Table 9. --Filled and drained areas, Florida west coast, 1967- 



Filled areas 



__^_ Drained 



Study area Emergent Housing, tidal 



spoil Causeways Indus 1 marsh 



banks and other 



2/ 2/ 2/ 2/ 



Acres - Acres- Acres - Acres-' 



Florida Bay 41 565 480 267 



Lake Ingraham. ... 



Whitewater Bay... 

 Cape Sable to 



Lostraans River.. 

 Lostraans River to 



Mormon Key 



Mormon Key to 



Caxambas Pass... 12 309 651 

 Caxambas Pass to 



Gordon River.... 411 2,350 1,589 

 Doctors Pass to 



Estero Pass 5 30 750 555 



Caloosaha tehee 



River 32 65 745 , .- 634 



Pine Island Sound 120 117 120 -1,248 



Charlotte Harbor. 50 118 530 6,950 



Lemon Bay 32 In 329 318 



Sarasota Bay 



System 160 85 868 1,732 



Tampa Bay 75 760 2,280 3,780 



Hillsborough Bay. 95 40 2,517 1,442 



Old Tampa Bay 660 1,040 3,302 



Boca Ciega Bay... 77 2,997 1,058 



St. Joseph Sound. 96 213 1,280 465 

 Baileys Bluff to 



Saddle Key 53 10 1,248 2,304 



Saddle Key to 



S. Mangrove Pt . . 181 456 



Waccasassa Bay 



Suwannee Sound... 21 

 Suwannee Sound to 



Deadman Bay 



Deadman Bay 28 



Deadman Bay to 



St. Marks River. 



Apalachee Bay.... 



St. George Sound. 75 128 



Apalachicola Bay. 



St. Joseph Bay... 16 171 



St. Andrew Sound. 

 East Bay 



(St. Andrew) .... 



St. Andrew Bay... 53 85 



West Bay 



North Bay 



Choc tawha tehee 



Bay 128 



Santa Rosa Sound. 85 

 East Bay 



(Pensacola) 192 



Escambia Bay 2 



Pensacola Bay 43 53 139 195 



Perdido Bay 60 16 



Total 1,135 3,977 18,409 26,676 



— Sources: filled areas — comparison of navigation charts of the 

 late I800*s with current navigation charts and topographic maps; 

 drained tidal marsh--mosquito control authorities of pertinent 

 Counties. 



2/ 



— Hectares = acres x 0.4047. 

 3/ 



— Does not include 52 acres of mosquito control impoundment 

 adjoining the Caloosahatchee River. 



4/ 



— Does not include 1,824 acres of mosquito control impoundments 



on Sanibel and Pine Islands. 



Much has been published on dredges (Herbich 

 and Snider, 1969) and dredging (University of 



Maryland, Natural Resources Institute, 1970), 



but little on the effects of dredging in the estu- 

 aries under consideration (Woodburn, 1965). 



Only Boca Ciega Bay has been studied. There, 

 the benthic oozes that have collected in the canals 

 of finger-fills support few macro-invertebrates 

 (Taylor and Saloman, 1968; Sykes and Hall, 

 1970) , man-made fills cover large areas that were 

 originally vegetated shallows (Hutton et al., 

 1956; Sykes, 1967), and sea walls have replaced 

 mangroves that formerly provided cover among 

 their prop roots and food in the form of organic 

 detritus (Odum, 1970). 



SUMMARY 



1. The Gulf States Marine Fisheries Com- 

 mission initiated a cooperative inventory of 

 estuaries of the U.S. Gulf of Mexico in 1965. 

 This paper constitutes the Area Description 

 phase of the Florida inventory. Similar studies 

 were done simultaneously in Alabama, Louisi- 

 ana, Mississippi, and Texas. 



2. The inventory combines original observa- 

 tions with a review of the literature on dimen- 

 sions, vegetation, geology, stream discharge, 

 oyster and clam beds, artificial fishing reefs, 

 human population, economic development, pol- 

 lution, and dredging. Much of the data is sum- 

 marized in Table 11. 



3. The length and biological diversity of Flor- 

 ida's west coast exceed those of any other Gulf 

 state. Its length measured from headland to 

 headland is some 770 statute miles (1,240 km), 

 and its climate varies from subtropical to tem- 

 perate. 



4. Four coastal types are characteristic: The 

 first, from Florida Bay to Cape Romano, consists 

 of mangrove swamps, tidal marshes and man- 

 grove-covered islands interspersed with open- 

 water estuarine areas; the second, from Cape 

 Romano to Anclote Key, contains barrier islands 

 with sandy beaches that separate the Gulf from 

 a series of mangrove-fringed bays and lagoons; 

 the third, from Anclote Key to Lighthouse Point, 

 encompasses the gradual disappearance of man- 

 groves and their replacement by tidal marshes, 

 clusters of islands and oyster reefs, but few 

 semi-enclosed bays and beaches; the fourth 

 coastal type from Lighthouse Point westward is 

 similar to the second type in that barrier islands 

 with sandy beaches separate the Gulf from a 

 series of estuaries, some large, that are fringed 

 by tidal marshes. 



5. The open water area of Florida west coast 

 estuaries (2,081,525 acres = 842,393 ha) is 



117 



