Big Pine Key, Florida, United States

Looe Key Reef

Looe Key is a crescent-shaped spur-and-groove reef in the Lower Florida Keys, protected as a Sanctuary Preservation Area within the Florida Keys National Marine Sanctuary about six nautical miles off Big Pine Key. The site is named for HMS Looe, a British 44-gun frigate that ran aground here in 1744 while escorting a captured prize, and remains of the wreck still lie scattered in the sand near the southwest corner. The reef itself is a textbook example of Caribbean fore-reef morphology: long ridges of star and brain coral separated by sand grooves that drop gently from 4 metres to about 11 metres. Despite hurricane damage and bleaching events in recent decades, the site still supports queen and French angelfish, midnight and rainbow parrotfish, large numbers of yellowtail snapper, southern stingrays, hawksbill turtles and occasional Caribbean reef sharks. Currents are usually moderate. Looe Key is moored only and fishing is forbidden inside the SPA boundaries.