Manatee Springs: Catfish Hotel

An unassuming sinkhole opens up onto a miles-long underwater cave system. Covered in duckweed, Catfish Hotel is home to swarms of baby catfish and an entrance to an underground cavern and vast cave network. Open water divers can enjoy the beautiful light show made by sunbeams streaming through holes in the duckweed, while cavern divers can explore the dimly-lit cavern zone.

🎥 How to Dive Catfish Hotel in 60 Seconds

Access: 5-minute walk from parking lot, across grassy fields and paths. Walking from the parking lot, the headspring is to your left; Catfish Hotel is to your right.

Hours: Check state park website

Admission: Pay at Manatee Springs State Park ranger station on entry. Divers self-register at diver registration station on the right, immediately after ranger station.

Parking: Plentiful. Try to park on far end of parking lot, closest to the grassy fields.

Gear up: At your car or on picnic tables/pavilions. Because of the longish walk, it’s often easiest to partially assemble gear at vehicle and walk it over to a prep/staging area. 

Conditions: No flow in sinkhole; moderate to strong flow in cavern zone. Basin is covered in Duckweed, which creates beautiful light effects underwater. Cavern/cave certified divers should bring lights. Lots of catfish. Small tidal effect; water level varies across the day. Max depth 65’. 

Cave/cavern: This is a sinkhole with a cavern/cave zone. You must have a cavern/cave cert to carry lights in a state park. Uncertified divers should stay out of the cavern. Facing the cavern entrance, the downstream siphon (exiting to the headspring; do not enter) is to the left, and the upstream entrance to the cave is on the right. At the back, a short passage leads steeply upwards, above a sandy slope. This back/upper cavern is extremely silty; follow cavern line protocol when exploring, and do not pass the restriction at 35’ – area is unstable. A cave sign is posted on the right-side of the cavern, in front of the entrances to the cave and back/upper cavern; only certified cave divers with proper equipment and training should continue past this sign.

Cautions: Rarely (if ever) floods; good choice if other sites are browned out. There is a siphon on the left side of the cavern where the water exits Catfish Hotel; DO NOT ENTER the siphon. If you feel yourself being drawn in, swim back. While people used to traverse to the headspring, the passage partially collapsed several years ago; two certified cave divers got stuck and died attempting it. It is now strictly off-limits to all divers regardless of certification, and a warning sign posted.

Tips: This spring is covered in duckweed, and you will be too. It makes for amusing photos of your dive buddies, but can be a pain if it gets in your regs. Use fins to clear duckweed on entry, and purge octo before surfacing to clear on exit. It’s a short walk across the grass to the neighboring headspring. Many divers follow a dive in Catfish Hotel with a quick dip in the headspring to rinse their gear of duckweed. Fanning is a short 20-min drive up the road.

Nearest dive shop: None! Bring gear/tanks from home and do not count on air fills.

Food: Concessions on site in summer; excellent place to grill, with covered pavilions. Suwannee Belle Landing in Old Town (20 min).  

Hot showers: No

Rinse station: Yes

Toilets: Yes

Changing area: Yes; indoors