Boating, Fishing, and Travel Information for Matanzas Pass, Estero Island, FL

Fort Myers Beach Coast Guard Station is on San Carlos Island near the N end of the bridge from Estero Island.
There are extensive small-craft facilities in the vicinity of the bridges that connect the N end of Estero Island with San Carlos Island and San Carlos Island with the mainland.
Navigation:
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Matanzas (Estero) Pass opens into the SE end of San Carlos Bay, 2.5 miles from Sanibel Island Light. Small vessels can find secure anchorage just inside the pass. A dredged channel, marked by lights and daybeacons, leads from San Carlos Bay through Matanzas Pass to a turning basin off the shrimp terminals on San Carlos Island. In 2003, entrance channel navigational aids were relocated to mark the best water due to severe shoaling just SW of Buoy 4A. In 2005, the controlling depths were 6 feet to about 26°27’54″N., 81°58’10″W., thence shoaling to bare to Light 7, thence 10.1 feet at midchannel to the State Route 865 fixed bridge, thence 7.0 feet (9.1 feet at midchannel) to the turning basin with 6.2 to 8.5 feet in the basin.
A slow no-wake speed limit is enforced from Daybeacon 11, at the SE end of San Carlos Bay, to ESE of Daybeacon 28, in Matanzas Pass.
The highway bridge that connects Fort Myers Beach, on Estero Island, with San Carlos Island has a fixed span with a clearance of 65 feet. The highway bridge that connects San Carlos Island with the mainland has a 31-foot fixed span with a clearance of 6 feet.