Eastern Dry Rocks
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Eastern Dry Rocks is a
coral reef A coral reef is an underwater ecosystem characterized by reef-building corals. Reefs are formed of colonies of coral polyps held together by calcium carbonate. Most coral reefs are built from stony corals, whose polyps cluster in group ...
located within the
Florida Keys National Marine Sanctuary The Florida Keys National Marine Sanctuary is a U.S. National Marine Sanctuary in the Florida Keys. It includes the Florida Reef, the only barrier coral reef in North America and the third-largest coral barrier reef in the world. It also has e ...
. It lies seven miles southeast of Key West and one mile east of Sand Key light within the Key West National Wildlife Refuge. This reef is within a Sanctuary Preservation Area (SPA).


Composition

The Eastern Dry Rocks Reef includes rubble zones and long fingers of coral separated by deeper sand and coral canyons. Rock Key Eastern Dry Rocks Is Popular For Wreck Diving
Florida-Keys-Vacation.com


Diving and snorkeling

The Eastern Dry Rocks reef is a popular spot for diving and/or snorkeling. It is also quite close to multiple other reefs including Sand Key and Rock Key, so it is common for divers and snorkelers to see multiple reefs on one outing.


Marine life

One can find many different kinds of fish and other marine creatures at the reef. Common species include
nurse Nursing is a health care profession that "integrates the art and science of caring and focuses on the protection, promotion, and optimization of health and human functioning; prevention of illness and injury; facilitation of healing; and alle ...
and hammerhead sharks,
brain coral Brain coral is a common name given to various corals in the families Mussidae and Merulinidae, so called due to their generally spheroid shape and grooved surface which resembles a brain. Each head of coral is formed by a colony of geneticall ...
, snook,
stingray Stingrays are a group of sea Batoidea, rays, a type of cartilaginous fish. They are classified in the suborder Myliobatoidei of the order Myliobatiformes and consist of eight families: Hexatrygonidae (sixgill stingray), Plesiobatidae (deepwate ...
,
cleaner shrimp Cleaner shrimp is a common name for a number of swimming Decapoda, decapod crustaceans that clean other organisms of parasites. Most are found in the family (biology), families Hippolytidae (including the Pacific cleaner shrimp, ''Lysmata amboi ...
, reef crab,
octopus An octopus (: octopuses or octopodes) is a soft-bodied, eight-limbed mollusc of the order Octopoda (, ). The order consists of some 300 species and is grouped within the class Cephalopoda with squids, cuttlefish, and nautiloids. Like oth ...
,
lobster Lobsters are Malacostraca, malacostracans Decapoda, decapod crustaceans of the family (biology), family Nephropidae or its Synonym (taxonomy), synonym Homaridae. They have long bodies with muscular tails and live in crevices or burrows on th ...
,
moray eel Moray eels, or Muraenidae (), are a family (biology), family of eels whose members are found worldwide. There are approximately 200 species in 15 genera which are almost exclusively Marine (ocean), marine, but several species are regu ...
,
parrotfish Parrotfish (named for their mouths, which resemble a parrot's beak) are a clade of fish placed in the tribe Scarini of the wrasse family (Labridae). Traditionally treated as their own family (Scaridae), genetic studies have found them to be dee ...
, angelfish,
sergeant major Sergeant major is a senior Non-commissioned officer, non-commissioned Military rank, rank or appointment in many militaries around the world. History In 16th century Spain, the ("sergeant major") was a general officer. He commanded an army's ...
,
barracuda A barracuda is a large, predatory, ray-finned, saltwater fish of the genus ''Sphyraena'', the only genus in the family Sphyraenidae, which was named by Constantine Samuel Rafinesque in 1815. It is found in tropical and subtropical oceans worldw ...
, Florida horse conch, and
queen conch ''Aliger gigas'', originally known as ''Strombus gigas'' or more recently as ''Lobatus gigas'', commonly known as the queen conch, is a species of large sea snail, a marine gastropod mollusc in the family of true conches, the Strombidae. This s ...
. Many of the same species that can be found throughout the rest of the Keys are also found here, and even species from the greater Caribbean. Other species of marine life have also been spotted at the reef, ranging from infrequently to even only a few times. Rarer species include permit,
tarpon Tarpon are fish of the genus ''Megalops''. They are the only members of the family Megalopidae. Of the two species, one (''M. atlanticus'') is native to the Atlantic, and the other (''M. cyprinoides'') to the Indo-Pacific Oceans. Species and ...
,
spotted eagle ray The spotted eagle ray (''Aetobatus narinari'') is a cartilaginous fish of the eagle ray family, Aetobatidae. As traditionally recognized, it is found globally in tropical regions, including the Atlantic, Pacific and Indian Oceans. Recent author ...
,
sea turtles Sea turtles (superfamily Chelonioidea), sometimes called marine turtles, are reptiles of the order Testudines and of the suborder Cryptodira. The seven existing species of sea turtles are the flatback, green, hawksbill, leatherback, loggerh ...
, and the
Atlantic Goliath grouper The Atlantic goliath grouper or itajara (''Epinephelus itajara''), also known as the jewfish, is a saltwater fish of the grouper family and one of the largest species of bony fish. The species can be found in the West Atlantic ranging from nort ...
.


See also

* Rock Key


External links


Benthic Habitat Map


References


NOAA National Marine Sanctuary Maps, Florida Keys West



NOAA Navigational Chart 11446
{{Corals Coral reefs of the Florida Keys