WHERE ARE TIDAL FLATS LOCATED?

Worldwide, tidal flats are found in temperate and tropical coastal areas, usually near mean sea level, and often seaward of salt marshes or mangroves.  The largest and most extensive tidal flats are found adjacent to hypersaline lagoons like the Laguna Madre of Texas and Tamaulipas.  In the Middle East, tidal flats associated with hypersaline lagoons are called “sabkhas”.

 In the Coastal Bend of Texas, tidal flats are found along the bay sides of barrier islands, and to a lesser extent along mainland bay margins, around river deltas and in the mouths of creeks (Fig. 3, 4).  Very large wind-tidal flats are found on the bay sides of San Jose, Mustang, and Padre islands.  Smaller flats are found in the deltas of the Mission, Aransas and Nueces rivers, scattered along the bay margins of Nueces, Copano and Redfish bays, and in lower portions of Oso, Petronila, San Fernando, and Olmos creeks where they flatten out and the streams flow onto the wind-tidal flats of Oso Bay, Alazan Bay, Cayo del Grullo and Laguna Salada.  Two of the most accessible wind-tidal flats in the Coastal Bend are those near Texas A&M University-Corpus Christi in the “Blind Oso” between Ennis Joslin Drive and Ward Island and on State Highway 361 on Mustang Island at the Mollie Beattie Coastal Habitat Community between Packery Channel and 1852 Pass.

Figure 3.  Map of tidal flat extent in local area.

Figure 4.  Diagram showing tidal flats in relation to other coastal habitats & relationship to MSL (mean sea level)

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