Dog Beach (Rickenbacker Causeway Beach)

Key Biscayne, Florida

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Just at the foot of Rickenbacker Bridge when you cross over on to Key Biscayne, you'll find Dog Beach. Dogs are welcome but must be leashed. Enjoy fantastic views of the city and plentiful equipment rentals such as windsurfers, kayaks, stand-up paddle boards, hobie cats and sunfish sailboats. Because people often forget to clean up when they use this popular dog and picnic area, you should be careful of where you step. There have been swimming warnings here in the past. But, when it's clean and safe, this is a fantastic spot to enjoy all kinds of water-based recreation!

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Justo al pie del Puente Rickenbacker, cuando cruzas a Key Biscayne, encontrarás Dog Beach. Los perros son bienvenidos, pero deben estar con correa. Disfrute de las fantásticas vistas de la ciudad y de los abundantes alquileres de equipos como tablas de vela, kayaks, tablas de surf de remo, catamaranes y botes Sunfish. Debido a que las personas a menudo se olvidan de limpiar cuando usan esta popular área de picnic y perros, debe tener cuidado con el lugar donde camina. Ha habido advertencias de natación aquí en el pasado. Pero, cuando está limpio y seguro, este es un lugar fantástico para disfrutar de todo tipo de recreación acuática.

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COVID-19

Keep your distance from other people.

Practicing social distancing is essential right now. Follow the advice of the health experts. If your community has asked that you remain indoors and away from others, do so. Heading to the beach should only be considered an option if social distancing practices can be followed. Spending a day in any crowded place is the worst thing we can do for our most vulnerable right now and will counter the efforts to curb the virus’ spread.

For more information, please visit the World Health Organization public resource on COVID-19.

Water Quality

Meets water quality standards
Current Status
This status is based on the latest sample, taken on February 25th, 2021. Miami Waterkeeper updates the status of this beach as soon as test results become available. These results were posted to Swim Guide on February 26th, 2021 at 3:42 PM.

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Current Weather

27°C

A mix of sun and clouds

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Monitoring Frequency

Source Information

Water quality results displayed at this location were collected by the Florida Department of Health’s (DOH) Florida Healthy Beaches (FHB) program. FHB may resample a beach on subsequent days if a water quality issue is detected. The information is updated on Swim Guide by Miami Waterkeeper (www.miamiwaterkeeper.org), a local nonprofit focused on ensuring clean water. Miami Waterkeeper enters Swim Guide data for both Miami-Dade County and Broward County’s DOH.

Samples are collected weekly (typically on Mondays) to test for levels of enterococci, a type of bacteria that indicates that pathogenic bacteria and viruses associated with fecal pollution may be present. These bacteria are known as fecal indicator bacteria (FIB). Analysis of samples takes 24 hours to culture before results are available. All local sampling programs on Swim Guide also use the thresholds for water quality as written in the Florida Administrative Code, based on the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA)’s 2012 Recreational Water Quality Criteria: Good= 0-35 CFU/MPN enterococci / 100 mL of marine water; Moderate= 36-69 CFU/MPN enterococci / 100 mL of marine water; and Poor= 70 CFU/MPN or greater enterococci / 100 mL of marine water. Clicking the pie chart icon will reveal a summary of the prior yearly or monthly of pass/fail data. A sampling location is marked GREY when no current or reliable monitoring information is available.

Testing sites are resampled by DOH after a failed water quality test until conditions return to safe levels. The DOH will only issue a formal “swim advisory” after two failed tests in a row, but Miami Waterkeeper will mark a beach as “RED” on Swim Guide after a single failed test is reported by any of the sampling organizations, if the data is posted by DOH. These conservative advisories inform vulnerable people (children, elderly, and the immunocompromised) who have elevated health risks due to water quality at the beach.
Miami Waterkeeper will also mark a beach as "Special Status" if information comes from other sources indicating that the water is unsafe, for example, a sewage leak, red tide, or oil spill. If data is more than a week old, sites will show a historical record of water quality data from a given site.

The Department of Health’s Florida Healthy Beaches program is a state-run initiative in partnership with Miami-Dade County and 33 other coastal counties in the state of Florida. The Florida Healthy Beaches program has been collecting and analyzing water samples from beaches and reporting FIB levels since 2000. (http://www.floridahealth.gov/environmental-health/beach-water-quality)

Miami Waterkeeper’s Water Quality Monitoring program is run by full-time investigators and staff that sample common recreation sites on a weekly basis to ensure the water you love is clean and safe. This program aims to sample locations not currently sampled by the Florida Healthy Beaches program or Surfrider Miami in an attempt to fill in gaps in local water quality monitoring. Visit Miami Waterkeeper at www.miamiwaterkeeper.org/water_monitoring or email hello@miamiwaterkeeper.org if you have any additional questions or to view a complete set of monitoring data.

Water Quality Graph