Eagle Ray Alley in Key Largo?

waynel · May 24, 2007

Conch heads (real or honorary), a little help, please. Diving with Rainbow Reef out of Key Largo in June. I'll be booking about 12-14 dives with them and I'm trying to be selective. My wife and I are both AOW, but she has no desire to dive SG, Duane, etc. on this particular trip. She'll be at the pool when I do those dives but she wants to do about six dives with me and I'm picking the 20-50 ft. reefs on their charter schedule for those dives.

I'm familiar with most of the sites they use, but I've never heard of "Eagle Ray Alley." I did an exhaustive internet search but all I could get was it's in the Molasses Reef area. Like everyone else, I've hit a number of sites along that reef but again, never heard of Eagle Ray Alley.

What's the depth, current, and "stuff" we might see there? Wife and I are only doing six dives together so I want them to be fairly productive. Any help you can give me would be greatly appreciated. Gracias compadres.

Walter · May 24, 2007

Ask the operator. Many folks give their own names to sites.

BSea · May 24, 2007

It might be on the northern end of the reef. The site we went to was called "Fire Corral Cave". We saw several eagle rays out in a flat area just beyond the some large coral heads. Actually, the vis that day was pretty bad, so we may have seen the same eagle rays multiple times. There is also a goliath grouper that hangs around there along with some nurse sharks. On our dive, I didn't see the nurse sharks, but we did see the grouper. The DM said it was about 500 pounds.

I know many people doen't really care for the Benwood, but we saw a really large green moray, plus it's covered with fish.

del_mo · May 24, 2007

Everytime I've gone to Carysfort South (about a mile from Carysfort Lighthouse) I've swam with spotted eagle rays (they just toyed with us!). I believe the only operator that goes there is SilentWorld.

WyCal · May 24, 2007

Eagle Ray Alley is on the northern half of Molasses, just north of the Winch Hole (Fire Coral Cave is on the south end). Depths range from about 20 to 30 feet. You're not any more likely to see Eagle Rays there than anywhere else on Molasses, but there are a couple of reef sharks that frequent the area.

deeper thoughts · May 24, 2007

If I remember correctly eagle ray alley is ball#3

CLEAR BLUE · May 24, 2007

We dove Eagle Ray Alley twice about 2 weeks ago. It is right next to Wench Hole on Molasses Reef. We saw a HUGE eagle ray. But that wasn't the highlight. We saw a hammerhead shark about 8 feet long. It was amazing . The Captain said that it has been seen before but not often. Anyway, you'll be hard pressed to find anywhere on a reef there deeper than 30 feet. And by the way - the goliath grouper is Bruiser and hangs out on the City of Washington as well as do the sharks and a big barracuda named Psycho.

kidsdream · May 24, 2007

CLEAR BLUE:
We dove Eagle Ray Alley twice about 2 weeks ago. It is right next to Wench Hole on Molasses Reef. We saw a HUGE eagle ray. But that wasn't the highlight. We saw a hammerhead shark about 8 feet long. It was amazing . The Captain said that it has been seen before but not often. Anyway, you'll be hard pressed to find anywhere on a reef there deeper than 30 feet. And by the way - the goliath grouper is Bruiser and hangs out on the City of Washington as well as do the sharks and a big barracuda named Psycho.

Actually if you follow the Eagle Ray Alley spur and groove formation out ESE the depth goes to about 43' or so as the coral starts to break up just past a couple big coral mounds.

If use the right OP, you can drift MO' at depths of 50 to 80'

Mountain Dog · May 24, 2007

I was doing a navigation cert dive at Winch Hole this past February. As I'm tooling along counting kick cycles with my eyes glued to the compass needle and my brain engaged in math, my instructor and dive buddy LadyDog spot an Eagle Ray cruising by. They spend the next 30 seconds watching the ray as I make my 90 degree turn and head off in another direction.

Realizing they were being left behind, they swam a hasty rendezvous before I made the next turn. It wasn't until we got back on the boat that I found out I had traded the opportunity to watch an Eagle Ray for a little red needle. &^$@*!!!

Moral of the story: Keep your eyes open anytime you're on Molasses Reef. They're around.

Mountain Dog

waynel · May 25, 2007

WyCal:
Eagle Ray Alley is on the northern half of Molasses, just north of the Winch Hole (Fire Coral Cave is on the south end). Depths range from about 20 to 30 feet. You're not any more likely to see Eagle Rays there than anywhere else on Molasses, but there are a couple of reef sharks that frequent the area.

Thanks. Yeah all those spots along Molasses are 30-40 ft. and while there is variation on bottom structure I've found the sea life to be about the same all up and down that reef. Actually, I asked about Eagle Ray Alley not to find out if there was something different to see, but if that part of the reef was healthy or not. From the reports here it looks like the reef at that spot is healthy enough to attract other sea life. I just hate diving a spot on a Key Largo reef that's dead or dying. Breaks my heart.
Thanks.

Eagle Ray Alley in Key Largo?

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waynel

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Walter

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BSea

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del_mo

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WyCal

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deeper thoughts

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CLEAR BLUE

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Mountain Dog

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