in the ocean bed, divers can explore the chevron tanks, cement mixer tanks, bulkheads, and whatnot. A huge number of pelagic fishes can be seen hovering around this look-alike artificial reef, harboring beauty and life all at once. It is advisable that only advanced open water divers try their hands in Sheri Lynn’s adventure tour. With expert diving operators like Squalo Divers, the five hours you spend in Sheri Lynn will be worthwhile for a lifetime.

Maximum Depth: 90 foot
Feature: Artificial Reef and Wreck

4. Neptune Memorial Reef

Located 3.5 miles east of Key Biscayne, the Neptune Memorial Reef is the largest man-made artificial reef in the world, reminding you of the lost city of Atlantis, exhibiting beauty surpassing its own standards. The 16 acre Neptune Memorial Reef also shares its popularity as a calmful destination to spread off the cremated remains of near and dear ones in the ocean bed. The serenity of the ocean blue water has an average visibility of 35 Feet, being a perfect place for open sea divers. Divers can hover around touching the aesthetic beauty of the scattered dome structure, columns, arches, and statues, thus tapping the untapped and unexplored marine life here.

Maximum Depth: 40 Feet
Feature: Coral Reef

5. Blue Grotto

Only by having an Open water diving certificate, you can plunge into the fun and enjoyment of diving in Blue Grotto. Diving in the cleanest water cavern in Blue Grotto, divers surely can manage to have the best scuba diving experience in Miami. The Blue Grotto cave with its excellent rock formations is a new addition to the amusement attracting the attention of the divers of Miami. Divers initiate their journey from the 80 Feet wide mouth of the cavern and then gradually following the underwater map into the crescent-shaped structure, 50 Feet below. With great levels of visibility inside, the aquatic life will amaze you once you reach the bottom. Blue Grotto has its own diving shop where you can seamlessly buy your diving gears. After a soulful expedition, refresh yourself with a hot shower and enjoy a warm BBQ at the picnic pavilion in no time.

Price: $45 / diver
Maximum Depth: 100 Feet
Feature: Underwater cavern and reef

6. Emerald Reef

Just a mile east of Key Biscayne lies Miami’s largest natural reef, the Emerald Reef. Although not very popular amongst locals, the Emerald Reef is a top-rated off-beat reef scuba diving destination in Miami. Emerald Reef harbors the most beautiful coral line in Miami with wandering lobsters, blue tang, and other damselfish. The known three buoys namely the Cuban Freighter Reef, North Emerald, and West Emerald need time to time maintenance to continue their shine and luster. Provided with three shallow patch reefs assimilated with huge relief, divers can enjoy pleasant diving in the crystal clear water of West Palm Beach amidst the gorgonians, hard corals, and a variety of sponges.

Maximum Depth: 26 Feet
Feature: Natural Reef

7. Jose Cuervo Artificial Reef

Miami cannot fail to astonish you with the wonders they inherit and Jose Cuervo Artificial Reef, stationed 150 yards southeast of Second Street Lifeguard Station in Miami Beach is one of those remarkable wonders. In 2000, Jose Cuervo’s underwater bar was born in the South beach artificial Reef Site of Miami. The 22-ton heavy margarita bar was intentionally sunk in May 2000 during the Sinko De Mayo festival of Miami in order to celebrate and encourage diving in Miami. While diving underwater you can witness the colorful tropical aquatic life of Miami with yellowtail snapper, parrotfish, and lobsters accompanying you from behind. Miami’s Jose Cuervo Artificial Reef, the popular saltwater dive site, has invited more interest in diving in Miami with average visibility is 25 Feet.

Maximum Depth: 20 Feet
Feature: Artificial Reef and Wreck

8. Half-moon Shipwreck

Formerly known as the Germania, the Half Moon Ship was designed in Germany in 1908. Later, the Britishers took away the Half Moon as a prize of war and hailed to England. Later in the 1930s, this old shipwrecked due to the gushing waves in a hurricane in the mornings and thereafter now lives near Key Biscayne near Bear Cut. due to the initiative of Miami’s diver Terry Helmers, Half Moon Ship Wreck has been named as an underwater archaeological preserve in the 2000s. If divers want to experience a real shipwreck in the heart of Miami, the Half-Moon shipwreck is probably the best one, set amidst calm and shallow water. Inviting a vibrant aquatic life around with lurking damselfish, lobsters, sergeant major, angelfish, and porcupine fish. You can see the historic remains of the ship but avoid touching them as it’s protected by the law of the land.

Maximum Depth: 12 Feet
Feature: Natural shipwreck

9. West Palm Beach

The swift gulf stream currents entering West Palm Beach of Florida along the coast is what makes diving in Miami worthwhile and adventurous. Popularly regarded as America’s first resort destination, West Palm beach offers marvelous reefs and wreck to dive your heart out. Divers can also opt for cozy drift diving, which is particularly more explorative and more interactive with the diverse marine life. While the visibility is excellent in West Palm Beach, no wonder divers can also be friends with sea turtles and sailfish. The shallow diving sites near Pompano beach is excellent for beginners. Different diving operators like South Florida diving and Pura Vida offer divers world diving lessons and diving packages, too.

Maximum Depth: 20 Feet
Feature: Reef and wreck

Forget not to get a certification before you go for scuba diving in Miami. It is the easiest to get certification and scuba diving operators are plenty in number. The renowned scuba diving operators of Miami include