Do You Geotag or Gatekeep? The Battle Over Florida’s Springs & Secret Spots

If you spend any time on Instagram or TikTok, you see them: glowing, neon-turquoise swimming holes framed by ancient cypress knees, a palm tree bending to the heavens, where the water stays a crisp 72 degrees year-round…

Florida is home to more than 1,000 freshwater springs—the largest concentration on the planet. But behind those viral posts lies a fierce debate dividing locals, influencers, and environmentalists alike: Should you post & tag the location of Florida’s springs or gatekeep them just for yourself?

The Case for Geotagging

Geotagging is the practice of attaching GPS coordinates or specific location tags to social media posts.

The Pros

• Democratizing Nature: Florida's waters belong to EVERYONE, not just you or long-time locals! Geotagging allows people from all backgrounds to access and enjoy public waters and lands.

• Building a Movement for Conservation: There’s no doubt in The Water State this holds true: people protect the waters and springs they know and love!  When a spot goes viral, it creates thousands of new advocates. Public outrage over threats – like water use (consumptive use permits) or development – is much stronger when the public is in the know.

• Boosting Local Rural Economies: Many of Florida’s lesser-known springs and secret spots are tucked away in small, rural towns. Visitors spend money at local dive shops, kayak rentals, family-owned diners, and gas stations. That’s what rural economies need more of – tourists spending money and leaving, not heavy industry or shopping centers. 

The Cons

• Instant Overtourism: Secret springs that once handled a dozen paddlers a week can suddenly see 500 visitors a day after one viral video. Online videos of free local parks can cause so much overcrowding that local governments start charging admission to limit the number of visitors.

• Environmental Harm: Florida springs are fragile ecosystems. People walking in the spring can trample delicate native eelgrass, kick up silt, erode riverbanks, disturb wildlife, and leave behind litter and toxic sunscreen. Motorized watercraft can produce silt-disturbing wakes and even kayakers and paddle boarders can impact the shoreline when they beach their paddling vessels and walk around. 

• Dangerous Recreation: A mix of recreation types can lead to dangerous conditions to humans on the water. Inexperienced or speeding boaters, swift currents, swimmers, waders, kayakers, and standup paddle boarders all on the same waterbody or spring can lead to injuries. Florida's Gentle Giant, the manatee, experience injuries and death from both impacts from speeding boats and propeller strikes. 

The Case for Gatekeeping

Gatekeeping means intentionally withholding location details—using vague tags like "Somewhere in Florida" or refusing to answer "Where is this?" in the comments.

The Pros

• Ecosystem Preservation: Keeping a location's footprint small allows the spring bed, native flora, and local fauna to thrive without mass human degradation.

• Encouraging Real Exploration: Gatekeeping rewards curiosity and effort. Finding an unmapped or tucked-away spring through map study, river paddling, or local research creates a deeper, more respectful bond with nature than simply following a social media GPS pin.

• Reduces Trespassing: One jump of the fence, one swim, and one post can lead to hundreds of future trespassers. Eventually this leads property owners and managers to take more extreme measures to ensure unwanted visitors don’t visit again. Trespassing is a liability to property owners and what were just quiet nature watering holes become a “locals hangout” with beer cans and diapers surrounding the blue. 

The Cons

• Gatekeeping Can Feel Elitist: Withholding information can create an exclusionary "in-group" culture, suggesting that only certain people deserve to enjoy Florida's natural treasures. “My presence does not impact the springs, just all the other humans.” Answer this riddle: If one hundred caring nature photographers paddled into a spring for a sunrise photo, who decides which photographer is the good one? Are the ninety-nine others bad for the spring and wildlife?

• The "Out of Sight, Out of Mind" Trap: If a spring remains completely secret, fewer people notice when water levels drop due to over-pumping or when agricultural runoff fuels algae growth. Invisible places rarely get state or federal conservation funding.

The Real Way To Save Them

No matter if you are a Geotagger or a Gatekeeper, we all can agree that our springs are suffering. Excessive groundwater pumping, nutrients from fertilizers & septic systems, population growth, and increased tourism are just a few of the threats. Regardless of what camp you are in, our waters and springs need you to do this:

1. Support Environmental Nonprofits: Environmental nonprofits are our springs advocates - they attend the agency meetings while we’re at work. They speak up for our waters when developments and agency or government action threatens the waters. They even organize cleanups! Support and follow our partner Clean Water Coalition.

2. Vote Blue: Our waters need more support, advocacy, AND more protective policy on a local, state, AND federal level. Next time you visit the voting booth select candidates, regardless of political party, that know and act knowing Florida is The Water State™!

3. Pick Up Your Trash: Yes, we still have to say it. And unfortunately with increased visitors our springs, rivers, lakes, beaches, and bays are becoming more littered. Join a local organized cleanup - check out our partner Clean Water Coalition to see what spring they'll be cleaning next!

The Middle Ground: 

You don't have to choose between total secrecy and reckless viral exposure. A growing number of Floridians are advocating for responsible geotagging:

• Tag the Region, Not the Coordinates: Use broader locations like "Suwannee River Basin" or "Central Florida Springs" rather than dropping exact GPS pins for unmanaged spots.

• Pair Posts with Preservation Messages: If you post a photo of a spring, include Leave No Trace guidelines. Remind followers to stay in kayaks, pick up their trash, wear sun-protecting clothing instead of sunscreen, and to keep a distance from wildlife. Oh, and don’t forget to tag a nonprofit organization that protects where you play!

• Know the Spot's Capacity: Tagging an established State Park with boardwalks and capacity limits is usually safe.

Want to hear more about this subject? Check out The Florida Madcaps two podcasts about geotagging and gatekeeping. 

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