Public Health Priority Problems

The public incurs a certain level of risks from consuming Galveston Bay seafood or enjoying contact recreation activities in its waters; this is true for any water body in the nation. These risks are relatively low with a few exceptions.

Seafood consumption
For more information on the latest seafood advisories in the Galveston Bay area, click here.

For more information on oyster harvesting, click here.

For more information on dioxins, click here.

Contact recreation
Although swimming beaches are not widespread along the bay's shoreline, considerable contact recreation occurs in areas such as Clear Lake and along shorelines popular for wade fishing. DSHS has neither a contact recreation regulating program nor a public education program; however, the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality indirectly addresses contact recreation through Water Quality Advisory Groups and monitoring programs. Fecal coliform bacteria concentration data are used to determine if the bay's waters support contact recreation use. Those waters that do not are placed on the Texas Section 303(d) List. Overall, potential risks from contact recreation in the bay system are considered to be relatively low. However, a number of bay's western, urbanized tributaries have been listed, likely resulting from contaminated storm water run-off and other human activities.

See more information on priority problems related to Galveston Bay public health in Chapter Nine of The State of the Bay. See Solutions.