[rwfromkansas]

Thanks for the reminder of my failures to go there when I took trips to the Keys.

This is just making me sick to my stomach.

[KDD]

You can only get there by boat or seaplane. I used to work the flats 50 miles west of there for Mutton Snapper. First went there in 1978 to get out of the way of a storm. Fishing Boats, Yachts, trawlers were all anchored in the harbor at the fort. What a party..

In the next 25 years I probably put in there 50 or 60 times..for family(working)vacations, shelter from storms...and sometimes just to give the crew a break from a 14 day, 18 hour a day job. I've snorkled the shallow reefs and dove on the deeper ones. As the fort became more well known a ferry was started from Key West...sometime in the mid to late 80’s I think. Even though taking coral was illegal,,,by the mid 90’s most of the coral trees(especially the purple ones)had disappeared. Other then the die off from the sugar plant runoff from the Glades the reef was in fair shape.

This is the largest living coral reef in North America. It is every bit a National Monument.