Qualla: John Pennekamp Coral Reef State Park

John Pennekamp Coral Reef State Park: Introduction

Mon, 23 Feb 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Todd Murray, CC BY-SA 3.0. Twenty-five feet below the surface of the Atlantic, a nine-foot bronze statue of Jesus Christ stands on a concrete pedestal, arms raised toward the shimmering light above. Divers descend to meet him at a spot called Dry Rocks, just off Key Largo in the Florida Keys, where the water is so clear that snorkelers on the surface can make out his upturned face. The Christ of the Abyss was placed here in 1965, a third casting of the original statue that stands in the Mediterranean near Genoa, Italy. It has become the most photographed underwater landmark in North America. But the statue is only the most dramatic feature of a park that extends not across dry land but across the ocean floor itself -- John Pennekamp Coral Reef State Park, the first underwater park in the United States.

Image: Todd Murray | CC BY-SA 3.0

John Pennekamp Coral Reef State Park: Dynamite and Determination

Mon, 23 Feb 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Matt Kieffer from London, United Kingdom, CC BY-SA 2.0. By the late 1950s, the reefs along the Florida Keys were being destroyed. Souvenir hunters hammered corals from the rock. They chiseled out sponges and seahorses. Some used dynamite to blast loose chunks of reef for sale to tourists. The damage was accelerating, and the reef had ...

Image: Matt Kieffer from London, United Kingdom | CC BY-SA 2.0

John Pennekamp Coral Reef State Park: The Living Reef

Mon, 23 Feb 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit craiggoheen, CC BY-SA 2.0. The park stretches roughly 25 miles along Key Largo's Atlantic shoreline and extends three miles into the ocean, following the prominent Hawk Channel passage. Within these waters, the reef system supports a density of life that rivals any tropical forest. At Molasses Reef, the pa...

Image: craiggoheen | CC BY-SA 2.0

John Pennekamp Coral Reef State Park: An Italian Gift in Tropical Waters

Mon, 23 Feb 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Flip Schulke, Public domain. The Christ of the Abyss arrived in the Florida Keys through an unlikely chain of events. The original statue, Il Cristo degli Abissi, was placed in the Mediterranean Sea near Genoa in 1954, a memorial to Italian diving pioneer Dario Gonzatti. Italian scuba entrepreneur Egidio Cre...

Image: Flip Schulke | Public domain

John Pennekamp Coral Reef State Park: Above the Waterline

Mon, 23 Feb 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Lonesome_Crow (talk) (Uploads), CC BY-SA 3.0. Not everything at Pennekamp lies beneath the waves. The park's shoreline preserves tropical hardwood hammocks -- dense, low-canopy forests of mahogany, gumbo-limbo, and wild tamarind that once covered most of the upper Florida Keys. Mangrove-lined waterways provide habitat for br...

Image: Lonesome_Crow (talk) (Uploads) | CC BY-SA 3.0