This image covers the Gold Coast of Florida from Ft. Lauderdale to Miami, Biscayne Bay, Florida Bay, and the upper Florida keys. Part of Florida's Everglades, a critically important habitat and home to a number of species found nowhere else, is also visible here. People who have never visited the Everglades may have the misconception that it is just a swampy grassland with nothing but alligators. Although there are alligators (and crocodiles too), there is much more to this amazing place. I have trekked into portions of this land to see wild orchids growing on branches of live oak trees in a hardwood hammock, watched deer enjoying the solitude of a home far from mankind's ever-expanding developments, listened to bobcats and barred owls. Closer to the Gulf or Florida Bay you can see roseate spoonbills, herons, egrets, and osprey. If you are lucky, you may see bald eagles, and if you are very, very lucky, one of the endangered Everglades Kites. The mangrove forests on the edges of the Bay and Gulf provide an important nursery for fish and shrimp. An image that contains the entire Everglades is also available. The large rectangular feature near the southeastern corner of the mainland contains cooling canals for a nuclear power plant. The white areas along this portion of the coast are the result of salt-water intrusion.

The area covered by this image is approximately 41x110 miles. A full-resolution crop of the image file is available here that shows the detail present in the full image print.