Pickles Reef

Snapper Ledge is a small coral reef located within the Florida Keys National Marine Sanctuary. It lies to the southeast of Key Largo, to the south the Key Largo Existing Management Area and John Pennekamp Coral Reef State Park. Unlike many reefs within the Sanctuary, this reef is not within a Sanctuary Preservation Area (SPA). It is near Pickles Reef. Since 2009, the Coral Restoration Foundation has used Snapper Ledge as a nursery site to grow Elkhorn coral (Acropora palmata).

The Aquarius Reef Base is an underwater habitat located 5.4 mi (8.7 km) off Key Largo in the Florida Keys National Marine Sanctuary, Florida, United States. It is the world's only undersea research laboratory and it is operated by Florida International University. It is deployed on the ocean floor 62 ft (19 m) below the surface and next to a deep coral reef named Conch Reef. Aquarius is the only undersea research laboratory currently in operation, although the Marine Resources Development Foundation used to operate two additional undersea facilities, also located in Key Largo, Florida. Aquarius was owned by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) and operated by the University of North Carolina Wilmington until 2013 when Florida International University assumed operational control.Florida International University (FIU) took ownership of Aquarius in October 2014. As part of the FIU Marine Education and Research Initiative, the Medina Aquarius Program is dedicated to the study and preservation of marine ecosystems worldwide and is enhancing the scope and impact of FIU on research, educational outreach, technology development, and professional training. At the heart of the program is the Aquarius Reef Base.

SEATEST II, an acronym for Space Environment Analog for Testing EVA Systems and Training (number two), is a NASA underwater mission, formerly known as NEEMO XVII, in the Aquarius underwater laboratory in preparation for future space exploration. The objectives for this exercise are largely focused on the evolution of EVA (extravehicular activity) tools, and maturing some technologies that could have implications for the ISS and future exploration missions (MED and JITT delivery.) However, the SEATEST II mission will be very short, focused on engineering evaluations, and will not have time for the educational and public outreach that has been typical of NEEMO missions. The different name is a way of indicating a mission with somewhat different expectations than NEEMO missions have come to be known for. Before NEEMO 1, a short saturation mission was conducted to evaluate the Aquarius facility and capabilities. This mission was called SEATEST 1.

NASA Extreme Environment Mission Operations, or NEEMO, is a NASA analog mission that sends groups of astronauts, engineers and scientists to live in the Aquarius underwater laboratory, the world's only undersea research station, for up to three weeks at a time in preparation for future space exploration.Aquarius is an underwater habitat 3.5 miles (5.6 km) off Key Largo, Florida, in the Florida Keys National Marine Sanctuary. It is deployed on the ocean floor next to deep coral reefs 62 feet (19 m) below the surface. NASA has used it since 2001 for a series of space exploration simulation missions, usually lasting 7 to 14 days, with space research mainly conducted by international astronauts. The mission had cost about 500 million U.S. dollars. The crew members are called aquanauts (as they live underwater at depth pressure for a period equal to or greater than 24 continuous hours without returning to the surface), and they perform EVAs in the underwater environment. A technique known as saturation diving allows the aquanauts to live and work underwater for days or weeks at a time. After twenty four hours underwater at any depth, the human body becomes saturated with dissolved gas. With saturation diving, divers can accurately predict exactly how much time they need to decompress before returning to the surface. This information limits the risk of decompression sickness. By living in the Aquarius habitat and working at the same depth on the ocean floor, NEEMO crews are able to remain underwater for the duration of their mission. For NASA, the Aquarius habitat and its surroundings provide a convincing analog for space exploration. Much like space, the undersea world is a hostile, alien place for humans to live. NEEMO crew members experience some of the same challenges there that they would on a distant asteroid, planet (i.e. Mars) or Moon. During NEEMO missions, the aquanauts are able to simulate living on a spacecraft and test spacewalk techniques for future space missions. Working in space and underwater environments requires extensive planning and sophisticated equipment. The underwater condition has the additional benefit of allowing NASA to "weight" the aquanauts to simulate different gravity environments.Until 2012, Aquarius was owned by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) and operated by the National Undersea Research Center (NURC) at the University of North Carolina–Wilmington as a marine biology study base. Since 2013, Aquarius is owned by Florida International University (FIU). As part of the FIU Marine Education and Research Initiative, the Medina Aquarius Program is dedicated to the study and preservation of marine ecosystems worldwide and is enhancing the scope and impact of FIU on research, educational outreach, technology development, and professional training. At the heart of the program is the Aquarius Reef Base.

Conch Reef is a coral reef located within the Florida Keys National Marine Sanctuary. It lies to the southeast of Plantation Key. This reef is within a Sanctuary Preservation Area (SPA). Adjacent to the SPA is a "Research Only" zone and the Aquarius underwater laboratory is at the center of the zone. Outside of these zones is Conch Wall, a deep wall reef.

Rodriguez Key is an uninhabited island in the upper Florida Keys. It is located east of Key Largo. The island is covered by mangrove forests, including the species Rhizophora mangle, Avicennia nitida, and Laguncularia racemosa.

The San Jose Y Las Animas is a shipwreck with historical significance near Plantation Key, Florida, United States. It sank in a hurricane in 1733 and is located approximately 4 miles southeast of Plantation Key. On March 18, 1975, it was added to the U.S. National Register of Historic Places.

The Port Largo Seaplane Base (IATA: KYL) is a sea plane base located 2 miles (3.2 km) southwest of Key Largo in Monroe County, Florida, United States.

Rock Harbor is an unincorporated community in Monroe County, Florida, United States, located in the upper Florida Keys on Key Largo on US 1 (the Overseas Highway) northeast of Thompson and southwest of the census-designated place of Key Largo.

Tavernier is a census-designated place (CDP) and unincorporated community in Monroe County, Florida, United States on Key Largo, the largest island in the upper Florida Keys. Tavernier's population was 2,530 at the 2020 census, up from 2,136 in 2010.

Key Largo (Spanish: Cayo Largo) is an island in the upper Florida Keys archipelago and is the largest section of the keys, at 33 miles (53 km) long. It is one of the northernmost of the Florida Keys in Monroe County, and the northernmost of the keys connected by U.S. Highway 1 (the Overseas Highway). Three census-designated places are on the island of Key Largo: North Key Largo, near the Card Sound Bridge, Key Largo, eight to nine miles from the southern end of the island, and Tavernier, at the southern end of the island. As of 2010, the three places have a combined population of 13,850. None of Key Largo is an incorporated municipality, so it is governed at the local level by Monroe County. Key Largo is connected to the mainland in Miami-Dade County by two routes. The first route is the Overseas Highway, the southernmost portion of U.S. Highway 1, which enters Key Largo at Jewfish Creek near the middle of the island and turns southwest. The second route is Card Sound Road, which connects to the northern part of Key Largo at Card Sound Bridge and runs southeastward to connect with County Road 905, which runs southwest and joins U.S. 1 at about mile marker 106. These routes originate at Florida City on the mainland. Key Largo is a popular tourist destination and calls itself the "Diving Capital of the World" because the living coral reef a few miles offshore attracts thousands of scuba divers and sport-fishing enthusiasts.Key Largo's proximity to the Everglades also makes it a premier destination for kayakers and ecotourists. Automotive and highway pioneer and Miami Beach developer Carl G. Fisher built the Caribbean Club in 1938 as his last project. Key Largo is situated between Everglades National Park to the northwest and John Pennekamp Coral Reef State Park to the east, the first underwater park in the United States, which protects part of the Florida Reef, the only living coral barrier reef in the continental United States.

The Key Largo National Marine Sanctuary was a National Marine Sanctuary in the waters in the Florida Keys in Florida in the United States that existed from 1975 to 1990. It was the second national marine sanctuary, and it protected the portion of a barrier reef beyond Florida state waters in John Pennekamp Coral Reef State Park. In 1990, it was subsumed by the new Florida Keys National Marine Sanctuary, which included its waters. However, it continued to operate until 1997, when it was fully integrated into the Florida Keys sanctuary.