A large number of shorebirds nest and breed on Anclote Key and the surrounding islands.

Anclote Key is the northernmost barrier island on the Gulf coast of the Florida peninsula.

[3] In the 1990s sand bars developed off both the north and south ends of the island, blocking the shallow tidal channels there.

The area around Anclote Key had little sand available for deposition on shoals and barriers in the middle of the 20th century.

In, or shortly after, 1960, the sea grass disappeared, and the bottom sand became available for transportation by wave and current action, providing material for those islands.