The bay is bordered to the west by the Gulf of Mexico and to the southeast by the Florida Keys and the Atlantic Ocean.
FloridaBay is an important nursery for a variety of marine life including spiny lobster, red drum, spotted seatrout, pink shrimp and myriad other species of commercial and recreational importance.
FloridaBay is connected to the Atlantic Ocean, the coral reef tract, Card Sound and Biscayne Bay to the east, and the Gulf of Mexico and 10,000 islands to the west by very complex ocean currents and tidal eddies.
FloridaBay and the Florida Keys are at the downstream end of the Kissimmee River-Lake Okeechobee-Everglades watershed (Fig.
In FloridaBay, large algal blooms have developed and persisted, large areas of seagrasses and sponges have died off, and major changes have occurred in fish populations (Zieman et al, 1994; Robblee et al., 1991; Boesch et al., 1993; Durako, 1994; Thayer et al., 1994; Butler et al., 1995; McPherson and Halley, 1997).
In the Florida Keys, macroalgae have overgrown many coral reefs, coral diseases appear to be spreading, and many corals have died (Dustan and Halas, 1987; Porter and Meier, 1992; Ogden et al.,1994; Kuta and Richardson, 1996; Richardson, et al., 1996; Richardson, 1997).
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