Its actually another "world of diving" at the northern border of Palm Beach county. A distinctly different look and feel from diving Palm Beach's Breakers Reef area or Boynton, Jupiter is less "civilized". The reefs are farther out, and they are quite different. It's a deeper, darker underwater world, with bigger fish and bigger currents.

The ledge structure is the first thing that will surprise you. These ledges are like canyon walls, complete with the litter of weather broken rock adding to a complex surface area. Past glacial periods which caused massive changes in sea level caused the reefs in this area to form, and to develop a very thick reef crown. As the ice sheets melted, these shallow reefs bordering the shore became a very different ecosystem, and species like elkhorn corals gave way to other corals which thrived in the deeper water.

Soft corals and sponges took hold and the power of the Gulfstream began shaping the structure of the reef beds. Sand became scoured away from the side of the reef once facing the shore, where a coral wall began and large reef crown continued for half a mile out to sea and much more in some spots. This "wall" has now become the inshore-facing ledge and the erosive force of the perpetual current has slowly undercut portions of this 15 to 25 foot high wall, creating deep crevices, caves, overhangs, and a great deal of limestone boulder and massive chunks of collapsed wall all along the many miles of reef line this area represents. This has created a tremendous surface area for marine life to develop around.

As you wander (OK, swim) along the foot of this canyon, up and down and around this substrate for explosive development of marine life, you begin to see layer after layer of it. First you'll just see the big amberjacks and four and five foot cuda's. Then you'll see the 20 pound groupers and other large reef fish. You'll feel the force of the millions of tiny little silvery fish schooling around you like a gale wind streaming around a boulder in the canyon, but seemingly not touching it. As you focus down, the feather dusters and soft corals and colonial life in general, cover everything. Each one square foot area could actually keep you occupied for several minutes, just trying to take in all you are actually seeing.

About the time you've perfected this focusing down to a few inches at a time,
its inevitable that you will nearly bump in to something BIG, a sleeping nurse shark, a turtle,
something completely blended in to this little macro world you've discovered. Suddenly, your back to seeing so much, and so quickly, and you can hardly believe your eyes.
But this is Jupiter diving, and seeing is believing.