Ocean Bay Preserve, St. Lucie County

Ocean Bay Preserve is a 53-acre St. Lucie County preserve on South Hutchinson Island with two parts, an oceanside beach access and a riverside mosquito impoundment.

The county's Environmental Resources page describes the oceanside as overseen by Parks and Recreation, with a paved parking lot and two small trails that reach the Hutchinson Island beach (Ocean Bay Preserve page). The riverside area lies 2 miles north on the west side of A1A, where Mosquito Control manages it as a mosquito impoundment with a multipurpose dike trail and a 200-foot fishing pier.

The Hutchinson Island preserve also appears under two names in county listings. The county beaches list carries the oceanside as Ocean Bay Beachside (St. Lucie County beaches page), while the preserves index sums the whole site up as short trails to an undeveloped beach with wormrock reef just offshore (Preserves of St. Lucie County).

The amenities the Hutchinson Island preserve page lists are a nature trail, a bike trail, beach access, a fishing pier and educational signage, and it rates the trails easy (Ocean Bay Preserve page).

Two county pages give different street addresses for the Hutchinson Island beach side, 6851 South Ocean Drive on the preserve page and 7600 South Ocean Drive on the Parks beach page.

The Census Bureau address lookup matched 7600 S OCEAN DR, JENSEN BEACH, FL, 34957 and placed it in the Hutchinson Island South census designated place in St. Lucie County, with no city returned (Census Bureau address lookup for 7600 South Ocean Drive). On its county layer the same lookup returned St. Lucie County, despite the Jensen Beach mailing name.

The two pages also list different Parks numbers, as the table shows. The beachside page places a Google Map directions link next to its address (Ocean Bay Beachside page).

No street address is printed for the riverside impoundment; the preserve page describes it only by distance and side of the road from the beach section (Ocean Bay Preserve page). The preserve page lists Mosquito Control, which manages that riverside section, at (772) 462-1692.

The oceanside of Ocean Bay offers two short nature trails through a mature dune to an undeveloped Hutchinson Island beach, with beach access, birding, fishing, hiking and swimming listed by the county.

The preserve page calls the dune a very good example of a mature beach dune system with sea grape, wild lime, cabbage palm and a variety of stoppers (Ocean Bay Preserve page). The wildlife it lists as commonly seen at the Hutchinson Island site is the brown pelican, sanderlings, the bottlenose dolphin and the gopher tortoise.

The Parks beach page describes Ocean Bay as a small yet beautiful example of the beach dune and maritime hammock communities commonly found on Hutchinson Island, and lists beach access, birding, fishing, hiking trails and swimming as its amenities (Ocean Bay Beachside page). Neither county page lists restrooms, showers or picnic shelters among the Ocean Bay amenities.

The county preserves index adds general rules for every preserve: trails are natural surface, visitors should stay on marked trails, and the rule is pack in, pack out (Preserves of St. Lucie County).

Yes, the county says the Sabellariid wormrock just offshore of Ocean Bay provides a unique snorkeling experience, and it asks visitors not to stand or walk on the reef.

The preserve page lists the wormrock under Historical Interest, places it immediately offshore, and adds the request to refrain from standing or walking on the reef (Ocean Bay Preserve page). The preserves index uses the same reef to describe Ocean Bay among the coastal preserves on Hutchinson Island (Preserves of St. Lucie County).

No lifeguard watches the Ocean Bay water: the county beaches page names Pepper Park and Waveland as the only guarded beaches and lists the Beach Conditions Hotline, 772-462-1421 (St. Lucie County beaches page).

The same page says residents can call the two lifeguard towers directly, Pepper Park at 772-332-8298 and Waveland at 772-332-8221 (St. Lucie County beaches page).

The riverside part of Ocean Bay is a Mosquito Control District impoundment on the west side of A1A with a multipurpose dike trail of about a mile and a 200-foot fishing pier.

The preserve page describes a mile multipurpose trail on the riverside and lists an Impoundment Dike Trail and a Fishing Pier among its photo captions (Ocean Bay Preserve page). The page puts the impoundment 2 miles up the island from the beach parking, across A1A to the west.

Mosquito Control District impoundments cover 4,000 acres of coastal mangrove swamp and salt marsh managed to hold down saltmarsh mosquitoes and sandflies (Mosquito Control Impoundment Division page). The impoundments are open to natural tides most of the year but kept flooded, partly closed with constant water exchange, during the summer breeding season, so less mud is exposed for egg laying. The district calls this rotational impoundment management, or RIM, and notes that it does not require pesticides.

The district adds that its impoundments give St. Lucie County visitors and residents room for hiking, biking, fishing, crabbing and wildlife observation (Mosquito Control Impoundment Division page).

The Mosquito Control District names Ocean Bay among the lands its land acquisition, mitigation and donation program helped acquire.

Its list runs Bear Point Sanctuary, Vitolo Family Park, Blind Creek Park from ocean to river, Ocean Bay, Queens Island, Kings Island, Indrio Blueway, Harbor Branch Preserve and Wildcat Cove (Mosquito Control Impoundment Division page). It credits Preservation 2000 and federal grant programs for the acquisitions and restoration, naming Florida Communities Trust, Conservation and Recreation Lands, the state's river and coastal land buying programs, and State of Florida Recreation and Parks additions and in-holdings.

The district gives its reason in one line: public ownership of the impoundments and the coastal communities beside them leads to better mosquito control through non-chemical methods and better public access along the Atlantic beachfront and the Indian River Lagoon (Mosquito Control Impoundment Division page).

Separately, the county preserves index traces its Environmental Lands program to 1994, when voters approved a $20 million bond, and lists 28 preserves covering more than 11,000 acres (Preserves of St. Lucie County).

Dogs are not allowed at the Ocean Bay beachside preserve, and the county points dog owners to Walton Rocks, while the Hutchinson Island beach side is open from dawn until dusk.

The preserve page states that dogs are not allowed in this beachside preserve and names Walton Rocks as the alternative for dog owners (Ocean Bay Preserve page). The Parks page for Walton Rocks Beach and Dog Park gives 6700 South Ocean Drive, Jensen Beach, and describes an off-leash dog park established on 24 acres of beach property, where any dog that bothers other dogs or people has to be on a leash of eight feet or less (Walton Rocks Beach / Dog Park page).

The county lists Ocean Bay Beachside hours as dawn until dusk (Ocean Bay Beachside page), and its preserves index promises free access, naming no gate fee, no parking fee and no reservation, from dawn to dusk seven days a week (Preserves of St. Lucie County). The preserves index rule to keep pets leashed covers preserves in general; the Ocean Bay page sets the stricter no dogs rule for this site.

The St. Lucie County parks hub lists the other county parks and preserves. Last verified: October 22, 2026, with the Ocean Bay preserve and beachside pages reopened alongside the Impoundment Division page, the county preserves index and beaches page, the Walton Rocks page and a Census lookup of the 7600 South Ocean Drive address on Hutchinson Island.