Though no significant single stream of freshwater enters the bay, with a drainage basin limited to 150 square miles in Manatee and Sarasota counties,[1] it is generally treated as an estuary, with three "passes" or inlets giving access from the Gulf of Mexico.

Hunting in the area had supported native populations for more than ten thousand years as Florida attracted some of the earliest human settlements in the hemisphere.

Following the retreat of the glaciers, ocean levels rose creating the current coastline and the natural bounty of Sarasota Bay provided food for inhabitants for over five thousand years before Europeans began exploration of the area in 1513 and later, establishing settlements along its shores.

The bay lies between barrier islands called keys, that separate the body of water from the Gulf of Mexico and the Florida mainland.

Kayakers can watch dolphins breach and manatees eat sea grass, in shallow bay water.