In Florida, New Artificial Reef for Diving

Plam Beach County’s newest artificial reef snorkel and dive trail is convenient and easy. A place where novice and experienced underwater enthusiasts can see nature at close range without cost.
In Florida, New Artificial Reef for Diving
Author Dr. John Christopher Fine at Phil Foster Park about to dive at Blue Heron Bridge county park with his SeaLife underwater camera. The author of books and articles about underwater photography, the author, a marine biologist, uses his SeaLife digital camera to record animal behavior and marine life. Myriam Moran copyright 2013
<a href="https://www.theepochtimes.com/assets/uploads/2015/07/100702_JohnCF._1.jpg"><img class="size-large wp-image-364294" src="https://www.theepochtimes.com/assets/uploads/2015/07/100702_JohnCF._1-601x450.jpg" alt="Diver swimming over newly placed structures created as a snorkeling and diving site that already attracts fish and crustaceans. Attaching organisms will grow on the structures with time. (John Christopher Fine copyright 2013)" width="590" height="442"/></a>
Diver swimming over newly placed structures created as a snorkeling and diving site that already attracts fish and crustaceans. Attaching organisms will grow on the structures with time. (John Christopher Fine copyright 2013)

“It is the best muck diving in the country,” Skip Commagere said. Not a very complimentary description for the newest underwater trail in Palm Beach County, Florida. Muck divers are a special breed of underwater photographers. They seek out places that harbor weird ocean creatures. Spots that are protected from currents, waves and storms where underwater shelter provides niches for juvenile marine organisms to grow to adulthood. The term muck diving usually means these divers are willing to search the depths of backwaters and bays where the bottom is often mucky.

This is not the case at the Phil Foster Park Snorkel Trail under the east end of the Blue Heron Bridge where the bottom is clean white sand. It is a public county park provided with lifeguards and ample free parking.

“Blue Heron Bridge was a local secret spot. Only old time locals knew about it,” Commagere added. There are few off the beach diving sites with free parking. Divers can pull up to the curb at the east end of the Bridge, back into a free parking spot, unload their gear and suit up at handy wooden picnic tables, usually unoccupied except during weekends. Fresh water showers enable divers to rinse their gear after a dive.

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