This Draft plan is currently being presented to the public for review and comment. 

While the Pinellas County and Boca Ciega Bay Aquatic Preserves are located within one of Florida’s most densely urbanized areas, the presence of vast acreages of seagrass and mangroves support productive fisheries. Pinellas County Aquatic Preserve includes submerged resources in state-owned freshwater areas, and it even includes subterranean caves and offshore hardbottom communities.

The Sandpiper Key Preserve parcel is 34.1 acres purchased with the intent of protecting the mangrove wetlands that make up the majority of the parcel and add buffer protection to Lemon Bay Aquatic Preserve (LBAP). There are also environmentally valuable submerged lands that were included within the property boundary that are now protected as part of LBAP. The purchase consisted of three separate mangrove parcels, and two separate submerged parcels but from hereon out, it will be described as a single parcel.