Palm Beach & Jupiter · United States · Reef · Wall · Drift
Juno Ledge
Schooling gamefish and goliath grouper over a sharply cut ledge
Area photo: Dough4872 · CC BY-SA 4.0
A rock ledge off Juno cut into a sharp profile: the reef top sits at 21 m and the face drops away to sand at 28 m. Soft corals grow along the edge, goliath grouper and moray eels are the fish to look for, and schooling gamefish come in off the deep water. It is the deep end of the Palm Beach ledge system and is dived as a drift like the rest of this coast.
Where it is and how deep
26.8705° N, 80.0192° WApproximate position — the dashed circle shows where the site lies; your operator's briefing has the mooring.
The dive
The drop is straight onto the top of the ledge at 21 m, so the dive starts deep and there is no shallow section to settle on first. The rock is cut into a steep face that runs down to sand at 28 m, and the current takes you along it: you fly the edge and look into the face as it passes rather than working back and forth across the reef.
Goliath grouper are the fish to watch for along the ledge, with moray eels in the rock and soft corals growing along the top edge. Schooling gamefish come in off the deep water and hang above the drop. Because the shallowest point on the site is 21 m, bottom time is short — plan the profile before you get in, keep with the group in the flow, and send a marker up before you surface.
Marine life and season
- Groupers
| Jan | Feb | Mar | Apr | May | Jun | Jul | Aug | Sep | Oct | Nov | Dec |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Prime | Prime | Prime | Good | Good | Good | Good | Prime | Prime | Good | Good | Good |
Season follows Palm Beach & Jupiter: Lemon sharks aggregate Jan–Mar and goliath grouper spawn Aug–Sep; the Gulf Stream keeps visibility high year-round.
Know before you go
- The shallowest point on the site is 21 m and the sand is at 28 m, so there is no shallow reef to off-gas over. Watch gas and no-decompression time from the moment you drop.
Dive videos
Juno Ledge Scuba Diving, Jupiter Florida 4K | Pura Vida Divers | West Palm Beach @OlegKaplun · Oleg Kaplun on YouTube
The structure of Juno Ledge · Dan Volker on YouTube
Questions divers ask
How deep is Juno Ledge?+
The reef top is at about 21 m and the sand at the foot of the ledge at about 28 m, which puts the whole site in advanced, deep-dive territory with a short bottom time.
Sources
- Deep Reef Diving Sites in South Florida — Pura Vida Divers
More dive sites in Palm Beach & Jupiter
Muck & macro
Over 100 nudibranch and sea slug species in under 8 m of water
Reef
A King Neptune statue set down in the late 1970s marks the north end
Reef
Lemon sharks stage on this reef ledge by the dozens each January and February
Wreck
A 1926 patrol yacht scuttled here in 1968, dived on the current
Twin ledges from 20 and 26 m (65 and 85 feet), ending in a circular bowl
Similar dives elsewhere
Table corals still intact on a slope opened to divers recently
A sand pit at 15 m (50 ft) leading out to a 27 m (90-foot) drop-off
A mushroom-shaped reef with a labyrinth of caves along its south side
An anemone garden of 40-plus anemonefish above a 35 m plateau