COOPERATIVE GULF OF MEXICO 



ESTUARINE INVENTORY AND STUDY, FLORIDA: 



PHASE I, AREA DESCRIPTION 



by 



J. Kneeland McNulty,' William N. Lindall, Jr.,' 

 and James E. Sykes 2 



ABSTRACT 



Newly-developed tables and maps depict the dimensions, submerged vegetation, tidal 

 marshes, mangrove swamps, commercial oyster beds, leased oyster-rearing areas, 

 sources of pollution, drained tidal marshes, and filled areas of Florida's west coast 

 estuaries. Published and unpublished information on temperature, salinity, geology, 

 artificial fishing reefs, stream discharge, human population, commercial fishing, and 

 economic development is presented in new form. 



If the total area of estuaries (3,003,312 acres = 1,215,440 ha) is considered to be 

 the area of open water (2,081,525 acres = 842,393 ha) plus the area of mangrove 

 swamps (393,160 acres = 159,112 ha) and tidal marshes (528,528 acres = 213,895 

 ha), then roughly one-half of the total area of estuaries is unvegetated; the remain- 

 ing half is about equally divided among mangroves, tidal marshes, and submerged 

 vegetation. 



Human population in coastal counties increased from 614,616 persons in 1930 to 

 3,320,226 persons in 1970, resulting in adverse effects from pollution to 43 percent 

 of estuarine areas, filling of 23,521 acres (9,519 ha) mainly for residential and in- 

 dustrial development, and draining of 26,676 acres (10,796 ha) of tidal marshes for 

 mosquito control. Increasing population correlates directly with the number of 

 sources of pollution, filled area, and the area closed to shellfishing by public health 

 authorities; thus, failure to control the adverse effects of population growth will 

 clearly result in continued rapid degradation of estuarine habitat on Florida's west 

 coast. 



INTRODUCTION 



Comprehensive description of the natural and 

 man-made features of the Gulf coast of Florida 

 has not been attempted previously even though 

 a large quantity of pertinent information is 

 available. The inventory combines original ob- 

 servations with a review of the literature on di- 

 mensions, vegetation, geology, stream discharge, 

 oyster and clam beds, artificial fishing reefs, 

 human population, economic development, pollu- 

 tion and dredging. 



1 National Marine Fisheries Service, Gulf Coastal 

 Fisheries Center, Biological Laboratory, St. Petersburg 

 Beach, FL 33706. 



1 National Marine Fisheries Service, Atlantic Estu- 

 arine Fisheries Center, Beaufort, NC 28516. 



The study is part of the cooperative Gulf of 

 Mexico Estuarine Inventory initiated by the Gulf 

 States Marine Fisheries Commission through its 

 Estuarine Technical Coordinating Committee 

 (ETCC). In the fall of 1965 several members 

 of the Committee agreed that an inventory of 

 estuaries of the Gulf of Mexico was urgently 

 needed. Committee members who discussed the 

 project initially were George W. Allen, Charles 

 Chapman, Theodore B. Ford, Terrance R. Leary, 

 Lyle St. Amant, and James E. Sykes, according 

 to a letter of December 27, 1965, by Dr. Ford. 

 The group recognized the accelerated competi- 

 tion the states were experiencing between fish- 

 eries and wildlife on the one hand and industrial 



