The Lower Laguna Madre is home to the Laguna Madre Fly Fishers and is a unique marine ecosystem, the largest hyper-saline lagoon in the world. The 185 square miles of sea grass meadows support a fishery that is the envy of fly fisherman throughout the world. Although it remains relatively isolated, the impact of coastal development is more and more evident. Changing land use from ranching to intensive farming, coastal housing development, and wastewater discharges from municipal, industrial and aquaculture facilities challenge ecosystem health.

It is important to note that while there are significant and even unique environmental challenges the Lower Laguna Madre is today a healthy and productive marine ecosystem, unique in the entire world.

The LLM possesses a wide diversity of fish species. Changes in diversity can be a very strong indicator of ecosystem health. Texas Parks and Wildlife has seen a total of 63 different fish species landed by anglers in the LLM over the past 5 years in their creel survey, and their gill nets have caught a total of 69 different finfish species during the same time period. Across the broad range of possible indicator species for which they have trend data some are up, some are down and for some there is not enough information. It is the normal condition one would expect for an otherwise healthy ecosystem.

Red drum illustrates a key point about the overall health of the LLM, especially water circulation and presents a telling contrast to SST. Over the last several years the LLM has been a hot spot for anglers seeking red drum, with record numbers being caught. This trend should continue in the LLM as TPWD data indicate continued high numbers of red drum entering the fishery. Interestingly, the health of the red drum fishery sheds light on a concern about water circulation in the LLM and most particularly the impact of the diminished Mansfield channel. Adequate water exchange is a key element to ecosystem health in the LLM. Before the Intercoastal Waterway and manmade channels such as the one to Port Mansfield, much of the LLM was extremely hyper-saline and did not support a sustained fishery. In contrast to much of the river-influenced Texas coast, inflows into the LLM can come in the form of seawater which was often less saline than that of the Laguna. Greater and more dependable water exchange has produced better fisheries. Red drum spawn offshore, in contrast to Trout and adequate water exchange through passes is vital to success. The condition of our Red Drum fishery indicates that water exchange, at least for ecosystem health needs, is adequate and not a limiting factor.*
*Texas Parks and Wildlife

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