Galveston Bay is an estuary. Estuaries are recognized on maps as the convolutions in the shorelines caused by the meeting of fresh and salt water. Sought out by early explorers as routes inland from the sea, estuaries are rich in human history. In fact, for a variety of reasons, estuaries are the place where most people interact with the sea in some way or another.

Estuaries are immensely valuable national resources. A large percentage of the population of this country is within twenty-five miles of a coast and most significant American coastal cities are located on or near an estuary. It does not take a stretch of the imagination to conclude that the great navigation route afforded by Galveston Bay was paramount in the minds of the Allen brothers when they founded what was to become Houston, the third largest port in this country.

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The importance of the estuaries as a resource however, goes far beyond their value as transportation arteries. They are also ecosystems of great significance.*

• Estuaries are unique waterbodies where fresh water from rivers, streams and direct rainfall mixes with salt water from the sea.
• Galveston Bay is the sixth largest bay in the National Estuary System, encompassing some 600 sq. mi. of water.
• Often ringed by wetlands and marshes, estuaries are the nurseries of the oceans.
• More than 90% of the commercially harvested seafood species in the Gulf of Mexico and its bay systems require estuarine environments like Galveston Bay for one or more of their life stages.
• Marshes and wetlands are under overwhelming stress from shore development projects, pollution and erosion.
• One third of the state’s commercial fishing income comes from the bay.
• Over half the state’s expenditures for recreational fishing are related to Galveston Bay.

* Some of the above facts were taken from The State of the Bay a publication of The Galveston Bay National Estuary Program. Click here for more information.