Florida Keys National Marine Sanctuary: Difference between revisions

{{Short description|Marine protected area in Florida, US}}

The '''Florida Keys National Marine Sanctuary''' is a [[U.S. National Marine Sanctuary]] in the [[Florida Keys]]. It includes the [[Florida Reef]], the only barrier coral reef in [[North America]]<ref name="evaluation">{{cite web|url=http://floridakeys.noaa.gov/scisummaries/wqcrem.pdf|title=Coral Reef Evaluation & Monitoring|last=Diersing|first=Nancy |date=May 2009|work=PDF|publisher=NOAA|access-date=2009-08-24}}</ref> and the third-largest [[coral]] [[coral reef|barrier reef]] in the world. It also has extensive [[mangrove forest]] and [[seagrass]] fields. The Florida Keys National Marine Sanctuary, designated on December&nbsp;28, 1990,<ref>{{Cite web |title=Sanctuary Designations & Expansions |url=https://sanctuaries.noaa.gov/about/designations.html |access-date=October 17, 2024 |website=NOAA}}</ref> was the ninth national marine sanctuary to be established. The Florida Keys National Marine Sanctuary protects approximately {{convert|2,900|sqnmi|km2 sqmi|0}} of coastal and ocean waters from the estuarine waters of [[South Florida]] along the Florida Keys archipelago and the [[Hawk Channel]] passage, encompassing more than 1,700 islands, out to the Dry Tortugas National Park, reaching into the [[Atlantic Ocean]], [[Florida Bay]], and the [[Gulf of Mexico]].