Despite their small size and limited rates of flow, small 
tributaries and tidal creeks are extremely important components of Tampa 
and Sarasota Bays. Collectively, they provide hundreds of miles of low 
salinity habitat which is utilized as nursery areas by a wide variety of 
marine fishes and some important invertebrates. Many of the most valued 
sport and commercially harvested species in the region such as snook, red 
drum, pink shrimp and tarpon utilize tidal creeks during their life 
cycles. Some regional fishery biologists have expressed concern that the 
abundance and ecological condition of tidal creeks may be a dominant 
factor controlling the productivity of the fishery in Tampa Bay. 
The TBRPC (1986) determined a subjective ecological condition for 
each of Tampa Bay’s minor tributaries based upon a review of adjacent 
land use, habitat, and water quality. These creeks were then given a 
classification of either natural, restorable, or stressed. Of the forty 
tidal creeks considered, nine were classified as natural, eleven as 
restorable, and twenty as stressed. Among the major perturbations to 
tidal creeks in the area were: 
o Habitat loss and water quality impacts associated with filling of 
adjacent wetlands; 
o Loss of natural stream alignment and morphometry due to 
channelization and sea walling; 
o Non point source pollutant loadings from urban and agricultural 
runoff; 
o Point source pollutant loading from municipal and industrial 
discharges; 
o Alteration of flow regimes due to stormwater runoff, channel 
rerouting, and impoundment. 
In response to the need to better manage tidal creek resources on 
Tampa Bay, the TBRPC recommended several policies and guidelines to be 
used in developing management or restoration plans for the bay’s tidal 
creeks. Although not listed here, these recommendations pertained to 
stormwater runoff management, waste effluent control and recycling, 
physical and habitat restoration, freshwater inflow protection, water 
quality monitoring, and resource-compatible land use planning. 
MAJOR RIVERS 
The four major rivers flowing to Tampa Bay collectively drain 
about 75 percent of the Bays’s entire watershed. The drainage basins for 
these rivers range in size from 650 square miles for the northernmost 
Hillsborough River to 221 square miles for the Little Manatee River. 
Progressing from north to south, their tidal floodplains become wider and 
they are tidally affected further upstream. Tidal action is present at 
river mile 11 (mouth=0) in the Hillsborough where the river is dammed and 
at mile 10 in the Alafia River, whereas the Little Manatee is tidal at 
mile 15 and the Manatee is tidal at least to mile 19. The northern 
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