We'll be down in Key West in August. Are the
beaches still contaminated? Are we guaranteed
to encounter jellyfish while snorkeling?

Don't know about the beaches being contaminated, but the beaches themselves in Key West are not great to begin with. Not much sand, lots of ants.

When the water IS contaminated, not all beaches in Key West are, so you'll have to check when you get there to see what the current water condition is. However, the best snorkeling in Key West is at the reef, and it's too far out to ever be affected by water contamination. I've never heard anyone mention a jellyfish problem in the keys.

It's a big ocean. And there are no guarantees. One trip to the reef and you may spot a shark, or a turtle, or an eel, or a barracuda, or a manta ray, or a dolphin, or a jellyfish, or all of them, or NONE of them. I've never been to the Keys (and I've been going for 40 years) when the jellyfish have been as bad as some other parts of Florida. Then again, Mother Nature does have a sly sense of humor, doesn't she? As to the beaches, what do you mean "contaminated"?

Several years ago raw sewage overflowed into the waters around KW. The beaches were closed. KW cannot handle the amount of sewage generated by the tons of people visiting there and needs to upgrade their sewage treatment plant.

You can check for beach closures on KW's web sites.

www.fla-keys.com or
www.keywest.com.

Last spring we went to Key West and went snorkelling on the reef. Wasn't the best snorkelling we've done (it was kind of choppy and cold that day). What was amazing to us was the number of jellyfish we saw -- lots of them, not very big but everywhere. If you are worried about stings, we had no problem with them at all.