THE RIVER
The river is about 75 miles long. There is no one answer to this question because of the tremendous variations. Far upstream it is as a small creek but at the mouth it is many yards wide. The upper Santa Fe is considered that portion between Santa Fe Lake, out of which the river begins its journey, and River Rise where it goes underground for about three miles. The lower Santa Fe is from where it reappears to its mouth where it enters the Suwannee. This portion of the river has the most springs and visibility usually becomes greater below the larger ones such as the Devil’s Eye complex at Ginnie.
There are several shoals even in the lower part where one can wade across the river. Mostly you can count on having to swim in order to cross as the channel will often be 10 or twelve feet deep, and more as one goes farther downstream.
The river ends dramatically at its mouth where the bottom drops suddenly into the larger and deeper Suwannee River. I may be wrong, but it seems to me there were long periods when the Suwannee may have been dry but with the Santa Fe emptying into the Suwannee as a waterfall 10 to 15 feet high. The bottom of the Suwannee immediately surrounding this ancient waterfall exhibits indications of a large early man habitation area, perhaps the largest in Florida.
THE WATER
The river begins by flowing westward out of Lake Santa Fe at Melrose. This is one of the larger and deeper lakes in Florida at 5,850 acres and depths to 30 feet. It is located entirely in Alachua County and is designated an Outstanding Florida Waterway.
Picture in your mind a barrel with water in it and a large pipe connected to it in about the middle. Up near the top of the barrel are some small holes. The pipe at the middle of the barrel has water coming in which fills the barrel. This is rainwater and the water in the barrel is the aquifer. When the barrel gets full some of the water spills out through the small holes up near the top, which are springs. Thus when the aquifer is up the springs flow freely, but when the aquifer drops the water level is below the holes which are the springs so they stop flowing. This has happened in several places in Florida where industry, irrigation or large cities have drawn enough water out so the aquifer level cannot fill up high enough to supply the springs that were there at one time.
According to the Florida Springs Institute, there are 36 named springs and numerous smaller springs. There are countless small springs on the bottom of the river where water pushes upward from cracks in the limestone. These are readily apparent to the SCUBA diver as cool spots in the summer or warm spots in the winter. If the water is murky these areas appear to the diver as blue-tinted diffused lights.
Although much of the time the Santa Fe River is quite clear with great visibility it, along with many other Florida rivers, is classified as a blackwater river because during the rainy season it becomes quite dark due to tannin acids. Water flowing through decaying vegetation picks up the dark coffee-color which is not considered a contaminant nor a pollutant. The dark stages of the river usually occur during times of high water because the water spreads to areas of abundant vegetation not normally covered with lower water levels.
RECREATION
Below is a list from the Florida Springs Institute of those observed in the springs, but others, such as sturgeon, have been reported in the river.
PLANTS & ANIMALS
At least 42 species of fish (as listed above) are in the river, along with several species of turtles, including the new alligator snapping turtle (Macrochelys suwanniensis) recently named. Additionally, there are snakes, snails, gators, crayfish, frogs, salamanders, manatees, otters, eels, beavers, and even capybaras (Upper Santa Fe). The very rare Oval Pigtoe mussel is found in New River, and in some of the deep caves there may be rare troglobitic crayfish which live their lives never seeing light.
Can you catch blue crabs in the Santa Fe river? What is the closet’s water way to catch blue crab if not?