Franko’s Florida Keys Mini Map and Coral Reef Creatures Identification Guide

At last, after years of thinking about it Franko has explored and dived the Florida Keys, and made a map and fish identification guide for the “The Conch Republic.” This is one of my best looking products, I think, probably because of the memories of South Florida and the Florida Keys from my visits there. The map side (side 1) of this 6”x9” card is a beautiful mini map showing the southern end of Florida from Miami to Key West. The main roads are show, with the most prominent features. Those features, of course, include Everglade National Park, Biscayne National Park, Key Largo, Islamorada, Marathon, Big Pine Key and the Lower Keys, and Key West. The map shows the viewer how to go from Miami South on Highway 1 to Key Largo, where the Highway name becomes “Overseas Highway.” Starting north of Key Largo the map also shows the main diving and snorkeling sties of the entire Florida Keys. Having visited and gone out on diving boats as well as snorkeling and kayaking in a variety of Florida Keys sites, I can say with authority that I now know why the “Conchs” (people native to the Florida Keys) and all of the dive operators consider this to be the diving capital of the world. The number of sites and the accessibility make this THE world-class diving and snorkeling destination. It is indeed difficult to do it justice with a description or a Franko Map. Because it is so fantastic. I love the Florida Keys. “Islands, U.S.A.” is a unique and wonderful place, and the fact that you can just drive to it (as opposed to having to fly in, such as all Caribbean and Pacific islands) makes it accessible to limitless numbers of people. The Florida Keys are definitely a world class destination. The coral reef creatures side of this map (side 2) is similar to my Caribbean reef creatures guides, since in general they share the same array of coral reef creatures, including corals and sponges. I show over 100 species on this waterproof Florida Keys Coral Reef Creatures Identification Guide. Note on side 2 that the heading says, “Florida Keys Coral Reef Creatures,” plus it says in Spanish “Criaturas Del Arrecife De Florida Keys.” When I was touring and exploring the Florida Keys I couldn’t help but notice, just as I do in every day life in California, that a large number of visitors and workers were speaking Spanish. In other areas where I have produced maps and reef creature identification guides (such as St. Croix, U.S. Virgin Islands, Cozumel, Mexico), I made my products bilingual. In fact, even my Guam fish card is bilingual with Japanese and English, and I have a French-English custom reef creature card for French Polynesia. It seems only right that I show the names of all of these creatures (criaturas) in both English and Español. Special thanks to my daughter, who teaches Spanish, for helping with the translations and accents. I would also like to point out a creature that I could not help but place on this map, and that is the manatee (manatí). I love the manatee (as does everyone). What a wonderful and special creature Florida has! The manatee is a great representative of the love and respect that I hope to inspire with my Florida maps and coral reef creatures identification guides.