Office of Resilience and Coastal Protection
Waters that Work, Play and Live
The Florida Department of Environmental Protection's Office of Resilience and Coastal Protection manages more than 5.3 million acres of submerged lands and coastal uplands in Florida.
Much of Florida's distinctive character lies in the beauty of its coastline. The best of our coastal landscapes as well as several inland waters is set aside for protection as aquatic preserves. Florida's natural beauty is a major attraction for both tourists and residents. Ironically, these coastal and inland resources that draw people to Florida are potentially endangered by the increased population pressures. Aquatic preserves protect Florida's living waters to ensure they will always be home for bird rookeries and fish nurseries, freshwater springs and salt marshes, and seagrass meadows and mangrove forests.
These aquatic preserves — located throughout Florida — offer a window into the state's natural and cultural heritage. Local leaders long recognized and worked to protect these critically important and ecologically sensitive areas and in 1975, with growing appreciation for their environmental diversity and alluring beauty, Florida enacted the Aquatic Preserve Act. This Act brought together existing and future aquatic preserves under one management program to ensure "their aesthetic, biological and scientific values may endure for the enjoyment of future generations."
Guana Tolomato Matanzas National Estuarine Research Reserve (GTMNERR) staff were happy to get three new students some muddy estuary time this week. From University of Central Florida, two new graduate students joined Dr. Lisa Chambers to collect water level loggers in marshes which were part of a study to assess whether oyster shell rakes changed water flow and vegetation.
On August 6, Coral Reef Conservation Program’s (CRCP) Awareness and Appreciation Coordinator, Maya Bhalla-Ladd, hosted an outreach event with local partner, Young At Art Children's Museum, to educate the new wave of ocean stewards with two back-to-back lessons on local coral ecology before diving into the six primary stony coral morphologies found on Florida’s Coral Reef. Participants then built a collaborative reef with molding clay!
Estero Bay Aquatic Preserve (EBAP) staff have begun summer season seagrass monitoring. The weather cooperated and the afternoon storms held off long enough for staff to complete two transects on each of two scheduled sampling days.