Island Bay National Wildlife Refuge is a 20-acre federal preserve in Florida’s Cape Haze area on the north side of Charlotte Harbor in Turtle Bay. Established on October 23, 1908, by President Theodore Roosevelt as a breeding ground and sanctuary for native birds in a mangrove and brackish-water landscape, it later received added protection when President Nixon created the Island Bay Wilderness there on October 23, 1970. The refuge supports migratory birds, osprey, wood storks, West Indian manatees, and occasionally alligators and crocodiles. Accessible only by boat, it is closed to landing on the islands, and shell mounds show much earlier Native American use.