CONTACT US: Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission Fish and Wildlife Research Institute 100 Eighth Avenue SE St. Petersburg, Florida 33701 727-896-8626 http://MyFWC.com/ BoatingGuides Boating_Guides@ MyFWC.com City of Jacksonville Parks and Recreation 214 N. Hogan Street Third Floor Jacksonville, Florida 32202 904-630-2489 http://JaxParks.com jaxparks@coj.net This project was funded in part by a grant awarded by the Jacksonville Environmental Protection Board and Jacksonville Port Authority (Jaxport). Additional funding for this project was obtained through the Federal Aid in Sport Fish Restoration Fund.

Simply put, aquatic preserves protect the living waters of Florida to ensure that they will always be home for breeding birds, fish nurseries, freshwater springs, salt marshes, seagrass meadows, and mangrove forests. In 1975, with growing appreciation for their environmental diversity and alluring beauty, Florida enacted the Aquatic Preserve Act, bringing existing preserves under a standard set of management criteria. This ensured that aquatic preserves' natural condition ... "their aesthetic, biological, and scientific values may endure for the enjoyment of future generations." Today, Florida is fortunate to have 41 aquatic preserves, encompassing almost two million acres. The Florida Department of Environmental Protection's Office of Coastal and Aquatic Managed Areas oversees the management of these aquatic preserves, and, in cooperation with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, three National Estuarine Research Reserves, and one National Marine Sanctuary and the Coral Reef Conservation Program. For more information about Florida's aquatic preserves, please visit Florida's Aquatic Preserves. Fort Clinch and Nassau River-St. Johns River Marshes Aquatic Preserves Fort Clinch Aquatic Preserve, in northeastern Nassau County along Amelia Island, was designated on March 4, 1970 to provide an aesthetic buffer for the state park and historic Fort Clinch. The preserve surrounds the state park and is largely comprised of open waters around St. Marys Inlet, the Amelia River and a three mile extension into the Atlantic Ocean off Amelia Island. The western edge of the preserve borders extensive saltmarsh along Amelia Island and the preserve extends to the Florida-Georgia border. This preserve is about 7,600 acres. The Nassau River - St. Johns River Marshes Aquatic Preserve, located in Nassau and Duval counties, was designated an aquatic preserve on November 24, 1969 to protect the Nassau Sound area marshes and associated waters. This area consists of a vast saltmarsh estuary with numerous interconnecting tidal creeks, rivers and channels with some small tree islands. The preserve is approximately 69,000 acres. If you have any questions, comments, or suggestions about this Web site, please e-mail us at Boating_Guides@MyFWC.com. Would you like to receive notices of changes to this Web site and the Boating and Angling Guide to Nassau and Duval Counties? If so, please e-mail us and include SUBSCRIBE-DUVAL in the subject line.