Mosquito Lagoon is a body of water located on the east coast of Florida in Brevard and Volusia counties. It is part of the

Indian River Lagoon The Indian River Lagoon is a grouping of three lagoons: the Mosquito Lagoon, the Banana River, and the Indian River, on the Atlantic Coast of Florida; one of the most biodiverse estuaries in the Northern Hemisphere and is home to more than 4, ...

system and the

Atlantic Intracoastal Waterway The Intracoastal Waterway (ICW) is a inland waterway along the Atlantic and Gulf of Mexico coasts of the United States, running from Massachusetts southward along the Atlantic Seaboard and around the southern tip of Florida, then following th ...

. It extends from the

Ponce de Leon Inlet The Ponce de Leon Inlet is a natural opening in the barrier islands in central Florida that connects the north end of the Mosquito Lagoon and the south end of the Halifax River to the Atlantic Ocean. The inlet originally was named Mosquito Inlet. ...

to a point north of

Cape Canaveral Cape Canaveral () is a cape (geography), cape in Brevard County, Florida, in the United States, near the center of the state's Atlantic Ocean, Atlantic coast. Officially Cape Kennedy from 1963 to 1973, it lies east of Merritt Island, separated ...

, and connects to the Indian River via the

Haulover Canal The Haulover Canal is a waterway north of Merritt Island, Florida, near the former site of Allenhurst, that connects Mosquito Lagoon with the Indian River, and is part of the Intracoastal Waterway. In the early 1960s there were plans to relocat ...

. The Mosquito Lagoon Aquatic Preserve includes in the northern end of the lagoon. The preserve originally extended to the southern end of the lagoon, but close to two-thirds of the preserve in the central and southern lagoon were transferred to the Federal government, and is now part of the

Canaveral National Seashore The Canaveral National Seashore (CANA) is a National Seashore located between New Smyrna Beach and Titusville, Florida, in Volusia and Brevard Counties. The park, located on a barrier island, was created on January 3, 1975, by an act of Cong ...

. The cities of

New Smyrna Beach New Smyrna Beach is a city in Volusia County, Florida, United States, located on the central east coast of the state, with the Atlantic Ocean to the east. The downtown section of the city is located on the west side of the Indian River and the ...

and Edgewater, the

Merritt Island National Wildlife Refuge Merritt Island National Wildlife Refuge is a United States, U.S. National Wildlife Refuge (NWR) on the Atlantic Ocean, Atlantic coast of Florida's largest barrier island. NASA's Kennedy Space Center and visitor complex are also situated on the ...

and the

Kennedy Space Center The John F. Kennedy Space Center (KSC, originally known as the NASA Launch Operations Center), located on Merritt Island, Florida, is one of the NASA, National Aeronautics and Space Administration's (NASA) ten NASA facilities#List of field c ...

adjoin the lagoon.

The Nature Conservancy The Nature Conservancy (TNC) is a global environmental organization headquartered in Arlington, Virginia, United States. it works via affiliates or branches in 79 countries and territories, as well as across every state in the US. Founded in ...

is coordinating an

oyster Oyster is the common name for a number of different families of salt-water bivalve molluscs that live in marine or brackish habitats. In some species, the valves are highly calcified, and many are somewhat irregular in shape. Many, but no ...

restoration project, developed by the

University of Central Florida The University of Central Florida (UCF) is a public university, public research university with its main campus in unincorporated area, unincorporated Orange County, Florida, United States. It is part of the State University System of Florida. ...

. The goal is to restore about of

oyster reef The term ''oyster reef'' refers to dense aggregations of oysters that form large colonial communities. Because oyster larvae need to settle on hard substrates, new oyster reefs may form on stone or other hard marine debris. Eventually the oyster ...

habitat within the

Winter Winter is the coldest and darkest season of the year in temperate and polar climates. It occurs after autumn and before spring. The tilt of Earth's axis causes seasons; winter occurs when a hemisphere is oriented away from the Sun. Dif ...

, the

bottlenose dolphin The bottlenose dolphin is a toothed whale in the genus ''Tursiops''. They are common, cosmopolitan members of the family Delphinidae, the family of oceanic dolphins. Molecular studies show the genus contains three species: the common bot ...

notable for her prosthetic tail (whose story was featured in the film ''

Dolphin Tale ''Dolphin Tale'' is a 2011 American 3D family drama film directed by Charles Martin Smith and written by Karen Janszen and Noam Dromi. It stars Harry Connick Jr., Ashley Judd, Nathan Gamble, Kris Kristofferson, Cozi Zuehlsdorff in her film deb ...

'' and the sequel ''

Dolphin Tale 2 ''Dolphin Tale 2'' is a 2014 American family film written and directed by Charles Martin Smith as the sequel to his 2011 film '' Dolphin Tale'' which in-turn was based on the true story about a rescued bottlenose dolphin named Winter who made her ...

'') was rescued from Mosquito Lagoon in December 2005. In recent years the Mosquito lagoon has experienced several

algal blooms Algae ( , ; : alga ) is an informal term for any organisms of a large and diverse group of photosynthetic organisms that are not plants, and includes species from multiple distinct clades. Such organisms range from unicellular microalgae, suc ...

, called "brown tides", that have resulted in extensive

fish kill The term fish kill, known also as fish die-off, refers to a localized mass mortality event, mass die-off of fish populations which may also be associated with more generalized mortality of aquatic life.University of Florida. Gainesville, FL (200 ...

s. The species of alga thought to be primarily responsible for the blooms, ''

Aureoumbra lagunensis ''Aureoumbra lagunensis'' is a unicellular planktonic marine microalga that belongs to the genus ''Aureoumbra'' under the class Pelagophyceae. It is similar in morphology and pigments to '' Aureococcus anophagefferens'' and '' Pelagococcus subvi ...

'', was first detected in the lagoon in 2005. Blooms causing fish kills have occurred in the lagoon in 2012, 2016, 2018 and 2020.

References

External links

* Lagoons of Florida Indian River Lagoon Landforms of Brevard County, Florida Landforms of Volusia County, Florida {{BrevardCountyFL-geo-stub