Redfish Island

To see a chart of Redfish Island please click the following link:

http://www.swg.usace.army.mil/SO/redfish/RedFishWaterDepths.pdf

Redfish Island was a popular boating destination in Galveston Bay for generations. In fact, an 1851 map of Galveston Bay on display at the Texas Seaport Museum in Galveston shows a group of islands named the “Redfish Islands” in the same general vicinity as the newly restored island. Originally, Redfish was a mile long outcropping of oyster shell reef in the middle of Galveston Bay. There was an abundance of vegetation on the island. It was mostly scrub brush, but it also had some cedar trees and other tough and hardy underbrush. It was a nesting place for many waterfowl including the very colorful roseate spoonbill.

From a boater’s perspective, it was a marvelous destination for a weekend sail. It was safe to get to from the west side of the Bay as there was no need to cross the Houston Ship Channel. Once you arrived, the island shielded boats from the wakes of ships passing nearby in the channel. There was also full protection from the prevailing southeast winds. In short, it was a premiere boating destination on Galveston Bay. On a typical summer weekend hundreds of boats anchored in the protected waters and enjoyed the beauty and peace of this natural treasure.

Unfortunately, during the late 1980's, the island was washed away due to a combination of ship wakes from traffic in the Ship Channel, storms, and subsidence. The resulting island became a hazardous reef a located a few feet below the surface.

Due to the strong voice of the Galveston Bay boating community, the Port of Houston, the Army Corps of Engineers, and the Beneficial Use Group, began reconstruction of the island in 2002. The restoration involved loading 140 barge loads of stone to the middle of the Bay, placing more than 206,000 tons of limestone in the Bay to create the island, and then covering the edge of the formation with 3,000 tons of shell and shell hash. Rocks laid on the island range in size from several ounces to as much as 1,600 lbs each.

The entire process took just three months and was completed in November 2002. Birds found the island during the construction phase of the project and enjoy a permanent spot on the north end of the island. The island’s new 1.4-acre bird habitat attracts barren-ground nesters such as the least tern, black skimmer, gull-billed terns, forster’s tern, sandwich tern, and royal tern. A 1,000-foot rock dike on the opposing end of the island provides approximately 40 acres of safe anchoring for boaters. Small “cereal” stone placed along the outside perimeter of the island provides oyster habitat.

Even though the final product is about a third of the original length of the island, there is about a mile of anchorage area. Boaters should make a sincere effort to familiarize themselves with the restored island. Approach and depart from the north and west. Avoid the area to the south. Any passage in this direction surely will cause an encounter with the shoals of the former island as well as the shallows known as Todd’s Dump.