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Aquatic Preserves
Recognizing the value of estuaries, Florida moved to protect coastal and inland waters through the Aquatic Preserves Act in 1975. The Act designates exceptional areas of state-owned submerged lands as Aquatic Preserves to be preserved “in an essentially natural or existing condition so that their aesthetic, biological, and scientific values may endure for the enjoyment of future generations.” Today there are over 40 Preserves throughout the state including the Charlotte Harbor Preserves: Lemon Bay, Gasparilla Sound/Charlotte Harbor, Cape Haze, Pine Island Sound, and Matlacha Pass.
Follow the narrows of Lemon Bay to the open waters of Charlotte Harbor through the maze of islands and quiet backwaters along the dense mangrove shorelines of Cape Haze, Pine
Island Sound, and Matlacha Pass. Beautiful, dynamic and biologically productive, the Charlotte Harbor estuaries support a tremendous diversity of plant and animal life from microscopic plankton and filter-feeding worms to large marine mammals such as dolphins and manatees. Over 200 species of fishes abound here. Many people enjoy fishing, boating, and canoeing the inshore waters comprising the Charlotte Harbor estuarine complex.
