Great Egret and the Rising Tide

For a deeper dive into tidal marsh ecology: Bayou City Eco-Almanac – Tidal Wetlands

~ Written by Mark Kramer

As the last of the cool fronts have blown past us, the winds of change are stirring. As if there was a flipping of a switch, the onshore flow of coastal winds will dominate our weather for the next six months.  Sweeping southerlies push warm salty seawater into Galveston Bay and deep into Armand Bayou. The rising Gulf tides of spring are a living soup carrying an abundance and diversity of juvenile marine life. Over 90% of our local commercial and recreational seafood spends the juvenile portion of its life in these types of estuarine waters and tidal marshes. Tidal marshes are the engine that drives the commercial and recreational fishing industry. Born in the open waters of the Gulf and Galveston Bay, the young of redfish, speckled trout, flounder, black drum, shrimp, blue crab and Gulf menhaden are riding the tides and seeking this nursery habitat. Does that sound like the seafood platter to you? Hiding, feeding, and evading predators, the young will spend the first summer of their life in the protected estuarine waters of Armand Bayou before returning to bay waters in the fall.

Great Egret in Menhaden Buffet | Photo Credit Gary Seloff

Like a moving buffet line carried by the rising tide, the Great Egret has found dinner in a school of juvenile Gulf Menhaden.  Gulf Menhaden are not well known to most people and yet, they are the third most important commercial fish species harvested from the Gulf of Mexico. Adult menhaden are 6-8 inches long and are harvested by huge fishing boats in the Gulf and used as a major component of animal food (dog, cat and chicken food). They are also among the most important forage fish in the bayou. This Great Egret is gathering groceries from the productive waters of the estuary to take home to the rookery to feed this year’s offspring. Estuaries like Armand Bayou are among the most productive habitats on earth, providing food for seafood lovers of all types.

Menhaden Airborn Explosion | Photo Credit Gary Seloff