On the same day he took the oath of office, President Donald Trump — in Executive Order 14172 — ordered the U.S. Secretary of the Interior to rename the Gulf of Mexico the Gulf of America. The Florida Legislature quickly followed suit, filing two bills requiring the name change on state documents, including educational materials in public schools.
On April 15, Gov. Ron DeSantis signed Bill 549 into law, which now requires state agencies to update their materials to reflect the new federal designation. The companion bill requires all instructional materials and library media collections in public schools to adopt the name change after July 1.
This will have to be accomplished even as the Internet continues to designate the body of water as the Gulf of Mexico. But Florida classroom standards require first graders to refer to a map in the classroom and name their town, their state and the body of water off the coast, a Collier County Schools official said.
“Currently, within Florida’s K-2 Social Studies standards, the Gulf of Mexico is referenced in the geography strand under the benchmark [standards],” Collier Schools Chief Communication Officer Chad Oliver says. “This benchmark requires first graders to locate on maps and globes their local community, Florida, the Atlantic Ocean and the Gulf of Mexico.”
Though the bill requires school districts to adopt or purchase instructional materials to include the Gulf of America this year, Collier schools aren’t scheduled to obtain new K-12 social studies materials until 2027-2028, Oliver said.
In the meantime, the school district would provide supplemental materials to teachers that use the Gulf of America designation.
Collier, Lee, Charlotte counties border Gulf of America
The new law also creates a new wrinkle for Collier, Lee and other Southwest Florida counties that suddenly find the Gulf of America on their borders. These county governments, which engage in inter-governmental communications with state agencies, will follow suit when communicating with Tallahassee.
Collier County spokesman John Mullins said the new law doesn’t require the expensive proposition of changing the text on existing documents, but only those state documents after July 1, 2025.
If Lee, Sarasota, Collier or another coastal county files documents pertaining to a new seawall with the Florida Department of Environmental Protection, for instance, that document — digital or otherwise — will refer to the “Gulf of America” rather than “Mexico.”
“This will have a negligible fiscal impact on our county operations under the Board of County Commissioners and will only require placement in/on future documents that may contain that reference,” Mullins says. “As a political subdivision of the State of Florida, and as our western water boundary has been changed in statute to ‘Gulf of America,’ we will be consistent with federal and state naming conventions.”
Change tourist pamphlets?
Charter boat captains who suddenly found themselves searching the Gulf of America instead of the Gulf of Mexico for their familiar fishing spots are unconcerned with the change. Similar to other charter boat captains out of Naples, Fort Myers and other Southwest Florida marinas, Capt. Robbie Sommer of Down South Charters was indifferent.
“I don’t pay attention to politics,” Sommer says. “I don’t watch TV because I’m out here still catching fish.”
Another charter captain applauded the change.
“Great, we have no problem with it. I like the idea of calling it the Gulf of America,” says Capt. Gene Luciano with Naples Fishing Boat charters. He also said the name change helps with geographically challenged customers.
“I have had customers ask me if they need a passport to fish in the Gulf of Mexico,” Luciano chuckles.
Charter captains and other Southwest Florida tour guides hear National Weather Service weather reports for the Gulf of America, whereas just a few months ago, the NWS weather reports called it the Gulf of Mexico.
Naples Airport, pilots adopting name change on maps
Pilots who work for local private jet charter companies out of Naples Airport and Southwest Florida International Airport in Fort Myers have been discussing the name change, but it’s business as usual, said Stephen Myers, executive vice president of Elite Jets in Naples.
“There are ‘highways in the sky’ — airways — at different altitudes and they have not changed,” says Myers, who pilots Embraer Legacy 500, Phenom 300 and other business jets out of Naples Airport. “They are more important than what the Gulf is called. Whether it is Gulf of America or Gulf of Mexico makes little difference to us.”
Nevertheless, “most of our Federal Aviation Administration charts have been updated to reflect Gulf of America.”
The United States Geological Survey received a proposal to rename the Gulf of Mexico — the gulf’s name since about 1550 — to the Gulf of America in 2006, but the Board on Geographic Names unanimously decided not to approve it.
