Located on the subtropical barrier island of Sanibel in the Gulf of Mexico, this refuge is part of the largest undeveloped mangrove ecosystem in the United States. The J.N.Ding Darling Refuge was named for Jay Norwood Darling, a nationally syndicated and Pulitzer-Prize winning cartoonist. As an early pioneer for wildlife conservation, he worked this theme into his cartoons and influenced a nation.
Ironically, it was after we got home and looked at our photos that we noticed photos of a cormorant catching and swallowing a fish that still had plastic fishing line attached to it. We wonder if this beautiful creature survived.
See our canoe trip down the beautiful Peace River
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