File Name: saltflat3

Located behind the bay this slat flat is approximately one sixth the size of Mosquito Bay.

Sharon Grasso writes:
Salt Flats:
Well back into the mangrove fringe, where the washing of the tides is infrequent, the region's high rate of evaporation combined with the transpiration of the mangroves produces an environment dominated by salt. In the backwater mangrove areas are occasional small ponds, which only the highest tides fill. They become so salty that they support only certain life forms, mostly brine fly larvae and the minute brine shrimp. As these ponds dry their retreating margins are marked by millions upon millions of brown brine shrimp eggs. The highest parts of the intertidal zone are wetted by only a few tides during the year. Here the sea comes too infrequently to support a lush mangrove growth, and evaporation has left too much salt in the soil to allow other vegetation to grow. Here you may find the area dominated by thick mats of yellowish green saltwort or reddish sea purslane. In many places the concentration of salt is so great that no plant is able to grow and the area is barren. The salt crystals on these whitened flats glisten and sparkle brightly in the sunlight.