Cayman Salvage Master

The Cayman Salvage Master is one of Key West's most beloved and historically layered wreck dives — a 187-foot former tugboat deliberately sunk in 1985 in the waters of the lower Florida Keys National Marine Sanctuary that has spent four decades transforming from a working vessel into one of the Florida Keys' most richly productive artificial reef environments. The wreck lies at a maximum depth of approximately 29 meters (about 95 feet) on a sandy bottom, with the shallowest sections of the superstructure rising to around 15 meters — a depth profile that puts the best diving in the mid-range zone where coral colonization is densest and light quality is still good. The Cayman Salvage Master has an interesting pre-reef history: originally a Caribbean salvage vessel, the tug was purpose-sunk as part of the Florida Keys artificial reef program that was creating the template for what would become one of America's most successful marine conservation initiatives. In the decades since sinking the wreck has been thoroughly transformed by encrusting life: orange elephant ear sponges of impressive size drape the hull, purple sea fans wave in the slight current alongside wire coral formations, and the interior spaces are packed with glassy sweepers and small reef fish that part like curtains at the approach of a diver's light. Large goliath grouper — the signature species of the lower Keys deep wrecks — have made the Cayman Salvage Master their primary territory, and encounters with these enormous fish are reliably expected on most dives. Whitetip reef sharks occasionally investigate the wreck. Loggerhead sea turtles rest on the deck coral. The combination of depth, coral coverage, and goliath grouper encounters makes this one of the finest wreck dives in the lower Florida Keys, regularly featured in dive tour itineraries from Key West operators.