John Pennekamp Coral Reef State Park

The John Pennekamp State Park includes glass bottom catamaran tours, snorkeling and scuba boat, kayak and paddleboard rentals. It is Americas first undersea park in the United States is located in Key Largo, FL.

It is named for John Pennekamp, a Miami newspaper editor, who was important in establishing of the Everglades National Park and the preservation of Florida's coral reef.

Spirit of Pennekamp Glass Bottom Boat

The Florida coral reef is the third largest in the world. It's estimated it took 5,000 to 7,000 years to develop. This park and the Keys National Marine Sanctuary include 190 nautical square miles of coral reefs, sea grass beds and mangrove swamps.

The coral reef is a living underwater community in shallow areas of the ocean that has clear and warm waters.  It provides food, shelter and breeding areas for marine plants and animals.  Living among the coral reef community are sponges, shrimps, crabs, turtles, lobsters, eels and nearly 600 species of fish.

There are 55 types of coral, hard, or "stony", coral and soft coral, formerly thought to be plants. The coral is made up of tiny animals called polyps.

We took a tour on the Spirit of Pennekamp glass bottom boat. We were taken to Molasses Reef. Waves were 3-5 feet high and when we hovered over the reef, despite a catamaran's stability you could really feel the rocking and lifting motion of the boat in the water.

P. S. Scenes for the 1948 movie Key Largo were filmed in the Key Largo area. It featured Lauren Bacall and Humphrey Bogart.