Summary | Pensacola Bay | Apalachicola Bay | Tampa Bay | Charlotte Harbor |
Ten Thousand Islands | Florida Bay | Biscayne Bay | St. Lucie | Indian River Lagoon

Charlotte Harbor and its vicinity is one of the most popular sportfishing locales in Florida. For many recreational anglers, Charlotte Harbor's Turtle Bay is the holy grail of coastal Florida fishing. The estuary and nearby coastal waters are habitat for more than 270 species of resident, migrant and commercial fishes of the Gulf of Mexico. Extensive seagrass beds, tidal flats and mangrove-fringed shoreline offer snook, redfish, spotted seatrout, permit, pompano, sheepshead and tarpon. Spanish mackerel and cobia often can often be found around the large artificial reef in the middle of the harbor. In 2005, retail sales associated with saltwater recreational fishing in Charlotte and Lee counties totaled $301 million, supporting more than 5,300 jobs.

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As with Tampa Bay, the Charlotte Harbor area has seen considerable habitat loss due to development, altered water flows and pollution, and strategies to improve the management of the region's coastal resources through the National Estuary Program and other programs have been a high priority for Florida. And like Tampa Bay, sea-level rise is an added stressor that should be addressed.

The overall model results for Charlotte Harbor are similar to Tampa Bay, although lower elevations of dry land result in greater predicted impacts here. This area is projected to lose close to 95 percent  of its tidal flats by 2050. Sea-level rise is also expected to cause significant over-wash of the barrier islands around Charlotte, resulting in considerable dry land loss. Saltmarsh in the region would decline by close to 90 percent, converted in part by the considerable expansion of mangroves, which increase by 75 percent. Gamefish species that could be adversely affected by these changes include spotted seatrout, snook, tarpon, redfish, sheepshead, flounder, gray snapper and permit.