St. Joseph Bay is a large body of water mostly enclosed by St. Joseph Peninsula. The St. Joseph Peninsula is 17 miles long and has an average width of 1,000 feet. It is formed from the Cape San Blas shoals and the historical migration of the Apalachicola River. The cape and the spit sediments are quartz sands originally supplied by the Apalachicola River. Waves and other shore zone processes have put the beaches in a constant state of change over the last hundred years.

  • St. Joseph Bay is host to one of the richest and most abundant concentrations of marine grasses along the North Florida coast. Five different species of seagrasses occur within these vast meadows that cover approximately one-sixth of the bay bottom.

  • St. Joseph Bay has a healthy population of bay scallops and is a popular destination during scalloping season.

  • The St. Joseph Peninsula is a major forage area for migratory birds.

  • Sport and shellfishing are the most active forms of tourism throughout the year.

St. Joseph Bay is located in Gulf County along Highway 98 near the community of Port St. Joe, approximately 35 miles southeast of Panama City and 100 miles southwest of Tallahassee. St. Joseph Bay is bound in the eastern shoreline by the city of Port St. Joe and the St. Joseph Bay State Buffer Preserve and on the west by the St. Joseph Peninsula. The bay is approximately 15 miles long and 6 miles at its widest part and opens north to the Gulf of Mexico.

The aquatic preserve encompasses 55,000 acres of state-owned sovereign submerged lands below the mean high water line. Uplands and human-made canals are excluded from the preserve. Other exclusions include privately owned submerged lands along the eastern shore, private in-holdings that occur along the southern and Western shore, the area of the bay north of the Port St. Joe navigation channel and the immediate area of the channel.

 

Resource Management

Resource management is physically done on the resources for which the preserve has direct management responsibility, and by influencing the activities of others within and adjacent to the area and to its watershed.
Current issues facing the St. Joseph Bay Aquatic Preserve include Water Quality and Seagrass Protection.

 

Education and Outreach

The Education and Outreach Management Program is an essential tool to increase public awareness and promote informed stewardship by local communities. Through this program, the preserve has created and distributed educational materials, installed kiosks at local boat ramps with information about the seagrass buoy system, and attended local festivals and events. The Friends of the St. Joseph Bay Preserves Inc. is a nonprofit citizen support organization that assists in these efforts. It raises funds, provides volunteer services and promotes environmental awareness.

 

Ecosystem Science

The St. Joseph Bay Aquatic Preserve monitors water quality, seagrasses and algae. Other key elements of the ecosystem science program include wildlife stranding response and habitat mapping.

Counties
Gulf
Location

United States

Managed Location Contact
Jon Brucker
Email
Jonathan.Brucker@FloridaDEP.gov
Phone
850-670-7723
Total Acreage
55,674.00
Managed-Regulated
Managed
Receives State Funding
Yes
State Owned
Yes
Public Access

The St. Joseph Bay Aquatic Preserve is one of the least populated coastal areas in the state. Residents and visitors have an excellent opportunity to experience nature. T.H. Stone Memorial St. Joseph Peninsula State Park is a particularly popular destination because of its white sand and lack of development. Gulf County has many parks for outdoor recreation and leisure opportunities.

Recreational activities throughout the area include fishing, diving, snorkeling, scalloping, sunbathing, birding and boating. Kayakers can take advantage of the kayak and canoe launch at Richardson's Hammock on Cape San Blas Road. Sportfishing and scalloping are the most active forms of tourism in St. Joseph Bay. Popular species of sportfish include redfish, trout, shark, mullet, flounder and tarpon.

Volunteering:

St. Joseph Bay Aquatic Preserve relies on volunteer support for many of its management and education activities, such as water quality monitoring and beach lighting education.

Most volunteer opportunities are coordinated through the Friends of the St. Joseph Bay Preserves Inc., a nonprofit citizen support organization. The friends group raises funds, provides volunteer services and promotes environmental awareness. One of the best ways to help is by volunteering. Opportunities are available for a wide variety of interests and expertise.
For more information, please visit The Friends of St. Joseph Bay Preserves.

Archaeological Resources

The Division of Historical Resources, Department of State, has identified nine archaeological sites in the immediate coastal area of St. Joseph Bay. These sites include four prehistoric shell middens and three old settlement sites. Confederate Saltworks is a Civil War era site on Cape San Blas, where bricks and some foundation remain after the buildings were destroyed in 1862. The Cape San Blas Lighthouse is another site, also found along the cape. 

Wildlife Habitat Description

The Florida Panhandle is one of the nation's six biological hotspots that has many rare species found only in small areas. St. Joseph Bay is not influenced by the inflow of freshwater, and it tends to be clearer with sandier sediments. The bay is an ideal habitat for seagrass. Productivity in the region can be attributed to the salt marsh and seagrasses that serve as nursery and foraging grounds for commercial and recreational fish and invertebrates, sea turtles, scallops and birds.

Algal Bed - Large populations of non-drift macro or micro algae.

Composite Substrate - Consist of a combination of natural communities such as beds of algae and seagrasses.

Mollusk Reef - Expansive concentrations of sessile mollusks occurring in intertidal and subtidal zones to a depth of 40 feet.

Octocoral Bed - Non-sessile benthic and pelagic invertebrates and vertebrates (e.g., sponges, mollusks, tube worms, burrowing shrimp, crabs, isopods, amphipods, sand dollars and fishes) are associated with octocoral beds.

Seagrass Bed - Expansive stands of vascular plants that occur in subtidal (rarely intertidal) zones, in clear, coastal waters where wave energy is moderate.

Sponge Bed - Dense populations of sessile invertebrates of the phylum Porifera, Class Demospongiae.

Tidal Marsh - Expanses of grasses, rushes and sedges along coastlines of low wave energy and river mouths.

Unconsolidated Substrate - Expansive, relatively open areas of subtidal, intertidal and supratidal zones that lack dense populations of sessile plant and animal species.

Mudflats - Categorized as an unconsolidated substrate. Mudflats are created by sediment that is deposited by the changing tides and Gulf of Mexico.

Habitat-Wildlife Type
Aquatic Preserves
Last Modified: Tuesday, Jun 18, 2024 - 07:02pm