Boating along the picturesque Florida shoreline is tons of fun, but it also affords us glimpses of some beautiful and varied aquatic life…in both our rivers and on the ocean.

Florida’s rivers, boasting bountiful seagrass, provide manatees with food that is essential for their survival. These beds of seagrass within the rivers, as well as the weed lines within our oceans are also home to a multitude of baitfish which, in turn, attract some much bigger fishy fellows, including porpoises, tarpon, sharks, spotted sea trout, mahi, drum, bass and snook. Additionally, due to the prolific nature of our redfish, you may hear quite a few Floridians fittingly referring to our state as the redfish capital of the world.

The Florida shoreline is also a famous nesting ground for our precious sea turtles; and there are hundreds of miles of beach in the sunshine state that are protected during the nesting season of these remarkable creatures.

The rivers’ cypress swamps and lush mangroves in Florida offer a safe refuge as well as breeding grounds for our flying friends, including hawks, ducks and eagles. Along our ocean shorelines, you will be likely to see shorebirds such as sanderlings, dowitchers, gulls, terns, herons, egrets, pelicans and willets.

While Central Florida’s rivers and ocean each offer their own interesting inhabitants, don’t forget to keep an eye out for gators in both!