Neptune Memorial Reef: A diver’s paradise
If you’re planning a dive trip in Miami, Neptune Memorial Reef is a spot that you absolutely cannot miss. Not only is it the largest manmade underwater structure and artificial reef to ever exist, but Neptune Memorial is also an underwater cemetery, designed as an artistic replica of the Lost City of Atlantis.
The most innovative concept in artificial reef design is currently emerging in 45-feet of water, making it accessible to Open Water Divers and snorkelers alike, sitting 3.25 miles east of Key Biscayne, Miami. Wrapped in the silence of the clear blue ocean, a new reef is evolving. The Neptune Memorial Reef is attracting recreational scuba divers as well as homeless fish, while enhancing the coastal environment and reducing demand on other fragile natural reefs.
The Neptune Memorial Reef provides an extraordinary living resting place for the departed, an environmental and ecological masterpiece, a superb laboratory for marine biologists, students, researchers and ecologists, and an aesthetically exquisite, world-class destination for visitors from all walks of life.
This dive site is teeming with underwater activity- according to a report by the Department of Environmental Resource Management, marine life numbers at the Neptune Memorial Reef has grown from zero to thousands in just the first two years of its instillation. Large pillars encrusted with 14 different species of colorful reef-building coral and coralline algae rise from the sandy bottom, providing homes to parrotfish, smooth trunkfish, pufferfish, filefish, angelfish, bar jacks, and damselfish species such as sergeant majors.
Underwater Photographers this is for you!
Underwater photographers love to take pictures of the schools of great barracuda that gather underneath the large cement arches of this structure, and attentive divers will spot many scorpionfish that blend into the artificial reef. Stingrays float by divers before settling into the white sand below, and green moral eels, spiny lobsters, and many species of crabs peek out from cervices all around. The long spined sea urchin, which had previously been thought to have been extinct in the Caribbean, can be found throughout the dive site.
Ocean lovers who would like to spend eternity underwater may choose to have their cremated remains incorporated into the living reef, a Green Burial Council approved process and an eco-friendly alternative to a traditional burial. Friends and family members of those deceased may visit their loved one’s remains by either snorkeling or scuba diving.
“The underwater tribute that creates life after life” – https://www.nmreef.com
