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John Pennekamp Coral Reef State Park is a Florida State Park located on
Key Largo Key Largo ( es, Cayo Largo) is an island in the upper Florida Keys archipelago and is the largest section of the keys, at long. It is one of the northernmost of the Florida Keys in Monroe County, and the northernmost of the keys connected by ...
in Florida. It includes approximately 70 nautical square miles (240 km²) of adjacent
Atlantic Ocean The Atlantic Ocean is the second-largest of the world's five oceans, with an area of about . It covers approximately 20% of Earth's surface and about 29% of its water surface area. It is known to separate the " Old World" of Africa, Europe ...
waters. The park is approximately 25 miles in length and extends 3 miles into the Atlantic Ocean. It was the first underwater park in the
United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country Continental United States, primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 U.S. state, states, a Washington, D.C., ...
. The park was added to the
National Register of Historic Places The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the United States federal government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures and objects deemed worthy of preservation for their historical significance or "great artistic ...
on April 14, 1972. The primary attractions of the park are the
coral reef A coral reef is an underwater ecosystem characterized by reef-building corals. Reefs are formed of Colony (biology), colonies of coral polyp (zoology), polyps held together by calcium carbonate. Most coral reefs are built from stony corals, wh ...
s (such as
Molasses Reef Molasses Reef is a coral reef located within the Florida Keys National Marine Sanctuary. It lies to the southeast of Key Largo, within the Key Largo Existing Management Area, which is immediately to the east of John Pennekamp Coral Reef State P ...
) and their associated
marine life Marine life, sea life, or ocean life is the plants, animals and other organisms that live in the salt water of seas or oceans, or the brackish water of coastal estuaries. At a fundamental level, marine life affects the nature of the planet. ...
. In
Fiscal Year A fiscal year (or financial year, or sometimes budget year) is used in government accounting, which varies between countries, and for budget purposes. It is also used for financial reporting by businesses and other organizations. Laws in many ...
2004 the park had more than a million visitors, making it the most popular park in the Florida State Parks system. The
Florida Keys The Florida Keys are a coral cay archipelago located off the southern coast of Florida, forming the southernmost part of the continental United States. They begin at the southeastern coast of the Florida peninsula, about south of Miami, and e ...
and the Flower Garden Banks in the Gulf of Mexico off the Texas coast are the only living coral reef formations in the
continental United States The contiguous United States (officially the conterminous United States) consists of the 48 adjoining U.S. states and the Federal District of the United States of America. The term excludes the only two non-contiguous states, Alaska and Hawaii ...
.


History

Plans to designate the reefs off Key Largo for a park started in the 1930s. The state-sanctioned Everglades National Park Commission proposed a national park for the
Everglades The Everglades is a natural region of tropical wetlands in the southern portion of the U.S. state of Florida, comprising the southern half of a large drainage basin within the Neotropical realm. The system begins near Orlando with the Kissim ...
, including the reefs off Key Largo. Opposition from property owners, outdoorsmen, and
Monroe County Monroe County may refer to seventeen counties in the United States, all named for James Monroe: *Monroe County, Alabama * Monroe County, Arkansas * Monroe County, Florida *Monroe County, Georgia * Monroe County, Illinois * Monroe County, Indi ...
Commissioners stopped the plan. When
Everglades National Park Everglades National Park is an American national park that protects the southern twenty percent of the original Everglades in Florida. The park is the largest tropical wilderness in the United States and the largest wilderness of any kind east ...
was created in 1947, the boundaries did not include Key Largo or any of the reefs. By the late 1950s, citizens were growing concerned of the damage occurring to the reefs along the Florida Keys.
Seashell A seashell or sea shell, also known simply as a shell, is a hard, protective outer layer usually created by an animal or organism that lives in the sea. The shell is part of the body of the animal. Empty seashells are often found washe ...
s,
coral Corals are marine invertebrates within the class Anthozoa of the phylum Cnidaria. They typically form compact colonies of many identical individual polyps. Coral species include the important reef builders that inhabit tropical oceans and se ...
s,
sponge Sponges, the members of the phylum Porifera (; meaning 'pore bearer'), are a basal animal clade as a sister of the diploblasts. They are multicellular organisms that have bodies full of pores and channels allowing water to circulate throu ...
s, sea horses, and other marine life were being hammered, chiseled, and even dynamited from the reefs to provide
souvenir A souvenir (), memento, keepsake, or token of remembrance is an object a person acquires for the memories the owner associates with it. A souvenir can be any object that can be collected or purchased and transported home by the traveler as a m ...
s for tourists. Dr. Gilbert L. Voss of the Marine Institute of Miami and John D. Pennekamp, an editor with the ''
Miami Herald The ''Miami Herald'' is an American daily newspaper owned by the McClatchy Company and headquartered in Doral, Florida, a city in western Miami-Dade County and the Miami metropolitan area, several miles west of Downtown Miami.United States Fish and Wildlife Service The United States Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS or FWS) is an agency within the United States Department of the Interior dedicated to the management of fish, wildlife, and natural habitats. The mission of the agency is "working with othe ...
. These efforts led the Florida Board of Parks and Historic Memorials to designate the state-controlled reefs off Key Largo a permanent preserve. In the spring of 1960, President Dwight D. Eisenhower proclaimed the adjacent, federally controlled area of the reefs as the Key Largo Coral Reef Preserve. Florida Governor
Leroy Collins Thomas LeRoy Collins (March 10, 1909 – March 12, 1991) was an American politician who served as the 33rd Governor of Florida. Collins began his governorship after winning a special election in 1954, was elected to a four-year term in 1956 ...
later changed the name of the park to John Pennekamp Coral Reef State Park, in recognition of John Pennekamp's efforts to save marine life. A land base and access to
U.S. 1 U.S. Route 1 or U.S. Highway 1 (US 1) is a major north–south United States Numbered Highway that serves the East Coast of the United States. It runs from Key West, Florida, north to Fort Kent, Maine, at the Canadian border, making i ...
(the
Overseas Highway The Overseas Highway is a highway carrying U.S. Route 1 (US 1) through the Florida Keys to Key West. Large parts of it were built on the former right-of-way of the Overseas Railroad, the Key West Extension of the Florida East Coast Rail ...
) were acquired by purchase and donation. The park opened in 1963.
History of John Pennekamp State Park
a
Florida Keys History Museum
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Recreational activities

The reefs may be viewed from glass-bottom boats, snorkeling, and scuba diving above the coral formations. Other activities available in the park are canoeing, kayaking, fishing, hiking, swimming and wildlife viewing. The park offers tropical hammocks and a picnic area with available grills. Full-facility and youth/group
campground A campsite, also known as a campground or camping pitch, is a place used for overnight stay in an outdoor area. In British English, a ''campsite'' is an area, usually divided into a number of pitches, where people can camp overnight using te ...
s are available. The
visitor center A visitor center or centre (see American and British English spelling differences), visitor information center, tourist information center, is a physical location that provides tourist information to visitors. Types of visitor center A visi ...
features a saltwater aquarium and six smaller aquariums. The State Park also has a natural history exhibit about the park's different biological communities and ecosystems and a theater showing nature Films and videos.


Christ of the Abyss

One of the most famous sites in the Pennekamp Coral Reef State Park is the ''
Christ of the Abyss ''Christ of the Abyss'' (Italian: ''Il Cristo degli Abissi'') is a submerged bronze statue of Jesus Christ by , the original cast of which is located in the Mediterranean Sea, off San Fruttuoso, between Camogli and Portofino on the Italian ...
'', located near Nort
Dry Rocks
and within the existing Key Largo management area that was incorporated into th

"on November 16, 1990". The statue of Jesus Christ weighs and stands in nearly of water. It is a popular site for scuba divers and snorkelers. The statue is located at latitude 25.123373 and longitude -80.297073. The statue is a third casting of ''Il Cristo Degli Abissi'' in the
Mediterranean Sea The Mediterranean Sea is a sea connected to the Atlantic Ocean, surrounded by the Mediterranean Basin and almost completely enclosed by land: on the north by Western and Southern Europe and Anatolia, on the south by North Africa, and on ...
near
Genoa, Italy Genoa ( ; it, Genova ; lij, Zêna ). is the capital of the Italian region of Liguria and the sixth-largest city in Italy. In 2015, 594,733 people lived within the city's administrative limits. As of the 2011 Italian census, the Province of ...
, which was placed there in 1954. The ''Christ of the Abyss'' was donated to the
Underwater Society of America The Underwater Society of America (USOA) is the peak body for underwater sport and recreational diving in the United States. Organisation The USOA is a membership-based organisation consisting of individuals, clubs and regional councils. Its da ...
in 1961 by Italian scuba entrepreneur Egidio Cressi and placed in its current location in 1965. In their current positions, the two statues face each other.


Climate

John Pennekamp has a
tropical savanna climate Tropical savanna climate or tropical wet and dry climate is a tropical climate sub-type that corresponds to the Köppen climate classification categories ''Aw'' (for a dry winter) and ''As'' (for a dry summer). The driest month has less than of ...
( Köppen ''Aw'').


Gallery

File:Pennekamp Fish 1.jpg, A
midnight parrotfish The midnight parrotfish (''Scarus coelestinus'') is a species of parrotfish that inhabits coral reefs mainly in the Caribbean, Bahamas, and Florida. The typical size is between 30 and 60 cm, but it can grow to almost 1 m. It has been obse ...
and a
yellowtail snapper The yellowtail snapper (''Ocyurus chrysurus'') is an abundant species of snapper native to the western Atlantic Ocean including the Gulf of Mexico and the Caribbean Sea. Although they have been found as far north as Massachusetts, their normal ...
swimming on
Molasses Reef Molasses Reef is a coral reef located within the Florida Keys National Marine Sanctuary. It lies to the southeast of Key Largo, within the Key Largo Existing Management Area, which is immediately to the east of John Pennekamp Coral Reef State P ...
File:Pennekamp Coral.jpg, Various soft corals at
Molasses Reef Molasses Reef is a coral reef located within the Florida Keys National Marine Sanctuary. It lies to the southeast of Key Largo, within the Key Largo Existing Management Area, which is immediately to the east of John Pennekamp Coral Reef State P ...
File:Molasses11.jpg,
Elkhorn coral Elkhorn coral (''Acropora palmata'') is an important reef-building coral in the Caribbean. The species has a complex structure with many branches which resemble that of elk antlers; hence, the common name. The branching structure creates habit ...
(''Acropora palmata'') at
Molasses Reef Molasses Reef is a coral reef located within the Florida Keys National Marine Sanctuary. It lies to the southeast of Key Largo, within the Key Largo Existing Management Area, which is immediately to the east of John Pennekamp Coral Reef State P ...
File:Molasses14.jpg, Various fish species (
chubs Chub is a common fish name. It pertains to any one of a number of ray-finned fish in several families and genera. In the UK, the term ''chub'' usually refers to the species ''Squalius cephalus''. In addition, see sea chub. In family Cyprinidae ...
, blue chromis, sergeant majors,
bar jack The bar jack (''Caranx ruber''), also known as the carbonero, red jack, blue-striped cavalla or passing jack, is a common species of inshore marine fish classified in the jack family, Carangidae. The bar jack is distributed through the western ...
s) at
Molasses Reef Molasses Reef is a coral reef located within the Florida Keys National Marine Sanctuary. It lies to the southeast of Key Largo, within the Key Largo Existing Management Area, which is immediately to the east of John Pennekamp Coral Reef State P ...
File:Molasses90.jpg, A ship winch at
Molasses Reef Molasses Reef is a coral reef located within the Florida Keys National Marine Sanctuary. It lies to the southeast of Key Largo, within the Key Largo Existing Management Area, which is immediately to the east of John Pennekamp Coral Reef State P ...
File:Minnow Cave Pennekamp.jpg, Minnow Cave File:Blue Tang Pennekamp.jpg, Blue tang among coral File:Brain Coral Pennekamp.jpg,
Brain coral Brain coral is a common name given to various corals in the families Mussidae and Merulinidae, so called due to their generally spheroid shape and grooved surface which resembles a brain. Each head of coral is formed by a colony of genetica ...
File:Various fish among coral Pennekamp.jpg, Various fish among coral File:Caribbean Reef Shark at North Dry Rocks, Key Largo.jpg, Caribbean Reef Shark at North Dry Rocks, Key Largo File:Winch Moment.jpg, alt=winch hole, The Winch at Molasses Reef Key Largo


References


External links


John Pennekamp Coral Reef State Park
- official site with tour information
John Pennekamp Coral Reef State Park
a
Florida State Parks

Pennekamp top State Park in Attendance
a
Florida Keys Treasures
{{DEFAULTSORT:Pennekamp State parks of Florida Coral reefs of Florida Parks in Monroe County, Florida Tourist attractions in the Florida Keys Aquaria in Florida Beaches of Monroe County, Florida Landforms of Monroe County, Florida National Register of Historic Places in Monroe County, Florida Parks on the National Register of Historic Places in Florida Protected areas established in 1963 Underwater diving sites in the United States Key Largo