The USCG Blackthorn is one of the best known dive sites in the area. This 180 foot long ship was finished on May 21, 1943 and serviced as a seagoing buoy tender, an ice breaker in the Great Lakes and lastly to salvage. The ship was undergoing a major overhaul in Tampa before heading to Texas on January 28, 1980 when she ran into the six hundred feet long freighter S.S. Capricorn. She capsized just west of the Sunshine Skyway Bridge in Tampa Bay and sank within minutes. Three weeks later she was raised and brought twenty miles offshore to her final resting spot on the Pinellas #2 Artificial Reef. With a beam of 37 feet and a profile of twenty feet, there is enough to explore without penetration, which is not advised. The vessel is now broken into two heavily silted parts. The site is often covered with a blanket of mackerel, grouper, spadefish and snappers. Whale sharks have been reported here. Other life includes sharks, crevalle jack and amber jacks.

The Gunsmoke was a shrimp boat which now lies partially buried in eighty feet of water and is slightly listed to starboard with a collapsed midship. The small vessel was used for smuggling marijuana into Florida, but different stories arise about how they finally got caught. What is true about the many stories remains unclear except that the wreck sank because of illegal activities. This is an one of the best dive sites that also happens to have an amazing back story.

The main structures of the Indian Shores Reef are two almost equal World War II Landing Ships names LSM 1 and LSM 2 reachable from the center and south marker. They are filled with cables by the Explosives Ordnance Disposal Team from Cecil Field Naval Air Station in Jacksonville to stimulate fish life. Blacktip sharks, goliath groupers and barracuda are several of the larger fish that hover in these waters. Whatever your reason to go here, there is enough to see for the investigating diver.

This is one of the easier accessible dive sites . It was formed when large concrete blocks from the Old Corey Causeway and Skyway Bridge were dumped here in 1976. Other sights here are a 200 feet long steel barge that the ocean has been reclaiming since 1984 and ten United States Army tanks that lay here since 1995. It is a dive site which is attractive for diving. This is one of our favorite Dive Sites.

The Orange is an 80 ft steel hulled tugboat built in 1903 which was initially used to push railroad barges around the New York area and later moved to Tampa to relocate ships. She was sank in April 2004 to help build the artificial reef. Pelagic species and some active sharks are often present at this site. South County Artificial Reef was constructed between 2001 and 2003. It is one of the dive areas that doesn't require as long ride of a boat ride with great visibility and perfect conditions for underwater photography. The most famous dive site here is the Orange.