What kinds of wildlife & plants are found in estuaries?
Estuaries support a great abundance of life. The following organisms are only some of the many that live, feed or develop in estuaries: • Aquatic plants such as eelgrass and sedges; terrestrial plants such as dunegrass and salt grass • Microorganisms including fungi, bacteria and protozoa • Shellfish such as mussels, clams, snails, limpets and Native Oysters • Segmented worms, ribbon worms, flatworms, and bristleworms • Crustaceans such as shrimp, crabs, copepods, amphipods • Fish such as Pacific Salmon, herring, Cutthroat Trout, stickleback and sculpins • Mammals such as bears, cougars, river and sea otters, harbour seals, sea lions, mink and raccoons • Birds such as Great Blue Herons, plovers, Black Oystercatchers, killdeers, sandpipers, mergansers, kingfishers, widgeons, pintails, Canada Geese, Black Brant Geese, Mallards, Surf Scoters, cormorants, eagles, ospreys and owls (an estimated five million birds use estuaries along the coast of BC) Estuaries have been called the “nurseries
