Tampa Bay
The Tampa Bay is a bay on the Gulf of Mexico, located on the west coast of the Florida peninsula.
Geography and ecology
The bay has a water surface of 1031 square kilometers and an average depth of 3 meters. It forms a part of the coastline of County Pinellas, Hillsborough and Manatee. Located on the bay cities Tampa, Saint Petersburg and Clearwater, each with more than 100,000 residents are part of the metropolitan Tampa Bay area, which includes 2.7 million inhabitants.
About 100 small and medium-sized rivers draining into the bay. Extensive mangrove and wetlands are home to many animal and plant species. The bay is one of the manatees wintering areas and breeding area for several species of fish, birds and invertebrates. In 1990, the Bay was declared a " estuary of national significance ". Two zones are defined as National Wildlife Refuge protected: Pinellas National Wildlife Refuge and Egmont Key State Park.
Traffic
Three deep-water ports are located on Tampa Bay: Port of Tampa ( tenth-largest in the USA ), Port of Manatee, Port of St. Petersburg. Bridges across Tampa Bay are:
- Sunshine Skyway Bridge between St. Petersburg and Terra Ceia, Manatee County
- Gandy Bridge between St. Petersburg and Tampa
- Howard Frankland Bridge between St. Petersburg and Tampa
- Courtney Campbell Causeway between Clearwater and Tampa
- Bayside Bridge between Clearwater and Largo, Pinellas County
Others
The bay is named after numerous sports clubs, including:
- Tampa Bay Buccaneers ( American football)
- Tampa Bay Lightning ( Hockey )
- Tampa Bay Rays (baseball)
- Tampa Bay Rowdies ( soccer)