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Location Information:
The
bay and its surrounding area
appeared on the earliest maps of the
area, being named Zarazote on one
dating from the early 1700s. Hunting
in the area had supported native
populations for more than ten
thousand years as Florida attracted
some of the earliest human
settlements in the hemisphere.
Following the retreat of the
glaciers, ocean levels rose creating
the current coastline and the
natural bounty of Sarasota Bay
provided food for inhabitants for
over five thousand years before
Europeans began exploration of the
area in 1513 and later, establishing
settlements along its shores.
Sarasota Bay is one of twenty-eight
estuaries in the country that have
been named by the U.S. Congress as
an estuary of national significance.
The bay lies between barrier islands
called keys, that separate the body
of water from the Gulf of Mexico and
the Florida mainland. Longboat Key,
Lido Key, Siesta Key, and Casey Key
are the major keys that delineate
the main bay and its smaller
portions.
Since
1921, when Sarasota County was
created, the bay lies in areas
governed both by Manatee County and
Sarasota County. After Florida
became an American state, large
counties were carved up from time to
time, to form new and smaller
counties. From 1855 to 1921 the bay
was governed by Manatee County, and
from 1834 to 1855 the bay was
governed by Hillsborough County.
Governance prior to that has been
Spanish, French, English, and during
the Civil War, Florida was
Confederate. The concept of
"governance of natural resources"
did not exist among the Amerindians
who harvested the bounty of Sarasota
Bay for thousands of years without
diminishing it.
Local
Weather:
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