Sabine Island lies in Santa Rosa Sound, eight miles south-east of Pensacola, Florida. It is a manmade island of sixteen and a half acres, formed from ballast brought by sailing ships during the late 1800's. It has the form of a basin which has been filled by an international mixture of rocks, coral, pottery and soil. On the island, there is a deposit of black earth carried by barge from Louisiana which accounts for the luxuriant growth of oleander, fig trees and other flora in sharp contrast to the appearance of plant life in the glacial quartz deposits of "sugar white sand" on nearby Santa Rosa Island. Sabine Island has been developed according to its uses as a ballast crib, quarantine station, oyster research laboratory, fisheries research laboratory and finally as an environmental research laboratory.