With the approach of winter, hundreds of West Indian Manatees congregate in the warm-water springs which help fill the Crystal River and Kings Bay region of Florida’s western coastline. One of the larger springs is Kings Spring located in the southern end of Kings Bay just off shore from Banana Island. The spring features 2 diveable caves and is within the boundaries of the Crystal River National Wildlife Refuge. The video shows a short snorkel swim over the spring and some friendly fish who were in the area.
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YouTube user “DestinDiver” posted a short video of a dive on one of the Destin offshore rubble piltes. DestinDiver reports this was the old Destin Bridge rubble. Based on our Google Earth divesites map, the bridge rubble is located at 30.34717N, 86.49483W in roughly 70 feet of water which contradicts the claim of being 7 miles offshore. It is possible this is actually the “Okaloosa Pier Rubble” located at 30.32642N, 86.60323W which is 7 miles outside of the pass and would look similar. In either case, it’s a nice video of our green waters.
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We took the best pictures from our USS Oriskany sinking coverage and turned them into a oversize 2007 wall calendar. At 11″ x 17″ per photo, it’s sure to get a lot of attention at the home or office. A great gift for many interests - boating, fishing, diving, military, … Each calendar sold helps DestinSharks.com continue its mission to provide quality, free content to our worldwide audience.

MBT Divers a dive shop in Pensacola has posted a large set of underwater photos and video of the Oriskany from recent dives. They organize diving charters to the Oriskany starting at $145 per person.

You can see the pictures and video HERE

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Pensacola Dive and Fishing Sites is our 4th in a growing line of free marine Google Earth maps. Offering location information for over 950 artificial reefs, wrecks, and natural features it’s sure to be a big help for area divers and fishermen. We’d like to thank MBT Divers of Pensacola for permission to use their online “numbers” list to create this file. We highly recommend their USS Oriskany photos and video. (more…)

Our heartfelt condolences go out to the friends and family of Chester “Chet” Robinson who suffered cardiac arrest shortly after reboarding his boat following a dive on the USS Oriskany last Saturday. The general consensus is that his passing was not directly related to the dive itself, but stemmed from pre-existing heart conditions. I happened to be monitoring channel 16 on our Regal during a break from photographing the Emerald Coast Poker Run and heard the land side of the Coast Guard response. Hearing the exchange made me think about handling on-water medical emergencies - especially one that might incapacitate the primary “captain”.
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We are pleased to offer our 3rd original map set for Google Earth. The Emerald Coast Dive Sites file contains locations and basic information for 103 reefs and wrecks listed in the Emerald Coast Reef Association’s Public Database.

Click to Download the Emerald Coast Dive Sites KMZ

We welcome reports and/or photos for any of these locations at divesites@destinsharks.com which we will link to the map in future file updates. We also welcome new submissions of waypoints or news articles.

Be sure to also check out our other DestinSharks.com Google Earth maps and our recommended maps from other websites.

Don’t have Google Earth? You can download it free using the button below:

The Destin Intake offers a simple dive in shallow, clear water. The intake is guarded by a concrete cage which attracks a wide variety of sea life. Average depth is about 16ft.

The site is marked with a buoy (currently about 50m south of the true location and the intake is visible from the surface during clear water conditions.

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