An estuary is where a river meets the ocean, a handshake if you will. This is where you can see the lungs of the Earth at work. For we landsmen often forget that we live upon a water planet, and the estuary is the daily breath in, breath out as the tides push their way up river and then on the ebb, river flows out into the salty sea.
Estuaries are exceptionally rich in life, and here in the Pacific Northwest they’re a nursery for salmon who need to eat, grow, and not be eaten, before they follow the ancient scent trails of their kind back into the deep. Estuaries are a great “and” of nature. Both salt and fresh, low and high, dry and wet. If all life began in the garden of Eden, then that garden was an estuary where some creatures climbed panting onto land while other swam far out to sea. They are a home and a journey and deserve respect and protection.
All photographs are available.
