The Laguna Madre is the name of two long, shallow bays along the western coast of the Gulf of Mexico in the United States and Mexico; the two being separated by the outlet of the Rio Grande. Meaning ?mother lagoon? in Spanish, the Laguna Madre proper is 130 miles (209 km) long, the length of Padre Island; its biological corridor, though, extends well into Mexico, to the mouth of the Río Soto la Marina in the state of Tamaulipas[1] (see map at right).