Photo caption:  Volunteers from Bonefish Grill planting mangroves.  Photo credit:  FISH.

There is an inextricable link between the maritime heritage of Florida’s Gulf Coast and the diverse habitat and natural resources of its ecosystems.  For the residents of the small, historic commercial fishing Village of Cortez on Sarasota Bay the linkage between place, community, occupations, and folkways, have for generations centered on the water that flows around and through the peninsula upon which this village was settled.  This very strong, inseparable connection to the water, flora and fauna of the area and the stewardship of these resources is best illustrated through the conservation and restoration of the FISH Preserve in Cortez (Manatee County, Florida).  Comprised of a variety of critical habitats, including coastal hammock and uplands, high and low wetlands and tidal streams, shallow bays and estuaries, and inlets to the Gulf, this extensive, ongoing, and ambitious community-driven undertaking is making a positive difference in the lives of the local people and ecology.   

In 1991, a group of Cortez citizens rallied together when the prospect of a large-scale waterfront development threatened the village and its way of life and formed the “Florida Institute for Saltwater Heritage” (FISH).  This grass-roots activist organization combined members of the Cortez Village Historical Society (CVHS), the Organized Fisherman of Florida (O.F.F.), and the local Volunteer Fire Company.  In 1999, FISH raised money through community festivals to purchase 100 acres of environmentally-sensitive waterfront property that was slated for large scale development immediately east of the village.  This historically-significant area became known as the FISH Preserve and is one of the last remaining undeveloped parcels on northern Sarasota Bay.  FISH is restoring the “kitchen”, an important fisheries habitat for the section of shallow Sarasota Bay bottom south of Cortez.  For villagers during the Depression, the kitchen provided food for the tables of their struggling families and was critical to their survival.  More than 60 years of illegal dumping and filling and the growth of invasive species have taken an ecological toll on this valuable area, which is the focus of a unique and multi-faceted project.

Just as the kitchen has sustained them, the villagers of Cortez have used funds through the SARP/NOAA Community-based Restoration Program (CRP) to develop a management plan that is focused on the restoration and sustainability of the Preserve, specifically where there has been a reduction of wetlands.  The completed conceptual plan and initial restoration represents a portion of the larger, continued effort that is being supported by a variety of partners and which involves community participation at all phases.  The SARP-sponsored work focused on restoration of low salinity marshes and fragmented intertidal wetland communities, the loss of which has greatly reduced the available habitat for juvenile fisheries.  As part of the plan, they have opened up a tidal creek that was choked with exotic invasive vegetation, have cleared invasives (including Melaleuca, Brazilian Pepper, Carrotwood, Australian Pine), and replanted banks with native species, including spartina and paspalum grass varieties, with the assistance of volunteers and expertise of staff from Scheda Environmental and Sarasota Bay National Estuary Program.  They removed invasive species and fill from approximately two acres of wetlands and uplands in order to restore tidal flow, mangroves, and other estuarine species.  While years of additional funding and expertise will be required to fully restore the Preserve, FISH and its partners are making strides toward their goal of achieving two targets for this project, including increasing vegetative species richness through natural succession (with a focus on mangroves), and increasing fish utilization of the area (specifically target recreational species such as Goliath grouper, gray snapper, snook, redfish, grunts, red drum, spotted sea trout, and Gulf flounder).

The restored FISH Preserve is part of a Maritime Heritage site which is an ongoing preservation effort that includes the entire historic Village of Cortez.  It is serving as a special place for visitors to learn more about the rich manmade and natural history of the area and to enjoy the abundance of plants, fish, birds and other animals that will make the F.I.S.H. Preserve their home for generations to come.  

To learn more about FISH and the FISH Preserve Habitat Restoration project, click here or contact Cathy Slusser at 941-741-4070 or cathy.slusser@manateeclerk.com.