John Pennekamp Coral Reef State Park

Coral reef in John Pennekamp Coral Reef State Park

The John Pennekamp Coral Reef State Park is a State Park in Monroe County in the US state of Florida . The park is located at Mile Marker 102.5 on the Overseas Highway north of Key Largo on Largo Sound.

geography

The park is located in the center of Key Largo Island in the Florida Keys . The park is largely an underwater park. The over 200 km² large park is 34 km long and 13 km wide and extends over five kilometers into the Atlantic. 1168 hectares of the park area are land and around 216 km² of water. The Florida Keys National Marine Sanctuary borders the park. Together with this sanctuary , the protected water area covers 610 km². On Key Largo Island, the Crocodile Lake National Wildlife Refuge and Dagny Johnson Key Largo Hammock Botanical State Park border the park to the north .

Flora and fauna

The land area of the park is covered with tropical vegetation, hardwood islands called hammocks made of tamarind trees and swietenia, and mangrove forests. Seagrass fields and the only living coral reef in the continental United States lie underwater . The reef begins off Miami and stretches a total of 355 km to the Dry Tortugas , making it the world's third largest living coral reef. 40 different types of coral and more than 650 species of fish live in the coral reef.

history

When a commission to establish a national park in the Everglades began its work in 1928 , the park to be established should also include Key Largo Island and the coral reef. Fearing tax losses, the Monroe County rejected these borders. When the commission resumed its work in 1946, the Intracoastal Waterway became the park's eastern border to this day. The chairman of the commission, the editor of the Miami Herald John Pennekamp , advocated the establishment of a park around the coral reef. The existence of the coral reef was seriously threatened by destruction at that time, so LeRoy Collins , the governor of Florida, created the Key Largo Coral Reef Preserve . Collins convinced US President Eisenhower to transfer areas of the federal government to the State of Florida so that on December 10, 1960 he could found the John Pennekamp Coral Reef State Park. At the time, however, the park consisted only of water, until a 30-hectare land area on Largo Sound was acquired through efforts by Pennekamp. In 1963 the park was opened to the public as the first underwater park in the United States. The park became popular and was able to expand thanks to donations. The Italian snorkeler Egidi Cress donated a 2.6 m high bronze statue of Jesus to the Underwater Society of America, created by Guido Galletti and named Christ of the Abyss in 1965 at the Key Largo Dry Rocks at a depth of seven meters was sunk in front of the park and has been a popular destination for snorkelers and divers ever since. In 1972, the park boundaries were expanded and adjacent areas were placed under conservation as the Florida Keys National Marine Sanctuary. Today the park is visited by over 1 million visitors annually.

Picnic area in the park

Tourist facilities

There is a fee to visit the park. There is a visitor center in the park, which introduces the ecology of the park with a 113,000 liter saltwater aquarium, various exhibitions and film screenings. In the park there is a campsite with 47 spaces, picnic areas and a marina with a boat ramp. The park has two artificial beaches. At Cannon Beach you can snorkel and explore a replica wreck of a Spanish galleon , while the palm-lined Far Beach is mainly a bathing beach. A glass-bottom boat offers trips to the coral reef, visitors can rent canoes or kayaks and explore the mangrove swamps on a four-kilometer waterway. You can go diving, snorkelling or fishing in the underwater park, and there are three short walks through the mainland of the park. The Mangrove Loop leads on a boardwalk through the mangrove swamps to an observation platform, while the Wild Tamarind Trail and Grove Trail lead through areas of deciduous forest.