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Dive Guide

Florida Keys Shark Encounters

The Florida Keys is one of the best places on earth to dive with sharks in their natural habitat. Here's what you'll find, where to find them, and how to make the most of the encounter.

Florida Keys Dive Guide
Year-round Sightings
About this Guide

the Best Place to Dive With Sharks

The Florida Keys sits at the edge of the Gulf Stream, one of the most productive marine environments in the Atlantic. The result is a reef system teeming with life at every level of the food chain, and sharks are right at the top of it.

Nurse sharks rest under ledges on nearly every reef IDC visits. Reef sharks cruise the walls. Bull sharks move through the deeper sites in season. Hammerheads appear in the blue water offshore during migrations.

The species you encounter, their behaviour, and your experience of diving alongside them is entirely dependent on the site, the season, and the day. That unpredictability is exactly what makes it so good.

Morning Deep Reef & Wreck

Our most popular daily charter and the one most likely to produce shark encounters. The Eagle Wreck and Crocker Wall are both known shark habitats. Two guided dives from $115.

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Afternoon Scuba & Snorkel

Patch reef dives and snorkel trips on shallow sites where nurse sharks and reef sharks are frequently spotted. From $115 — open to snorkelers too.

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Private Shark Charters

Want to focus your day on shark-likely sites? A private charter lets you direct the itinerary. Up to 6 guests, half or full day, from $1,200.

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Species Guide

Sharks of the Florida Keys

Six species you're likely to encounter diving in Islamorada from the nurse sharks sleeping under every ledge to the bull sharks that pass through in season.

Close-up of a nurse shark swimming near the ocean floor with a remora fish attached to its head.

Nurse Shark

Ginglymostoma cirratum
The most reliably encountered shark in the Keys. Nurse sharks rest motionless under coral ledges during the day. Almost every reef dive produces at least one sighting. Docile, slow-moving, and completely uninterested in divers.
Blacktip reef sharks swimming above coral reef with various tropical fish in clear blue water.

Blacktip Reef Shark

Carcharhinus melanopterus
Sleek, confident and frequently spotted cruising along wall dives like Crocker Wall, often curious enough to make multiple passes. Up to 9 feet.
Bull shark swimming close to the sandy ocean floor in clear blue water.

Bull Shark

Carcharhinus leucas
The heavyweight of the Keys. Bull sharks pass through deeper offshore sites, most commonly in winter months. Impressive to encounter at a distance, your guide will manage positioning and always keep the group calm and controlled.
Hammerhead shark swimming over a sandy ocean floor with sparse underwater plants.

Great Hammerhead

Carcharhinus leucas
The bucket-list encounter. Great Hammerheads migrate through the Florida Keys in winter and are occasionally spotted at offshore wrecks and in the blue water above deeper dives.
Bonnethead shark swimming in greenish water above sea grass.

Bonnethead Shark

Sphyrna tiburo
The smallest of the hammerhead family and far more commonly seen than its famous cousin. Bonnetheads are shoaling sharks, often spotted in small groups cruising sandy flats and shallow reef edges. Their distinctive spade-shaped head makes them easy to identify. Curious but timid, they typically keep their distance and move on quickly.
Lemon shark swimming close to the sandy ocean floor with two scuba divers in the background.

Lemon Shark

Negaprion brevirostris
Stocky, yellowish-brown, and habitually slow-moving. Lemon sharks are found in shallow coastal waters and around reef edges, sometimes in small groups. A common surprise on afternoon shallow reef dives, especially near sandy patches.
Where to Find Them

Best Sites for Shark Encounters in Islamorada

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30-90 ft

Runway

A wide reef running 30 to 90 feet with a defining sand channel that runs its entire length — visible from above like an actual runway. Popular with fishermen for the same bottom contours that make it productive for divers. Also IDC's regular reef cleanup site, where the crew pulls abandoned anchors, fishing line, and debris from the bottom.

Open Water
15–20 ft
Patch Reef

Davey Crocker Reef

One of the most fish-dense reefs in the Florida Keys. Nurse sharks rest under ledges, schools swirl overhead, and green morays peek from crevices all in 20 feet of crystal-clear water.

Open Water
10-20 ft
Reef Wall

Hens and Chickens

Hens and Chickens is a 106-acre Sanctuary Preservation Area off Plantation Key. A shallow reef of clustered coral formations with brain and star coral mounds reaching up to 15 feet in height, a dense forest of purple sea fans, and the kind of structural complexity that makes a 10 to 20 foot dive feel far bigger than it should.

Open Water
Diving With Sharks

How to Make the Most of an Encounter

Sharks in the Florida Keys are wild animals in their natural habitat. Every IDC guide will brief you before the dive on how to behave around them. Here are the basics.

Do

  • Stay calm and maintain neutral buoyancy — erratic movement is what draws attention

  • Keep the group together and follow your guide's positioning signals

  • Watch from a respectful distance — let the shark decide how close to come

  • Keep your dive computer and gauges tucked in — reflective objects can attract curiosity

  • Enjoy it — encounters like this are exactly why people come to the Florida Keys

Don't

  • Don't chase or follow a shark that's moving away

  • Don't attempt to touch, ride, or grab a shark — including nurse sharks

  • Don't separate from the group to get a better angle for photos

  • Don't feed or bait sharks — it's illegal in Florida and disrupts natural behaviour

  • Don't panic if one approaches closely — stay still, watch, breathe normally

Ready to Dive?

Book Your Dive Charter Online.

Morning and afternoon departures daily from Three Waters Marina. All dive sites are guide-selected on the day based on conditions — you're always going to the best spot available.

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