FLORIDA, STRAITS OF

passage connecting the Gulf of Mexico with the Atlantic Ocean, extending for about 110 miles (180 km) between the Florida Keys, U.S., on the north and Cuba and the Bahamas on the south and southeast. The straits mark the area where the Florida Current, the initial part of the Gulf Stream, flows eastward out of the Gulf of Mexico with a mean surface velocity of 4 to 6 miles (6.5 to 9.5 km) per hour and a width of up to 95 miles (153 km). The Spanish explorer Juan Ponce de Len first recorded sailing through the straits in 1513.