These habitats and the organisms they support are all connected by the ebb and flow of the tide, and form one big ecosystem. Depths are generally less than four feet, making it an extremely tricky place to run a boat. It takes a lot of experience and a keen eye to be able to successfully navigate through the backcountry. The backcountry provides one of the most exciting recreational fishing areas in the country, where flatsguides take anglers out to catch tarpon, permit, bonefish and a variety of other gamefish. The seagrass beds in the sanctuary, combined with the seagrasses to the north in Florida Bay, create the largest seagrass bed in the world.
Seagrass offers a place of refuge for small creatures hiding from hungry predators.
Hidden among the seagrass blades are a plethora of juvenile fish and invertebrates taking cover from predators as they mature. The spiny lobster is one important invertebrate that begins its postlarval life in the seagrass bed and on algae. As it matures and grows larger, the lobster heads south with the prevailing flow of water and moves from the seagrasses to the hardbottom habitat. Here, it finds refuge around large sponges, or in crevices in the limestone bottom. Hardbottom is prevalent in the channels between the Keys, where the ripping currents have scoured the bottom, exposing the underlying limestone.