Velocity data from 28 ¿N, 84 ¿W on the west Florida continental shelf are presented. The data were sampled from October 1993 through January 1995 at 1 m intervals between 3 m and 42 m in a total water depth of 47 m. Their monthly means suggest an annual cycle hypothesized to be driven by a seasonally varying shelf-wide baroclinic structure. Motions at semi-diurnal, diurnal and synoptic time scales are seasonally modulated, both by wind forcing and stratification that decouples fluid motions from the damping effects of bottom friction. These motions are presented in the form of progressive vector plots. With 16 months of data, probability density and distribution functions for along-shore and across-shore particle displacements over specific time intervals are constructed. For daily intervals, particles are equally likely to travel approximately 5 km (depending upon confidence interval) in any direction. For monthly intervals, particles may travel a few hundred km, primarily along-shore. ¿ American Geophysical Union 1996