Sarasota Bay is bounded on the east by mainland Florida and on the west by a series of barrier islands; these islands separate the bay from the Gulf of Mexico (figure 3.1). The bay is shallow, with some 30% of its area three feet or less in depth, and more than 95% 12 feet or less.
Much of the shallower bay bottom is covered by seagrass beds. The correlation of seagrass and shallow water is well established, as seagrass growth is largely a function of how much sunlight can penetrate to the bay bottom. These seagrass areas are important to recreational boat traffic in two respects: as a desirable sport fishing habitat, and as a deterrent to boaters who would scar the seagrass beds or have the grass foul their propellers by boating in these areas. There has been a reduction in seagrass area over the past few decades from boat propeller scarring and dredge-and-fill shorefront development (Alderson, 1993; Folit and Morris, 1992).
