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Banana River

Central Florida geography stubsIndian River LagoonLagoons of FloridaRivers of Brevard County, Florida
Merritt Island, Florida (southern tip)
Merritt Island, Florida (southern tip)

The Banana River is a 31-mile-long (50 km) lagoon that lies between Cape Canaveral and Merritt Island in Brevard County, Florida in the United States. It is part of the Indian River Lagoon system, and connects at its south end to the Indian River; it is the only part of the lagoon system not in the Intracoastal Waterway. It also has an outlet to the Atlantic Ocean via a lock into Port Canaveral. The lagoon includes salt marshes, mangrove swamps, seagrass beds, drift algae, oyster bars, tidal flats, and spoil islands, providing habitats for many marine species. These are brackish waters mixed of salt and fresh water; waist deep with a soft bottom sand/grass. Commercial and recreational activities in the lagoon generate more than US$ 800 million annually for the local economy.Historically, the Banana River was a continuous waterway that completely separated Merritt Island from Cape Canaveral (which was considered part of the mainland until the construction of the Haulover Canal). In 1964, the Crawlerway was built at Kennedy Space Center, connecting Merritt Island to Cape Canaveral and dividing the Banana River into northern and southern lagoons.

Excerpt from the Wikipedia article Banana River (License: CC BY-SA 3.0, Authors, Images).

Geographical coordinates (GPS)

Latitude Longitude
N 28.306111111111 ° E -80.6475 °
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Merritt Island


32952
Florida, United States
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Merritt Island, Florida (southern tip)
Merritt Island, Florida (southern tip)
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C-34 Mosquito Impoundment Project

The C-34 Mosquito Impoundment Project was a collaboration in the Thousand Islands during the 1970s between Brevard County Mosquito Control, The Florida Medical Entomological Laboratory, and NASA. This project was conducted to test the ability of remote sensing to detect flooding stress in mangroves during flooding for mosquito control. Mosquito control in the Cocoa Beach area was initially provided by application of various pesticides, including DDT. Cocoa Beach was the site of initial field tests for DDT, and one of the first locations where resistance was noted. This led to use of source reduction in addition to pesticides. Source reduction is a mechanical modification of habitat to decrease mosquito production. The saltmarsh mosquito will not lay its eggs in standing water, preferring seasonally-flooded sand or mud instead. The concept behind source reduction is to convert seasonally-flooded marsh to either upland or submerged land. Source reduction began to be used in the late 1950s in Cocoa Beach. In this beginning phase small ditches were dug through the islands to allow water movement and fish access to inner areas of the succulent marsh. This approach had limited success. During the late 1960s Brevard County Mosquito Control began dredging the Thousand Islands south of Minutemen Causeway to eliminate ephemeral ponds necessary for saltmarsh mosquito breeding. This destruction of wetlands set the stage for an approach that would retain wetlands but still reduce the production of saltmarsh mosquitoes. This approach is known as impoundment, in which an area of salt marsh is surrounded by a dike with a means to flood and empty the marsh, generally by pump.