But Census 2000 put Marineland and Islandia in Miami-Dade County, with six residents each, ahead of only Bellair Shore in Pinellas County, listed with a population of zero. Meanwhile, residents and business owners in Marineland are hopping mad that the Census Bureau only counts people who live more than half the year in town and have said they will demand a more complete accounting. It's something that we're looking into. In any small town with a tourist economy, there may be more visitors using lights, roads and toilets in the town than the year-round residents typically counted by the census. With the Marineland Oceanarium and a University of Florida research lab being the town's dominant features, this tiny settlement near the Flagler-St.
Johns line is one such place.
According to Netherton, the difference between the number of people in town at any given time and the number of people who actually live there is greater than in other places. That's because the closing of the marina campground deprived the town of many people who were once considered permanent residents. We are particularly vulnerable because the attraction is certainly a transient situation and the Whitney Lab is pretty much involved heavily in people who come here from somewhere else for one or two months at a time. The town will ask Census statisticians to give them credit for the students, visiting scholars, marina guests and other visitors who bolster numbers. The Whitney Lab's dormitories may contain as many as 12 people at times, lab director Peter Anderson has said.