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Looe Key
Florida Keysreef cay in Florida, United States of America
Coordinates 24.54861, -81.40583 (from Wikidata Q6674911, CC0). Wikidata coordinates may mark a reef, park or wreck in general, not a mooring buoy or entry point. · Wikipedia
What you might see, by month
Counts of species records within about 1 km of this point, from GBIF.org, filtered to CC0 and CC BY 4.0 licenses only (land animals and birds excluded). These come from survey effort, so more records do not mean more animals. They are not a sighting forecast. 28,210 qualifying records in total. See the records on GBIF.
- checkered blenny (Starksia ocellata) (2)
- Barber (Acanthurus bahianus) (2)
- Pseudocheles chacei (1)
- gorgonian shrimp (Periclimenes patae) (1)
- roughhead blenny (Acanthemblemaria aspera) (1)
- French grunt (Haemulon flavolineatum) (1)
- Metaxia taeniolata (1)
- Pterois volitans (1)
- Blue Tang (Acanthurus coeruleus) (3)
- porkfish (Anisotremus virginicus) (2)
- stoplight parrotfish (Sparisoma viride) (2)
- common sea fan (Gorgonia ventalina) (2)
- Sphyraena barracuda (2)
- Blackberry Drupe (Claremontiella nodulosa) (1)
- Parabopyrella lata (1)
- Elasmopus balkomanus (1)
- Glossocephalus milneedwardsi (1)
- Chevalia carpenteri (1)
- Perioculodes cerasinus (1)
- operculate mud shrimp (Pomatogebia operculata) (1)
Most-recorded species here (all months)
- bluehead (Thalassoma bifasciatum) (1,666)
- bicolor damselfish (Stegastes partitus) (1,463)
- Ocyurus chrysurus (1,412)
- yellowhead wrasse (Halichoeres garnoti) (1,065)
- striped parrotfish (Scarus iseri) (990)
- Blue Tang (Acanthurus coeruleus) (918)
- slippery dick (Halichoeres bivittatus) (879)
- Sergeant Major (Abudefduf saxatilis) (862)
- redband parrotfish (Sparisoma aurofrenatum) (856)
- Barber (Acanthurus bahianus) (831)
- clown wrasse (Halichoeres maculipinna) (788)
- stoplight parrotfish (Sparisoma viride) (634)
- blue chromis (Chromis cyanea) (503)
- yellowtail damselfish (Microspathodon chrysurus) (474)
- French grunt (Haemulon flavolineatum) (471)
- yellow goatfish (Mulloidichthys martinicus) (417)
- foureye butterflyfish (Chaetodon capistratus) (404)
- Doctorfish (Acanthurus chirurgus) (392)
- Haemulon plumierii (354)
- Haemulon sciurus (346)
Reef heat stress: Florida Keys region
NOAA Coral Reef Watch 5 km regional virtual station Florida Keys. This covers the whole region, not this exact site. Latest value at build time (2026-10-12):
| Bleaching alert level (7-day max) | Bleaching Watch |
|---|---|
| Degree Heating Weeks | 16.7671 °C-weeks |
| SST range | 29.73–30.58 °C |
Values refresh from NOAA when the page loads. Source: NOAA CRW virtual station: Florida Keys (data, method). Credit: NOAA Coral Reef Watch.
Conditions links
- NWS forecast for this point (National Weather Service; marine forecast for offshore points)
- Nearest NDBC station: SMKF1, Sombrero Key, FL, about 34 km away. Buoy readings are measured, not forecast.
- NWS Key West / NWS Miami marine forecasts
Depths, entry details and mooring info aren't listed yet because we haven't verified them from a citable source.
Data citation
GBIF.org (2026-10-14) GBIF Occurrence Data, queried via the GBIF API: https://api.gbif.org/v1/occurrence/search?decimalLatitude=24.53861,24.55861&decimalLongitude=-81.41583,-81.39582999999999&license=CC0_1_0&license=CC_BY_4_0&taxonKey=44&taxonKey=206&taxonKey=229&taxonKey=136&taxonKey=225&occurrenceStatus=PRESENT&limit=0. Records by license: CC0_1_0: 27,754, CC_BY_4_0: 456. Contributing datasets (top 15):
- Florida Keys Reef Visual Census 1999 — doi:10.15468/dwxlan (3,121 records) — GBIF dataset page
- Florida Keys Reef Visual Census 2007 — doi:10.15468/dfyb57 (1,707 records) — GBIF dataset page
- Florida Keys Reef Visual Census 2000 — doi:10.15468/1pyhh5 (1,700 records) — GBIF dataset page
- National Coral Reef Monitoring Program: Assessment of fish communities in the Florida Keys during 2014 — doi:10.15468/jbl2rv (1,692 records) — GBIF dataset page
- Florida Keys Reef Visual Census 2001 — doi:10.15468/t0r3vt (1,670 records) — GBIF dataset page
- National Coral Reef Monitoring Program: Assessment of fish communities in the Florida Keys during 2016 — doi:10.15468/nzvpq2 (1,597 records) — GBIF dataset page
- Florida Keys Reef Visual Census 1996 — doi:10.15468/gaekez (1,333 records) — GBIF dataset page
- Florida Keys Reef Visual Census 1994 — doi:10.15468/rdkfyf (1,275 records) — GBIF dataset page
- Florida Keys Reef Visual Census 1998 — doi:10.15468/kfnaep (1,251 records) — GBIF dataset page
- Florida Keys Reef Visual Census 2008 — doi:10.15468/7zofww (1,240 records) — GBIF dataset page
- Florida Keys Reef Visual Census 2011 — doi:10.15468/06aqle (1,128 records) — GBIF dataset page
- Florida Keys Reef Visual Census 1997 — doi:10.15468/419say (1,100 records) — GBIF dataset page
- Florida Keys Reef Visual Census 2010 — doi:10.15468/6chrsz (1,077 records) — GBIF dataset page
- Florida Keys Reef Visual Census 2009 — doi:10.15468/tnn5ra (958 records) — GBIF dataset page
- Marine Invertebrate voucher specimens at the Florida Biodiversity Collection, Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission — doi:10.15468/bfd6ci (812 records) — GBIF dataset page