Laguna Madre
| Laguna Madre | |
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View of the Queen Isabella Causeway over Lower Laguna Madre
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| Location | South Texas Gulf Coast |
| Coordinates | 26°32′26.37″N 97°22′46.05″W / 26.5406583°N 97.3794583°W |
| Ocean/sea sources | Gulf of Mexico |
| Basin countries | United States |
| Settlements | Corpus Christi, Laguna Vista, Port Isabel, Port Mansfield, South Padre Island |
The Laguna Madre is a long, shallow, hypersaline lagoon along the western coast of the Gulf of Mexico in Nueces, Kenedy, Kleberg, Willacy and Cameron Counties in Texas, United States. It is separated by the roughly 20-mile (32 km) long Saltillo Flats land bridge into Upper and Lower lagoons. The two are joined by the Intracoastal Waterway, which has been dredged through the lagoon. Cumulatively, Laguna Madre is approximately 130 miles (209 km) long, the length of Padre Island. The main extensions include Baffin Bay in Upper Laguna Madre, Red Fish Bay just below the Saltillo Flats, and South Bay near the Mexican border.
The lagoon's ecosystem is protected by the Laguna Atascosa National Wildlife Refuge and the Padre Island National Seashore, as well as the privately owned King Ranch. The human history predates the formation of the Laguna Madre, and settlements have been established at Port Isabel and Port Mansfield on the lagoon's shores.
Laguna Madre was formed about 3,000 years ago, after the stabilization of the sea level on the Texas Coast, culminating in the rise of Padre Island. The Baffin Bay extension is considerably older than Laguna Madre, and formed as a river valley during the , over 12,000 years ago. Early peoples obtained oysters from the bay, which were eliminated due to changes in salinity after the full formation of Laguna Madre. The first people to encounter the new lagoon were most likely the nomadic Karankawa and Coahuiltecan Indians. The Spanish explorer Alonso Álvarez de Pineda is believed to be the first European to come in contact with Laguna Madre in the early 16th century, and is credited with giving it the name, which is Spanish for "mother lagoon".
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