Boating in the Florida Keys Backcountry
by Anne Baxter
Originally published in Southern Boating, August 1987

The Florida Keys backcountry is a world of shallow bays, exposed flats, deep tree-lined creeks, and thousands of islands.  The area includes all of Florida Bay and the Gulf side of the connected Florida Keys, including the bank out to Boca Grande.

The "highways" of the backcountry include the southern end of the Intracoastal Waterway, and the passes between the shallow banks and islands of this area.  Depths in many of these channels is sometimes no more than one foot.

This is the only remaining wilderness of the Florida Keys.  Mostly protected by our National Park Service, it's all part of Everglades National Park, the National Key Deer Refuge, the Great White Heron Refuge, and the Key West Wildlife Refuge.

Each island or key in the backcountry has its own character and its own year-round and winter residents.  Ask any guide how he finds his way around out there and he'll tell you that he knows the islands by their shapes, their vegetation, and their relation to one another.  But if you are a newcomer to this area, you must have a compass, charts and an accurate GPS.

Often a clue to recognizing an island comes from its name. Whaleback Key, for example, when approached from the south really does look like a whale's back. Lake Key actually does have a lake inside it.  Nest Key is the home of several osprey nests.  Porjoe Key, according to the first settlers, was inhabited by dozens of skinny, long-legged, long-necked birds they knew as Poor Joes, which, as we know now, were tricolor herons.

But don't expect to identify Cowpens Cut by the sea cows there.  Manatees, now on the endangered species list, were once plentiful enough for the early settlers to pen them up in Cowpens Cut prior to slaughtering them for food.  Some keys will be identified by a tall, dead tree or a wide, bushy tree, or a narrow sand beach, or a creek which runs right through it.

Open bays in the backcountry average four feet in depth.  Its ecology is greatly affected by current.  I've noticed at least four different types of bay: sponge beds, grass beds, mud beds, and mangrove root communities.

Sponge beds occur where the current is strong enough to prevent the accumulation of sediment.  A few varieties of hard and soft corals, as well as many types of sponges, occur there.  Golfball coral is the most common hard coral.  Soft corals include sea whips and sea plumes.  Sponges include the large loggerhead and the smaller sheep's wool, grass, basket, and glove sponges.

Because currents wash away the mud exposing the solid limestone floor, it is not good holding for anchoring, so find a hole or rock for the anchor to grab onto.

Grass beds occur where the current is less strong.  Because of this, sediment and vegetation debris can accumulate in crevices and depressions in the hard sea floor.  Later, the sea grass sees float in and take root.  Where it is very shallow, mud will pile up and the cigar-shaped seeds of red mangrove treets float in and take root: These trees are island builders.  Their many exposed prop roots trap sediment and sea grass blades, forming a fertile platform for sea grass seeds. Eventually the accumulated vegetative matter and mud will rise above sea level and become dry land.  

Seven species of sea grasses can be found in Florida Bay.  The most commonly seen are turtle grass, manatee grass, and shoal grass.  Sea grasses have roots and produce flowers underwater.  The blades and roots are home and food to many animals.  Algae, sea worms and hydroids are only a few of the organisms which attach to the blades.  The grasses are food for fish, crustaceans, turtles, and manatees.

Mud beds occur where there is no tidal or current flow, usually shallow, semi closed or closed bays or lagoons.  Here, you'll find the lovely snowflake jellyfish, red algae, sea lettuce, sea moss, as well as mud snails. 

The mangrove root community occurs around islands and along deep creeks, which, when bordered by red mangrove trees or mud flats, provide a highway for fish, manatees, porpoise, sharks and rays.  The Intracoastal Waterway from Barnes Sound south passes through many deep creeks: Jewfish Creek, Dusenbury, Grouper, Cowpens Cut, and more.  These creeks range from ten to twenty feet deep.  On either end, they are bordered by shallower bays and mud flats.  The red mangrove trees are home for pelicans, double-crested cormorants, belted kingfishers, osprey and the mangrove cuckoo.  Raccoons also live there, feeding off tree oysters and snails which live on the mangrove roots.  Also living attached to the roots are sponges of various shapes and colors, anemones, feather duster worms and algae, to name a few.  The roots also provide a hiding place for such fish as snapper, pilchards, glass minnows, gambusia and the young fry of many of our sportfish.  Since the deep creeks have a tidal flow, you can drift fish or drift snorkel.  When snorkeling the Intracoastal, always tow a diver's flag, be aware of boat traffic, and stay close to the edge of the channel.

Occasionally the trees lining the creeks will thin out, exposing a shallow bay or flats area where wading birds feed.  One such area is at Cowpens Cut. The Great White Heron is probably the most commonly seen wading bird.  He is also the largest of the white long-legged wading birds.  Other white wading birds include the Great Egret, the Snowy Egret, and the Cattle Egret.  To identify each of these, note the leg color.  The Great White Heron's legs are yellow or light greenish, the Great Egret's black, the Snowy Egret's black with yellow feet, and the Cattle Egret's yellow. Other long-legged wading birds include the Great Blue Heron, the Little Blue Heron, the Green Heron, the Tricolor (Louisiana) Heron, the Yellow-Crowned Night Heron, the White Ibis, and the Roseate Spoonbill.  Shorebirds commonly seen on sand bars or mud flats include the Willet, the Greater and Lesser Yellowlegs, various types of sandpipers and plovers.

Most people assume that all the islands in the backcountry are composed of red mangrove trees, but actually there are a few islands which have slightly higher elevations, produced either by the piling up of sand and mud or by the exposure of an ancient reef.  Nest Key is an example of the piling up of soil, while Lignum Vitae Key is an exposed ancient reef.  The type of vegetation growing on these islands is directly influenced by the islands' height above sea level.  Higher rocky ground produces a hardwood hammock community.

As a backcountry guide, I am always pleased by the beauty and wildness of the backcountry, with its special happenings: the flash of pink against an azure blue sky where a Roseate Spoonbill flies over, the graceful soaring of the magnificent Frigate Birds.  It's the only place in the world where this exists.