13 Scuba Diving Sites near Gulf Shores and Orange Beach, AL

Explore an underwater world full of exotic fish and sunken ships just off the coast of Alabama’s Beaches. Here are the best scuba diving sites near Gulf Shores and Orange Beach, Alabama.

We took a trip down to Alabama’s Gulf Coast so that Kevin and some friends could go scuba diving (not me, I like to admire the ocean from a beach chair). Dive sites off the Alabama coast form part of the largest artificial reef program in the US, so it’s a natural choice for scuba diving.

Here are all the offshore dive sites Kevin visited, from sunken vessels to bridge debris, as well as a few fan-favorite Gulf Shores dives, from beach dive wrecks to nearshore statue gardens to offshore reefs.

Offshore Scuba Diving at Alabama’s Beaches

For these offshore dives, Kevin and his friends took a dive charter with Down Under Dive Shop, a local Gulf Shores shop that regularly runs both nearshore and offshore dives.

They managed to fit in 5 dives over 2 days: they did a dive trip on the first day that visited 2 sites, and a morning trip on the second day that visited 2 site and an afternoon trip that visited 1 site.

1. Statler Barge

Statler Barge (also sometimes spelled Stadler) is an artificial reef made from a sunken army tank. The maximum depth here is about 97 feet.

This site is great for sea-life: you may find garden eel, grouper, and octopus. If you have a cave certification, you can go inside of the barge where you may run into goliath groupers, some of the largest bony fish in the ocean at up to 8 feet long and weighing up to 800 pounds. They’re more docile when they’re outside, but if they feel threatened in their “home” they can potentially hit divers against the side of the ship.

While this dive is available to divers with open water certifications, the top of the boat goes beyond the 60 feet limit which is usually placed on that certification level. We’d recommend this dive more for those with at least advanced open water certification, as the top of the boat is somewhere around 75 feet deep, and the sea bed is all the way to the advanced open water limit of almost 100 feet.

While many divers on this trip also wore a wetsuit, including one friend with an 8 mm thickness wetsuit, Kevin opted not to and did just fine in a swim suit and rash guard. The water temperature at this depth was around 75 degrees, which felt chilly at first but quickly became unnoticeable as Kevin swam around.

This wreck was a good one to take a flashlight, so that you can shine it inside the wreck and better see what wildlife there is. This is how Kevin and the other divers were able to see an octopus protecting its eggs.

2. Navy Tug

Navy Tug is, naturally, a sunken navy tugboat. It’s an open wreck with an opportunity to dive into the wheelhouse. It’s about 18 miles from the shore with a maximum depth of about 100 feet.

This one we’d also recommend to be advanced open water certified, as the top of the deck is around 80 feet deep.

There are tons of fish at this site. While here, Kevin got to swim through a bait ball school of fish. He said this was probably both one the highlights and yet also the biggest annoyance of this trip. While it was amazing to be in this giant school of fish, with a giant wall of them around you and watching them move out of the way as you got closer, after a few minutes it was easy to lose your bearings. It was hard to see the Navy Tug for all the fish!

By the time they needed to surface, they had lost their bearings on the dive rope. They had to surface without it and swim back to the boat, which was quite tiring against the current.

3. Captain Shirley Brown

The Captain Shirley Brown (or the Captain Shirley Brown Memorial Reef) is a 128-foot-long former party barge intentionally sunk about 13 miles off of Perdido Pass in Orange Beach. The maximum depth is about 85 feet.

The wreckage creates an artificial reef in the Don Kelley North reef zone. It is named in honor of Captain Shirley Brown, a former local marina owner and an instrumental part in the development of the artificial reef program. It was the second vessel deployed as part of the Alabama Gulf Coast Reef & Restoration Foundation project.

This dive is much more open water certification-friendly, as you can be at the top of the deck at around 65 feet. This was one of Kevin’s favorite dives of our trip, as the visibility was higher and the ship had a bunch of neat features.

In the middle was an open, recessed area of the deck that you could descend into and look under the rest of the deck. They encountered a goliath grouper, about five feet long, chilling under the side of the boat. The front has a nice prow, while the back is missing, so you can see a bit of the internal infrastructure.

Other marine life you might find here includes red snapper and octopus.

4. Atlantis

Atlantis is the name given to a reef formed from bridge rubble about 7 miles off the shore from Perdido Pass. The maximum depth is about 70 feet.

The site was created from the old Perdido Pass Bridge, and its archways and fallen pillars give the experience of exploring ancient ruins (hence the aptly named “Atlantis” and a nearby bridge rubble site named “Rome”).

Bridge rubble dives are great for freedivers and spearfishers. At Atlantis, you may see amberjack, red snapper, triggerfish, shovel-nose lobsters, flounder, and southern stingrays.

This is another good dive for open water certification, as the top of the bridge pillars reaches around 55 feet deep.

Kevin recommends that you make sure to explore to the farther spot you want to see first, and then work your way back to your tether. They were disappointed when they explored the first set of pillars, then made their way to the second only to realize that their air supply was running low.

The pillars had a lot of fish around them, and it felt fun to be able to swim around the pillars and under them, like you’re slowly flying. It is, however, not as nice of a site to explore in comparison to the boat wrecks since there aren’t as many hidden surprises.

5. 3 Mile Barge

3 Mile Barge is so-named because it lies about 3 miles south of Perdido Pass. The maximum depth is about 37 feet, making this the best new diver friendly site.

Marine life loves this artificial reef, and you might see gag grouper, flounder, amberjack, Atlantic spadefish, queen angelfish, spotted drum, red snapper, and sheepshead.

Another species you might find here: jellyfish. In fact, the jellies were so bad here, that Kevin decided to cut his dive short. This was probably because this dive was above the thermocline, where the water is still nice and warm and where jellyfish like to stay. On the previous dives, Kevin had passed jellyfish on the way down, but saw very few at the deeper depths.

Kevin recommends looking around the surface of the water first and seeing how many you find. If it’s more than a few, having some more protection such a wetsuit on this dive would help, if only to protect from the stings. There probably wasn’t anyone on this dive that came back up without feeling them (except Kevin, who had made a quick break), including many stings right on top of the head (ouch! He sent me pictures, it wasn’t pretty).

Excluding the jellyfish, Kevin would still recommend this site as it had some of the most diverse shallower fish while they were swimming around the barge.

More Scuba Diving Sites near Gulf Shores & Orange Beach

There are a ton more dive sites along the Gulf Coast (this area is part of the largest artificial reef program in the country, after all). Here are some more popular dives in Orange Beach, Gulf Shores, and Pensacola:

6. Poseidon’s Playground (Orange Beach) — offshore — An underwater statue garden about 3 miles from the shore; maximum depth of about 40 feet.
7. The LuLu Wreck (Orange Beach) — offshore — A 271-foot freighter intentionally sunk less than 20 miles offshore; multi-level diving with a maximum depth of about 115 feet.
8. The Whiskey Wreck (Gulf Shores) — nearshore — An old Spanish Rum Runner located about 150 yards from the shore; maximum depth of about 20 feet. Parking at 601 West Beach Boulevard, Gulf Shores, AL 36547
9. The Fairfield New Venture (Orange Beach) — offshore — A 250-foot-long former research vessel about 20 miles offshore; multi-level diving with a maximum depth of about 125 feet.
10. CSX Boxcars (Orange Beach) — offshore — Purposely-sunk boxcars from located about 18 miles offshore; maximum depth of about 70 feet.
11. Wallace Reef (Orange Beach) — offshore — An artificial reef formed on a liberty ship that was split in two by Hurricane Fredrick; maximum depth of about 100 feet.
12. Perdido Pass Jetties at Alabama Point (Orange Beach) — nearshore — Rock and concrete structures that protect Perdido Pass from the Gulf and are home to a variety of marine life; maximum depth of about 12 feet. Parking at Alabama Point Beach Public Parking Lot, 28101 Perdido Beach Blvd, Orange Beach, AL 36561
13. 105′ Tug (Pensacola) — offshore — Sunken navy tugboat great for marine life about 14 miles offshore; maximum depth of about 100 feet.

Charter with Down Under Dive Shop

For this scuba trip, Kevin took a charter with Down Under Dive Shop. The shop is located in Gulf Shores, and the boats launch from a marina in Orange Beach near Perdido Pass.

They offer snorkeling trips, beach diving excursions, and dive charters deeper dives. They go to all the major Gulf Shores dive sites like The Whiskey, Poseidon’s Playground, and The LuLu. They also go out to the famous USS Oriskany aircraft carrier near Pensacola.

More Itineraries for Alabama’s Beaches

Discover even more of Alabama’s gulf coast with these top posts:

• 18 Unique Things to Do in Gulf Shores & Orange Beach, AL
• 24 Best Restaurants in Gulf Shores & Orange Beach, AL
• 4 Days in Gulf Shores & Orange Beach, AL Itinerary
• 12 Best Bars in Gulf Shores & Orange Beach, AL
• The Lodge at Gulf State Park Review: Eco-Friendly Stay
• Turquoise Place Review: Beachfront Condos in Orange Beach

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Ready to visit Gulf Shores and Orange Beach, Alabama? Plan your trip with these tips.

• Book your flight: Find the cheapest flights using Skyscanner, my favorite flight search engine.
• Find Accommodation: You can find top hotels in Gulf Shores and Orange Beach using Booking.com and top vacation rentals on the Alabama Gulf Coast using VRBO.
• Get Packing: Make sure you’ve packed everything you need with my packing list resources.

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Cheers!

Paige & Kevin

Have you been scuba diving in Gulf Shores and Orange Beach, Alabama? Let me know in the comments!