Tortugas 2000 - Planning Site for the Tortugas Ecological Reserve

The surface drifter trajectory left is a recent example of the recruitment pathway connecting the nursery grounds of south Florida's mangrove and seagrass habitats of the Everglades and Florida Bay with the pelagic ecosystems supporting larval development in the Florida Keys coastal waters.

This recirculating pattern of nearsurface currents is a common occurrence in the lower and western Keys and provides a conveyor system with many opportunities for larval recruitment into the Keys from both local and remote sources and may help to explain the high species diversity and large abundances in the region.

Sea surface temperature patterns during this period derived from satellite AVHRR images show that the coastal countercurrent was being forced by a system of Tortugas eddies that were moving eastward along the Florida Current front. The persistence of a series of Tortugas eddies offshore of the Keys caused this satellite-tracked surface drifter to recirculate within the eddies two complete loops with the second loop extending as far north as Key Largo. After drifting nearly three months, it was picked up in the countercurrent for the last time and transported to the shallow nursery grounds of west Florida Bay where satellite contact was lost.

Due to the complexity of ocean currents and circulation, the waters of the Tortugas region are interconnected with the rest of the marine system. The satellite drifter tracks below show how the waters of the Tortugas region are interconnected with the waters of the Western Atlantic and Grey's Reef National Marine Sanctuary, Biscayne National Park, and the Tortugas Gyre itself.

Benthic Habitats and Bathymetry

	Spawning Areas
All Grouper: Pre-Exploited	Black Grouper: Pre-Exploited	All Snapper: Exploited
All Grouper: Exploited	Black Grouper: Exploited	Lobster Catch per Unit Effort

Recreational Fishing Pressure	Recreational Diving Pressure	Recreational Lobster Catch
Reef Fish Catch	Shrimp Catch	Commercial Lobster Catch
	Spearfishing Pressure

Following are the twelve Draft Boundary Alternatives that were developed by the Tortugas 2000 Working Group during the April 22-23, 1999 Working Group Meeting. As mentioned, these are DRAFT alternatives and have yet to be evaluated by the Tortugas 2000 Working Group with respect to the evaluation criteria developed at the April 1999 meeting. This evaluation will occur at the May 22, 1999 Working Group meeting at the Harvey Government Center in Key West, Florida. Once all of these draft alternatives are evaluated based on the agreed to criteria, the Working Group will develop a preferred alternative or a range of alternatives that will be presented to the Sanctuary Advisory Council for consideration. The Sanctuary Advisory Council will then either modify or accept the preferred alternative(s) and will make a recommendation to NOAA and the State of Florida. At that time the Florida Keys National Marine Sanctuary will consider the Sanctuary Advisory Council's recommendation and will develop a Draft Supplemental Environmental Impact Statement that will analyze the socioeconomic and environmental impacts of the alternative(s) developed by the Tortugas 2000 Working Group and the Sanctuary Advisory Council.

NOTE: The Working Group agreed to abopt an ecosystem approach and to draw lines based on what makes sense ecologically and economically not what makes sense jurisdicitionally. Consequently, some part of all of these alternatives fall outside of Sanctuary boundaries (depicted by magenta line in maps below). For those areas outside of Sanctuary boundaries, the Working Group will make a recommendation to the appropriate agency or entity to take the necessary action to protect the resources.

Oceanography

Tortugas 2000 Base Maps

Benthic Habitats and Bathymetry

Ecological Characterization Data

Socioeconomic Data

Draft Boundary Alternatives