Lake diving in Miami area...

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OSOK

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Hello all!

Here's something I've always (since I started diving) wondered about: are there any lakes in the Miami area (or thereabouts) worth diving? I know most are man-made and probably not too deep, but there's gotta be ONE with a little gem yet to be discovered, no?

I'm contacting the Miami Department of Environmental Resources Management (DERM) about info on teh subject. I have a few leads already, like approved lakefill records, etc. If I can get the specs on the lakes in the area I'd be 'very very' happy.

I love diving, but I feel like my diving has to have a purpose other than looking at things. I'd love to be part of some researching that has to do with diving, although I'm way too inexperienced for that... so I figure diving lakes with a 'chance' of 'something' in them is a good start.

Thoughts?

Bryan
 
Hello all!

Here's something I've always (since I started diving) wondered about: are there any lakes in the Miami area (or thereabouts) worth diving? I know most are man-made and probably not too deep, but there's gotta be ONE with a little gem yet to be discovered, no?

I'm contacting the Miami Department of Environmental Resources Management (DERM) about info on teh subject. I have a few leads already, like approved lakefill records, etc. If I can get the specs on the lakes in the area I'd be 'very very' happy.

I love diving, but I feel like my diving has to have a purpose other than looking at things. I'd love to be part of some researching that has to do with diving, although I'm way too inexperienced for that... so I figure diving lakes with a 'chance' of 'something' in them is a good start.

Thoughts?

Bryan


I used to dive in a lot of lakes in the Kendall/South Dade area when working with classes. Other that shopping carts and golf balls there was nothing to see.

Winston Park Lake in Kendall was a little over 60' deep from what I remember.
 
Actually most of the man-made lakes are fairly deep in South Florida (let's say 50').

That being said, the biggest obstacle is to find one that you're *allowed* to dive in. Any private community lakes will be a no-no due to liability issues and most of the other ones are commercial rock pits (where they mine limestone from).

I know of two diveable lakes in South Florida. Tigertail Lake in Dania, which requires permission to dive (through Broward Community College I believe). The other is Lake Melba (also on some maps as Lake Melva but it's NOT in Pompano as some maps will suggest) in Fort Lauderdale, just west of US1 at NE 16th Street. It's one of two spring fed lakes in Broward County.
 
I am always interested in a new dive experience, although I have seen at least one shopping cart and plenty of golf balls in the ocean already unfortunately.

Sometimes the ocean is just not cooperative, and you can see too much of BHB.

I would be in on such a dive when you can sort this out.

Of course the little details help too:

Water temp? (for wet suit)
Fresh water? (for weighting)
Parking? (bag-o-quarters?)
Depth?
Dive site do's and don'ts
 
Will do... hoping to have some answers tmrw when the DEMR people get to work.

Bryan
 
I did a dive behind my house when I lived in Kendall. My buddy and I just walked out from the back yard and went down to 14' for about 20 mins. It was dark, chilly and we saw a couple of fishies and a turtle. It was fun to check out but we only did it that one time and stuck to the ocean.

Here's where I went but as Brian mentioned it's probably a no- no :)

13941 SW 84th St Miami, FL - Google Maps
 
Well, after being transfered to about 7 or 8 people in DERM, transfered to another division, and then BACK to DERM, I finally spoke to a very knowledable man. He basically gave me some info from the top of his head, such as the general depth of lakes in different areas of Miami-Dade, etc, and gave me another number to call for specifics. I called them and they took my name and number down, since I guess they were going to lunch or something.

Basically what DERM told me was that most residential lakes are about 20-30ft. Quarry lakes, that are usually rectangular in shape, are anywhere between 40 to 80ft. The lakes near I-95 should be around 35ft, West Dade around 60ft, and South Dade around 55ft. He said most quarry lakes have been around since the 70s when they were used for fill material (I guess construction materials).

So, I'm hoping to get some more detailed information and narrow it down to maybe a couple of lakes that would seem 'interesting' from a diver's point of view. I'll post any information that I get.

Bryan
 
https://www.shearwater.com/products/swift/
https://xf2.scubaboard.com/community/forums/cave-diving.45/

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