About This Place
Satellite Beach is a city in Brevard County, Florida, United States. The population was 9,577 at the 2000 census. As of 2005, the population estimated by the U.S. Census Bureau is 9,811. It is part of the Palm Bay–Melbourne–Titusville Metropolitan Statistical Area. With expansive ocean and river frontage, Satellite Beach is the largest beachside community in South Brevard County.
Satellite Beach is located at 28°10′24″N 80°35′48″W / 28.17333°N 80.59667°W / 28.17333; -80.59667 (28.173441, -80.596674). With the Atlantic on its East and the Indian River Inter coastal waterway on its West, Satellite Beach is referred to as a barrier city because it lies on an island that is situated in front of the mainland. It is accessible by the Pineda Causeway (State Road 404) and the Eau Gallie Causeway, both of which come from the neighboring city of Melbourne. A study commissioned by NASA and published in June 2000 (Wind and Flood Hazard Assessment of Critical NASA Assets at the Kennedy Space Center) lends credence to the popular perception that Satellite Beach is located in a portion of the North American Atlantic shoreline with a reduced incidence of catastrophic hurricanes.
Satellite Beach enjoys an abundance of natural resources. Threatened Atlantic Loggerhead sea turtles (Caretta caretta) nest on the City’s beaches at densities of approximately one nest per 10 feet of shoreline per year. Endangered green sea turtles (Chelonia mydas) deposit an average of tens of nests along the City’s ocean beach each year. There are approximately 10 acres of coquina rock outcrops frequently exposed along the low-tide line of the City’s ocean beach. The National Marine Fisheries Service has classified the rock as an Essential Fish Habitat-Habitat Area of Particular Concern (EFH- HAPC). It is extremely important to aquatic life and found only in a few locations along the Eastern seaboard. Endangered right whales (Eubalaena glacialis) calve off the City’s shoreline. Endangered West Indian manatees (Trichechus manatus) frequent the City’s canals and the Banana River. Bald eagles (Haliaeetus leucocephalus) forage over Samsons Island. Xeric scrub around the Library, until the late 1990s, hosted a family of threatened Florida scrub jays (Aphelocoma coerulescens). The City’s ocean beach is, also, part of about 16 miles of shoreline from the Pineda Causeway (SR 404) to south of Melbourne Beach where fossil Atlantic ghost crabs (Ocypoda quadrata) occasionally are found on the beach, the remnants of a unique set of geological circumstances which preserved these creatures when they died in their burrows perhaps about 110,000 years ago. There are also multiple endemic and listed plant species which now grow naturally, or were present prior to development, within the boundaries of Satellite Beach.