Chapter 15: California

Just as California has San Francisco bay, Florida has it's own well known bays. The most common known bay is Tampa bay.

 

A Portrait of the Tampa Bay Estuary
  » Fast Facts About Tampa Bay 

1.  Tampa Bay is the largest open-water estuary in Florida, encompassing nearly 400 square miles and bordering three counties -- Hillsborough, Manatee and Pinellas. The bay's sprawling watershed covers a land area nearly five times as large, at 2,200 square miles.


2.  More than 100 tributaries flow into Tampa Bay, including dozens of meandering, brackish-water creeks and four major rivers -- the Hillsborough, Alafia, Manatee and Little Manatee.


3.  A single quart of bay water may contain as many as 1 million phytoplankton -- microscopic, single-celled plants that are an essential thread in the "who eats who" marine food web.


4.  More than 200 species of fish are found in Tampa Bay, including the popular snook, redfish and spotted sea trout.


5.  Mangrove-blanketed islands in Tampa Bay support the most diverse colonial waterbird nesting colonies in North America, annually hosting 40,000 pairs of 25 different species of birds, from the familiar white ibis and great blue heron to the regal reddish egret -- the rarest heron in the nation.


6.  Each square meter of bay sediment contains an average of 10,000 animals -- mostly tiny, burrowing worms, crustaceans and other mud-dwellers that are known as benthic invertebrates. The most numerous creature in the bay sediment is a primitive, fish-like invertebrate about two inches long called branchiostoma.


7.  On average, Tampa Bay is only 12 feet deep. Because it is so shallow, manmade shipping channels have been dredged to allow large ships safe passage to the Port of Tampa and other bay harbors. The largest of these, the main shipping channel, is 43 feet deep and 40 miles long.


8.  The Port of Tampa is Florida's largest port and consistently ranks among the top 10 ports nationwide in trade activity. It contributes billions annually to the region's economy.


9.  More than 4 billion gallons of oil, fertilizer components and other hazardous materials pass through Tampa Bay each year.


These facts and images were provided from http://www.tbep.org/portrait/fast_facts.html

Additionally, since the chapter describes early settlement, here is an insight on the early European Exploration and Colonization.

European Exploration and Colonization

Written records about life in Florida began with the arrival of the Spanish explorer and adventurer Juan Ponce de León in 1513. Sometime between April 2 and April 8, Ponce de León waded ashore on the northeast coast of Florida, possibly near present-day St. Augustine. He called the area la Florida, in honor of Pascua florida ("feast of the flowers"), Spain’s Eastertime celebration. Other Europeans may have reached Florida earlier, but no firm evidence of such achievement has been found.



 Look! It's a picture of Juan Ponce de León. Now you know what he looks like.

The above information and pictures were obtained from the website http://www.flheritage.com/kids/history.cfm#human