Key West · United States · Reef
Eye of the Needle
Swim through needle-shaped coral heads on a spur-and-groove outer reef
Area photo: Juliancolton · Public domain
Eye of the Needle is an outer-reef site off Key West in 25 to 45 ft (8 to 14 m), named for the coral heads shaped like sewing needles that you can swim through. It is deeper spur-and-groove coral in the manner of The Aquarium, with enormous sponges and plenty of fish, and there are no mooring balls, so the boat drops you and picks you up.
Where it is and how deep
No published position for this site — the map shows Key West and its other sites; operators know the mooring.
The dive
With no mooring balls to tie into, the boat positions over the reef and you drop onto spur-and-groove coral formations that run deeper than the inshore reefs, from 25 to 45 ft (8 to 14 m). The formations are of the same kind as at The Aquarium, so if you have dived that site you will know the pattern: coral spurs separated by sand grooves, with the swim-throughs and overhangs on the spurs. Set a course along the spurs and let the grooves keep you oriented.
The site's name comes from its coral heads shaped like sewing needles, which are big enough to swim through; the swim-through on the east end of the reef is the one to find, and it holds many fish. Enormous sponges are the other feature, as at The Cable, and the reef as a whole is thick with marine life. Ascend from the shallow end of the spurs, send up a marker if the group has spread out, and let the boat come to you.
Marine life and season
The sources we used don't single out particular species here.
| Jan | Feb | Mar | Apr | May | Jun | Jul | Aug | Sep | Oct | Nov | Dec |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Fair | Fair | Good | Prime | Prime | Good | Good | Good | Fair | Fair | Good | Good |
Season follows Key West: November-April is the dry season, but winter cold fronts bring the coolest water (23 C) and the lowest sourced visibility; the wet season runs May-October and storm risk peaks in September.
Questions divers ask
How deep is Eye of the Needle?+
The site lies in 25 to 45 ft (8 to 14 m) on the outer reef off Key West, within Open Water depth limits, and the operator describes it as a good tandem dive paired with another site.
Sources
- Eye of the needle — Scubago
More dive sites in Key West
Goliath grouper and turtles on a 5-9 m reef fifteen minutes from town
Reef
Fields of coral drifted to 18 m with goliath grouper and sharks
Goliath grouper inside a 56 m hull that sank under tow in 1985, upright at 27 m
Coral fingers and sand canyons on an SPA reef a mile east of Sand Key light
Unusually deep, wide reef crevices that hide grouper and morays
An eroded island's sand patch ringed by shallow reef under Sand Key Light
The world's second-largest artificial reef, sunk in 2009
Hundreds of sea fans and unhunted grouper in a fully no-take reserve
Similar dives elsewhere
A nine-foot bronze figure standing in 7.6 m of water
Winding channels and swim-throughs inside a protected reef
A reef crest that breaks the surface at low tide
Sea lions in 3 to 9 metres, on a rock bottom with no coral.