Building a snorkeler's sanctuary | pnj.com

Building a snorkeler's sanctuary | pnj.com | Pensacola News Journal: "When Hurricane Opal shut down the Navarre Pier in 1995, fishermen were put off, but snorkelers rejoiced.

Navarre resident Brenda Stokes called the underwater environs around the quieted pier "a wonderland."

"Because the pier is there with the shade, it's phenomenal what comes there," Stokes said. "I think we documented over 50 different kinds of fish, and there's the sponges and sea grasses that grow on the pilings. Each piling is like a little ecosystem. There's even juvenile octopus.""