Sabine Lake is a
bay on the Gulf coasts of
Texas
Texas (, ; Spanish language, Spanish: ''Texas'', ''Tejas'') is a state in the South Central United States, South Central region of the United States. At 268,596 square miles (695,662 km2), and with more than 29.1 million residents in 2 ...
and
Louisiana
Louisiana , group=pronunciation (French: ''La Louisiane'') is a state in the Deep South and South Central regions of the United States. It is the 20th-smallest by area and the 25th most populous of the 50 U.S. states. Louisiana is borde ...
, located approximately east of
Houston
Houston (; ) is the most populous city in Texas, the most populous city in the Southern United States, the fourth-most populous city in the United States, and the sixth-most populous city in North America, with a population of 2,304,580 in ...
and west of
Baton Rouge
Baton Rouge ( ; ) is a city in and the capital of the U.S. state of Louisiana
Louisiana , group=pronunciation (French: ''La Louisiane'') is a state in the Deep South and South Central regions of the United States. It is the 20th-sma ...
, adjoining the city of
Port Arthur. The lake is formed by the confluence of the
Neches and
Sabine
The Sabines (; lat, Sabini; it, Sabini, all exonyms) were an Italic people who lived in the central Apennine Mountains of the ancient Italian Peninsula, also inhabiting Latium north of the Anio before the founding of Rome.
The Sabines divide ...
Rivers and connects to the
Gulf of Mexico
The Gulf of Mexico ( es, Golfo de México) is an oceanic basin, ocean basin and a marginal sea of the Atlantic Ocean, largely surrounded by the North American continent. It is bounded on the northeast, north and northwest by the Gulf Coast of ...
through
Sabine Pass
Sabine Pass is the natural outlet of Sabine Lake into the Gulf of Mexico. It borders Jefferson County, Texas, and Cameron Parish, Louisiana.
History Civil War
Two major battles occurred here during the American Civil War, known as the First and ...
. It forms part of the Texas–Louisiana border, falling within
Jefferson Jefferson may refer to:
Names
* Jefferson (surname)
* Jefferson (given name)
People
* Thomas Jefferson (1743–1826), third president of the United States
* Jefferson (footballer, born 1970), full name Jefferson Tomaz de Souza, Brazilian foo ...
and
Orange
Orange most often refers to:
*Orange (fruit), the fruit of the tree species '' Citrus'' × ''sinensis''
** Orange blossom, its fragrant flower
*Orange (colour), from the color of an orange, occurs between red and yellow in the visible spectrum
* ...
Counties in Texas and
Cameron Parish, Louisiana
Cameron Parish (french: Paroisse de Cameron) is a parish in the southwest corner of the U.S. state of Louisiana. As of the 2020 census, the population was 5,617. The parish seat is Cameron. Although it is the largest parish by area in Louisia ...
.
Sabine Lake is one of seven major
estuaries along the Gulf Coast of Texas. Much of the Louisiana shore is protected by the
Sabine National Wildlife Refuge
Sabine National Wildlife Refuge is a National Wildlife Refuge of the United States located in Cameron Parish in southwestern Louisiana. It is on Louisiana State Route 27, south of Hackberry and north of Holly Beach. The western boundary of the ...
. There is a long history of human habitation around the lake, including
Native American settlement dating back at least 1,500 years, European exploration in the eighteenth century, and the growth of Port Arthur in the twentieth century. Today the lake serves as part of the
Sabine–Neches Waterway and the
Gulf Intracoastal Waterway
The Gulf Intracoastal Waterway is the portion of the Intracoastal Waterway located along the Gulf Coast of the United States. It is a navigable inland waterway running approximately from Carrabelle, Florida, to Brownsville, Texas.
The waterw ...
and is a center for the
shipping
Freight transport, also referred as ''Freight Forwarding'', is the physical process of transporting Commodity, commodities and merchandise goods and cargo. The term shipping originally referred to transport by sea but in American English, it h ...
and
petrochemical
Petrochemicals (sometimes abbreviated as petchems) are the chemical products obtained from petroleum by refining. Some chemical compounds made from petroleum are also obtained from other fossil fuels, such as coal or natural gas, or renewable sou ...
industries.
History
Archaeological evidence indicates that
Native American groups from the
Marksville culture
The Marksville culture was an archaeological culture in the lower Lower Mississippi valley, Yazoo valley, and Tensas valley areas of present-day Louisiana, Mississippi, Arkansas, and extended eastward along the Gulf Coast to the Mobile Bay are ...
were present near the shores of Sabine Lake by .
Burial mounds
A tumulus (plural tumuli) is a mound of Soil, earth and Rock (geology), stones raised over a grave or graves. Tumuli are also known as barrows, burial mounds or ''kurgans'', and may be found throughout much of the world. A cairn, which is a ...
that may have belonged to the
Karankawa
The Karankawa were an Indigenous people concentrated in southern Texas along the coast of the Gulf of Mexico, largely in the lower Colorado River and Brazos River valleys."Karankawa." In ''Cassell's Peoples, Nations and Cultures,'' edited by John ...
have been uncovered near the north shore at what is now
Port Neches
Port Neches is a city in Jefferson County, Texas, United States. The population was 13,692 at the 2020 census, up from 13,040 at the 2010 census. It is part of the Beaumont–Port Arthur metropolitan area.
History
The area known as Port Nech ...
, but by the time of European arrival in the eighteenth century the region was inhabited by the
Atakapa
The Atakapa Sturtevant, 659 or Atacapa were an indigenous people of the Southeastern Woodlands, who spoke the Atakapa language and historically lived along the Gulf of Mexico in what is now Texas and Louisiana. They included several distinct band ...
. English explorers led by
George Gauld mapped the lake in 1777; Spanish explorers under
Antonio Gil Y'Barbo
Dón Antonio Gil Ybarbo (1729–1809), also known as ''Gil Ybarbo'', ''Gil Ibarbo'', and many other name variants, was a pioneering settler of Nacogdoches, Texas. Ambiguously described by the National Park Service as a "prolific trader and smuggl ...
visited the lake the same year, and an expedition under
José Antonio de Evia
José is a predominantly Spanish and Portuguese language, Portuguese form of the given name Joseph. While spelled alike, this name is pronounced differently in each language: Spanish ; Portuguese (or ).
In French, the name ''José'', pronounced ...
mapped the lake in 1785 as part of a survey of the Texas coast. In the early 1800s Sabine Lake was used to ship slaves and other contraband into the region by
smuggler
Smuggling is the illegal transportation of objects, substances, information or people, such as out of a house or buildings, into a prison, or across an international border, in violation of applicable laws or other regulations.
There are various ...
s including the pirate
Jean Lafitte
Jean Lafitte ( – ) was a French pirate and privateer who operated in the Gulf of Mexico in the early 19th century. He and his older brother Pierre spelled their last name Laffite, but English language documents of the time used "Lafitte". Thi ...
. The waterway was also used to move
timber
Lumber is wood that has been processed into dimensional lumber, including beams and planks or boards, a stage in the process of wood production. Lumber is mainly used for construction framing, as well as finishing (floors, wall panels, wi ...
and
cotton
Cotton is a soft, fluffy staple fiber that grows in a boll, or protective case, around the seeds of the cotton plants of the genus ''Gossypium'' in the mallow family Malvaceae. The fiber is almost pure cellulose, and can contain minor perce ...
out from the interior.
With the 1801
Treaty of Aranjuez the lake became part of the border between
French Louisiana
The term French Louisiana refers to two distinct regions:
* first, to Louisiana (New France), colonial French Louisiana, comprising the massive, middle section of North America claimed by Early Modern France, France during the 17th and 18th centu ...
and
Spanish Texas
Spanish Texas was one of the interior provinces of the colonial Viceroyalty of New Spain from 1690 until 1821. The term "interior provinces" first appeared in 1712, as an expression meaning "far away" provinces. It was only in 1776 that a lega ...
.
After the
Louisiana Purchase
The Louisiana Purchase (french: Vente de la Louisiane, translation=Sale of Louisiana) was the acquisition of the territory of Louisiana by the United States from the French First Republic in 1803. In return for fifteen million dollars, or app ...
Sabine Lake formed part of the
United States
The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...
' border with Spanish Texas, then
Mexican Texas
Mexican Texas is the historiographical name used to refer to the era of Texan history between 1821 and 1836, when it was part of Mexico. Mexico gained independence in 1821 after winning its war against Spain, which began in 1810. Initially, ...
, and finally the
Republic of Texas
The Republic of Texas ( es, República de Tejas) was a sovereign state in North America that existed from March 2, 1836, to February 19, 1846, that bordered Mexico, the Republic of the Rio Grande in 1840 (another breakaway republic from Mex ...
.
During the Republic period the American and Texan
customs
Customs is an authority or agency in a country responsible for collecting tariffs and for controlling the flow of goods, including animals, transports, personal effects, and hazardous items, into and out of a country. Traditionally, customs ...
agencies came into significant conflict over the taxation of shipping on the lake, but with the
Texas annexation
The Texas annexation was the 1845 annexation of the Republic of Texas into the United States. Texas was admitted to the Union as the 28th state on December 29, 1845.
The Republic of Texas declared independence from the Republic of Mexico on ...
Sabine Lake instead became part of the border between the
U.S. state
In the United States, a state is a constituent political entity, of which there are 50. Bound together in a political union, each state holds governmental jurisdiction over a separate and defined geographic territory where it shares its sover ...
s of
Louisiana
Louisiana , group=pronunciation (French: ''La Louisiane'') is a state in the Deep South and South Central regions of the United States. It is the 20th-smallest by area and the 25th most populous of the 50 U.S. states. Louisiana is borde ...
and
Texas
Texas (, ; Spanish language, Spanish: ''Texas'', ''Tejas'') is a state in the South Central United States, South Central region of the United States. At 268,596 square miles (695,662 km2), and with more than 29.1 million residents in 2 ...
. The lake's shores were only intermittently settled and abandoned in the mid-to-late 1800s, and the
1886 Indianola hurricane destroyed the only significant settlements nearby at
Sabine Pass
Sabine Pass is the natural outlet of Sabine Lake into the Gulf of Mexico. It borders Jefferson County, Texas, and Cameron Parish, Louisiana.
History Civil War
Two major battles occurred here during the American Civil War, known as the First and ...
and
Johnson Bayou.
The
inlet
An inlet is a (usually long and narrow) indentation of a shoreline, such as a small arm, bay, sound, fjord, lagoon or marsh, that leads to an enclosed larger body of water such as a lake, estuary, gulf or marginal sea.
Overview
In marine geogra ...
at
Sabine Pass
Sabine Pass is the natural outlet of Sabine Lake into the Gulf of Mexico. It borders Jefferson County, Texas, and Cameron Parish, Louisiana.
History Civil War
Two major battles occurred here during the American Civil War, known as the First and ...
was
dredge
Dredging is the excavation of material from a water environment. Possible reasons for dredging include improving existing water features; reshaping land and water features to alter drainage, navigability, and commercial use; constructing da ...
d and deepened in 1880 to ease access to the lake for shipping. In 1895
Port Arthur was founded, and the southwestern edge of the lake was
channelized from Sabine Pass to Port Arthur in 1899, forming the Port Arthur Canal.
The discovery of
petroleum
Petroleum, also known as crude oil, or simply oil, is a naturally occurring yellowish-black liquid mixture of mainly hydrocarbons, and is found in geological formations. The name ''petroleum'' covers both naturally occurring unprocessed crud ...
under
Spindletop
Spindletop is an oil field located in the southern portion of Beaumont, Texas, in the United States. The Spindletop dome was derived from the Louann Salt evaporite layer of the Jurassic geologic period. On January 10, 1901, a well at Spindleto ...
in 1901 began the
Texas oil boom
The Texas oil boom, sometimes called the gusher age, was a period of dramatic change and economic growth in the U.S. state of Texas during the early 20th century that began with the discovery of a large petroleum reserve near Beaumont, Texas. T ...
and caused rapid economic growth in nearby
Beaumont
Beaumont may refer to:
Places Canada
* Beaumont, Alberta
* Beaumont, Quebec
England
* Beaumont, Cumbria
* Beaumont, Essex
** Beaumont Cut, a canal closed in the 1930s
* Beaumont Street, Oxford
France (communes)
* Beaumont, Ardèche
* ...
, prompting interest in expanding the region's canal system.
By 1908 Sabine Lake's channel was extended northward to the mouths of the
Neches and
Sabine
The Sabines (; lat, Sabini; it, Sabini, all exonyms) were an Italic people who lived in the central Apennine Mountains of the ancient Italian Peninsula, also inhabiting Latium north of the Anio before the founding of Rome.
The Sabines divide ...
Rivers to improve shipping access to the ports of Beaumont and
Orange
Orange most often refers to:
*Orange (fruit), the fruit of the tree species '' Citrus'' × ''sinensis''
** Orange blossom, its fragrant flower
*Orange (colour), from the color of an orange, occurs between red and yellow in the visible spectrum
* ...
, forming the Sabine–Neches Canal;
the region's combined channel system is known as the
Sabine–Neches Waterway. The material dredged up in the canalization was formed into
Pleasure Island, an artificial
barrier island
Barrier islands are coastal landforms and a type of Dune, dune system that are exceptionally flat or lumpy areas of sand that form by wave and tidal action parallel to the mainland coast. They usually occur in chains, consisting of anything fro ...
along the majority of the western shore that shelters Port Arthur and the waterway. Most of the Louisiana shore was protected within the
Sabine National Wildlife Refuge
Sabine National Wildlife Refuge is a National Wildlife Refuge of the United States located in Cameron Parish in southwestern Louisiana. It is on Louisiana State Route 27, south of Hackberry and north of Holly Beach. The western boundary of the ...
in 1937.
In the early twentieth century the lake and its shipping channel were incorporated into a wider network of canals running from
to
Galveston Bay
Galveston Bay ( ) is a bay in the western Gulf of Mexico along the upper coast of Texas. It is the seventh-largest estuary in the United States, and the largest of seven major estuaries along the Texas Gulf Coast. It is connected to the Gulf of ...
; after
World War II
World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...
this network grew into the
Gulf Intracoastal Waterway
The Gulf Intracoastal Waterway is the portion of the Intracoastal Waterway located along the Gulf Coast of the United States. It is a navigable inland waterway running approximately from Carrabelle, Florida, to Brownsville, Texas.
The waterw ...
.
Features
![Sabine lake 2007](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/b/bf/Sabine_lake_2007.jpg)
Sabine Lake is located on the
Gulf Coastal Plain
The Gulf Coastal Plain extends around the Gulf of Mexico in the Southern United States and eastern Mexico.
This coastal plain reaches from the Florida Panhandle, southwest Georgia, the southern two-thirds of Alabama, over most of Mississippi, wes ...
at the Texas–Louisiana border. The natural portions of the lake have a mean low-water depth of at most around , though the ship channels have been dredged to a depth of more than .
The eastern (Louisiana) shore has little human development, and the majority is protected within the Sabine National Wildlife Refuge;
the western (Texas) shore is heavily urbanized, with the city of Port Arthur and significant shipping and petrochemical infrastructure along the shore.
Pleasure Island parallels the western shore for , separating the Port Arthur Canal and Sabine–Neches Canal from the main body of the lake. The
Martin Luther King Bridge spans the Sabine–Neches Canal to link Port Arthur to Pleasure Island, and the
Sabine Causeway connects the island to the Louisiana shore across the southern tip of the lake. Water exchange with the
Gulf of Mexico
The Gulf of Mexico ( es, Golfo de México) is an oceanic basin, ocean basin and a marginal sea of the Atlantic Ocean, largely surrounded by the North American continent. It is bounded on the northeast, north and northwest by the Gulf Coast of ...
occurs at Sabine Pass.
Sabine Lake is the smallest of the seven major
estuaries along the Gulf Coast of Texas, approximately long and wide, with a surface area of . It receives the discharge from the Neches and Sabine Rivers, along with various smaller streams and the surrounding coastal watershed. The lake's small size and high rate of freshwater inflow make it the least saline of the major Texas estuaries. Its salinity was even lower prior to the twentieth century, and its upper reaches were almost entirely fresh,
but the extensive channelization of the lake since then has led to increased
saltwater intrusion
Saltwater intrusion is the movement of saline water into freshwater aquifers, which can lead to groundwater quality degradation, including drinking water sources, and other consequences. Saltwater intrusion can naturally occur in coastal aquifers ...
into the estuary, with salinity rising especially during periods of low freshwater inflow.
Increasing salinity has had a negative impact on the
diversity
Diversity, diversify, or diverse may refer to:
Business
*Diversity (business), the inclusion of people of different identities (ethnicity, gender, age) in the workforce
*Diversity marketing, marketing communication targeting diverse customers
* ...
and
productivity
Productivity is the efficiency of production of goods or services expressed by some measure. Measurements of productivity are often expressed as a ratio of an aggregate output to a single input or an aggregate input used in a production proces ...
of wetland plants in the estuary.
Ecosystem
![Crab harvest, Louisiana (5984380359)](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/b/b2/Crab_harvest%2C_Louisiana_%285984380359%29.jpg)
The
dominant species of aquatic vegetation in Sabine Lake is ''
Ruppia maritima
''Ruppia maritima'' is an aquatic plant species commonly known as beaked tasselweed, ditch grass, tassel pondweed and widgeon grass. Despite its scientific name, it is not a marine plant; is perhaps best described as a salt-tolerant freshwater ...
''.
Aquatic fauna include a variety of
finfish
Fish are aquatic, craniate, gill-bearing animals that lack limbs with digits. Included in this definition are the living hagfish, lampreys, and cartilaginous and bony fish as well as various extinct related groups. Approximately 95% of liv ...
and
shellfish
Shellfish is a colloquial and fisheries term for exoskeleton-bearing aquatic invertebrates used as food, including various species of molluscs, crustaceans, and echinoderms. Although most kinds of shellfish are harvested from saltwater envir ...
, with large populations of
sport fishing
Recreational fishing, also called sport fishing or game fishing, is fishing for leisure, exercise or competition. It can be contrasted with commercial fishing, which is professional fishing for profit; or subsistence fishing, which is fishing ...
species such as
Atlantic croaker
The Atlantic croaker (''Micropogonias undulatus'') is a species of marine ray-finned fish belonging to the family Sciaenidae and is closely related to the black drum (''Pogonias cromis''), the silver perch (''Bairdiella chrysoura''), the spot cro ...
,
spotted seatrout
''Cynoscion nebulosus'', the spotted seatrout, also known as speckled trout, is a common estuarine fish found in the southern United States along coasts of Gulf of Mexico and the coastal Atlantic Ocean from Maryland to Florida. While most of thes ...
,
southern flounder
The southern (or armless) flounders are a small family, Achiropsettidae, of flounders found in Antarctic and sub-Antarctic waters. There are four genera, each with one species.
The bodies of southern flounders are greatly compressed, with both ...
,
red
Red is the color at the long wavelength end of the visible spectrum of light, next to orange and opposite violet. It has a dominant wavelength of approximately 625–740 nanometres. It is a primary color in the RGB color model and a secondar ...
and
black drum
The black drum (''Pogonias cromis''), also known as the drum or drummer, is a saltwater fish similar to its cousin, the red drum. It is in the genus '' Pogonias''. Though most specimens are generally found in the 5-30 lb (2–14 kg) ran ...
,
sheepshead and
gafftopsail catfish
The gafftopsail catfish (''Bagre marinus'') is found in the waters of the western central Atlantic Ocean, as well as the Gulf of Mexico and the Caribbean Sea. It has long, venomous spines which can cause painful wounds. It feeds on crustaceans an ...
.
Other significant fish species include the
bay anchovy,
Gulf menhaden
The Gulf menhaden (''Brevoortia patronus'') is a small marine filter-feeding fish belonging to the family Clupeidae. The range of Gulf menhaden encompasses the entirety of the Gulf of Mexico nearshore waters, with the exception of the extreme e ...
and
spot
Spot or SPOT may refer to:
Places
* Spot, North Carolina, a community in the United States
* The Spot, New South Wales, a locality in Sydney, Australia
* South Pole Traverse, sometimes called the South Pole Overland Traverse
People
* Spot (prod ...
.
Commercial fishing
Commercial fishing is the activity of catching fish and other seafood for commercial profit, mostly from wild fisheries. It provides a large quantity of food to many countries around the world, but those who practice it as an industry must often ...
in the lake produces mainly shellfish, especially
blue crab Blue crab may refer to:
* Blue Crab 11, an American sailboat design
* ''Callinectes sapidus'' – Chesapeake or Atlantic blue crab of the West Atlantic, introduced elsewhere
* ''Cardisoma guanhumi'' – blue land crab of the West Atlantic
* '' Disc ...
and
penaeid shrimp
Penaeidae is a family of marine crustaceans in the suborder Dendrobranchiata, which are often referred to as penaeid shrimp or penaeid prawns. The Penaeidae contain many species of economic importance, such as the tiger prawn, whiteleg shrimp, ...
such as
northern brown shrimp
''Farfantepenaeus aztecus'' is a species of marine penaeid shrimps found around the east coast of the US and Mexico. They are an important commercial species in the US. The FAO
The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nation ...
and
Atlantic white shrimp.
Sabine Lake is the only major Texas estuary that does not support a commercial
American oyster fishery, as it lacks a suitable
reef
A reef is a ridge or shoal of rock, coral or similar relatively stable material, lying beneath the surface of a natural body of water. Many reefs result from natural, abiotic processes— deposition of sand, wave erosion planing down rock out ...
and is too
polluted
Pollution is the introduction of contaminants into the natural environment that cause adverse change. Pollution can take the form of any substance (solid, liquid, or gas) or energy (such as radioactivity, heat, sound, or light). Pollutants, the ...
for legal oyster harvesting.
The land around the lake includes a blend of
Western Gulf coastal grasslands
The Western Gulf coastal grasslands ( es, Pastizales costeros del Golfo Occidental) are a subtropical grassland ecoregion of the southern United States and northeastern Mexico. It is known in Louisiana as the "Cajun Prairie", Texas as "Coastal ...
and
coastal marsh
A tidal marsh (also known as a type of "tidal wetland") is a marsh found along rivers, coasts and estuaries which floods and drains by the tidal movement of the adjacent estuary, sea or ocean. Tidal marshes are commonly zoned into lower marshes ( ...
ecosystems, together with urban land cover in Port Arthur and its suburbs on the western shore.
The majority of the non-urbanized shoreline is surrounded by
brackish marsh
Brackish marshes develop from salt marshes where a significant freshwater influx dilutes the seawater to brackish levels of salinity. This commonly happens upstream from salt marshes by estuaries of coastal rivers or near the mouths of coastal r ...
es,
with
halophyte
A halophyte is a salt-tolerant plant that grows in soil or waters of high salinity, coming into contact with saline water through its roots or by salt spray, such as in saline semi-deserts, mangrove swamps, marshes and sloughs and seashores. T ...
s such as
cordgrass
''Spartina'' is a taxon of plants in the grass family, frequently found in coastal salt marshes. Its species are commonly known as cordgrass or cord-grass, and are native to the coasts of the Atlantic Ocean in western and southern Europe, north ...
es and
common reed
''Phragmites australis'', known as the common reed, is a species of plant. It is a broadly distributed wetland grass that can grow up to tall.
Description
''Phragmites australis'' commonly forms extensive stands (known as reed beds), which may ...
s as the dominant flora.
These coastal wetlands provide habitats for
American alligator
The American alligator (''Alligator mississippiensis''), sometimes referred to colloquially as a gator or common alligator, is a large crocodilian reptile native to the Southeastern United States. It is one of the two extant species in the g ...
s,
Atlantic ridley sea turtles,
red wolves
The red wolf (''Canis rufus'') is a canine native to the southeastern United States. Its size is intermediate between the coyote (''Canis latrans'') and gray wolf (''Canis lupus'').
The red wolf's taxonomic classification as being a separate sp ...
and
brown pelican
The brown pelican (''Pelecanus occidentalis'') is a bird of the pelican family, Pelecanidae, one of three species found in the Americas and one of two that feed by diving into water. It is found on the Atlantic Coast from New Jersey to the mout ...
s.
Saltwater intrusion and
land subsidence
Subsidence is a general term for downward vertical movement of the Earth's surface, which can be caused by both natural processes and human activities. Subsidence involves little or no horizontal movement, which distinguishes it from slope move ...
resulting from human activities in the lake since the late 1800s have caused vegetation loss and erosion, and the remaining marshes are experiencing ongoing degradation as the ecosystems adjust to the altered hydrology in the estuary.
Industry
The channelization of Sabine Lake has made it an important industrial waterway, one component of the Gulf Intracoastal Waterway and the heart of the Sabine–Neches Waterway. The three ports it links to the Gulf of Mexico (Port Arthur, Beaumont and Orange) form a major nexus for the
shipping
Freight transport, also referred as ''Freight Forwarding'', is the physical process of transporting Commodity, commodities and merchandise goods and cargo. The term shipping originally referred to transport by sea but in American English, it h ...
and
petrochemical
Petrochemicals (sometimes abbreviated as petchems) are the chemical products obtained from petroleum by refining. Some chemical compounds made from petroleum are also obtained from other fossil fuels, such as coal or natural gas, or renewable sou ...
industries, the so-called
Golden Triangle
Golden Triangle may refer to:
Places
Asia
* Golden Triangle (Southeast Asia), named for its opium production
* Golden Triangle (Yangtze), China, named for its rapid economic development
* Golden Triangle (India), comprising the popular tourist ...
of Texas.
The largest industries around the lake are petroleum and
natural gas
Natural gas (also called fossil gas or simply gas) is a naturally occurring mixture of gaseous hydrocarbons consisting primarily of methane in addition to various smaller amounts of other higher alkanes. Low levels of trace gases like carbo ...
extraction, petrochemical processing, shipping, and
shipbuilding
Shipbuilding is the construction of ships and other floating vessels. It normally takes place in a specialized facility known as a shipyard. Shipbuilders, also called shipwrights, follow a specialized occupation that traces its roots to befor ...
. Agriculture also forms a significant component of the regional economy, principally
rice
Rice is the seed of the grass species ''Oryza sativa'' (Asian rice) or less commonly ''Oryza glaberrima
''Oryza glaberrima'', commonly known as African rice, is one of the two domesticated rice species. It was first domesticated and grown i ...
and
soybean
The soybean, soy bean, or soya bean (''Glycine max'') is a species of legume native to East Asia, widely grown for its edible bean, which has numerous uses.
Traditional unfermented food uses of soybeans include soy milk, from which tofu an ...
cultivation,
livestock
Livestock are the domesticated animals raised in an agricultural setting to provide labor and produce diversified products for consumption such as meat, eggs, milk, fur, leather, and wool. The term is sometimes used to refer solely to animals ...
ranching, and commercial fishing.
References
External links
*
*
{{authority control
Lakes of Louisiana
Lakes of Texas
Estuaries of Louisiana
Estuaries of Texas
Bodies of water of Cameron Parish, Louisiana
Bodies of water of Jefferson County, Texas
Bodies of water of Orange County, Texas
Gulf Coast of the United States