Passage Key

[FLauthor]

Anybody ever try detecting Passage Key? The Passage Key National Wildlife Refuge is part of the United States National Wildlife Refuge System, located offshore from St. Petersburg. The 64-acre (260,000 m2) refuge was established in 1905.
Today Passage Key has suffered substantial shoaling in recent years due to several hurricanes, and is currently reduced to a small sandbar approximately 100 yards (91 m) long at high tide. Passage Key has been a popular destination for nudists for several years. It's a Party Island mostly now and the only Wildlife you'll find are the Partiers. Nudists don't lose many coins but mostly jewelry.

 

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[stevemc]

There are signs on what remains of the little sandbar, that says bird sancturary, nesting birds etc, no admittance. I found an 1800s iron tug boat on the ocean side, and it was really sanded in, just a little sticking up, in about 6 feet of water. Lots of bottle caps, pull tabs, yes the old style still, and cans. I am sure there is something there, but lots of trash and lots of wave action and erosion/build up. But when the water is warm and its sunny out-the scenery is nice.

 

[aquanut]

Last time I looked, Passage Key was under water.
Aquanut

 

[stevemc]

I havent seen it in at least a year, but I know when I last saw it, it was a mere sliver of what it was 6 or 7 years ago. There used to be long grasses growing on it, and it was fairly long and wide enough that waves wouldnt roll over it, last time it was a sandbar, no grasses, and maybe no more signs because the birds probably get flooded. Egmont (which is just to the North)has shrunk a lot in the last 20 years. The fort and all that have sunk into the sea and are a ways offshore now.

 

[John (west central FL)]

Some people think that when the Sunshine Skyway Bridge was built it changed the way that water flows in and out of Tampa Bay. That change has caused the erosion to Passage Key. Lately, there has only been a small strip of sand showing at extreme low tides. Most of the time it's under water. A long time ago there was a spring-fed fresh water pond on Passage Key.