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Just offshore of the Florida Keys along the edge of the Florida Straits is the Florida Reef (also known as the Florida Reef Tract), separated from the keys by the Hawk Channel. The Florida Reef extends 170 miles (270 km) from Fowey Rocks just east of Soldier Key to just south of the Marquesas Keys.
Looe Key is a coral reef located within the Florida Keys National Marine Sanctuary. It lies to the south of Big Pine Key. This reef is within a Sanctuary Preservation Area (SPA). Part of Looe Key is designated as "Research Only," an area which protects some of the patch reefs landward of the main reef.
The island is small, about 200 yards (200 meters) by 100 yards (100 meters) with a maximum elevation of six feet (under two meters). It is at the southern end of the along-shore movement of sand that feeds the barrier islands to the North (such as Key Biscayne) and is the northernmost exposure of the Key Largo limestone (fossilized coral reef) which forms the "true" Florida Keys.
The Florida Keys is one of the state’s best tourist destinations for visitors who want to soak up Florida’s natural beauty and laid-back island lifestyle.
Boca Chica Key is an island in the lower Florida Keys, about a mile (1.6 km) east of the island of Key West at its closest point. Its name is Spanish for "small mouth". It is mostly covered by salt marshes and mangrove trees, and is the home of the largest Naval Air Station (NAS Key West) in south Florida.
The northernmost key is the largest and has a strip of sandy beach free of mangrove. In the past it was known as "Entrance Key". It surrounds the lagoon in the north and east. Adjoining in the south are smaller keys such as Gull Keys, Mooney Harbor Key, and finally about four unnamed keys in the southwest corner of the group.
Bernard Romans, who visited these keys in 1774, wrote that these were "Seven rocks called Mascaras", which he said had been "Ill copied on English charts as Mucares". [1] The northernmost of these islands, Ragged Key #1 has been inhabited in the past. The remains of an old wooden dock are in hazardous condition.
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