Baffin Bay (Texas) Baffin Bay (Texas) Baffin Bay is a bay in South Texas, an inlet of the larger Laguna Madre. Located near the Gulf of Mexico, Baffin Bay forms part of the boundary between Kenedy County and Kleberg County. The history of the bay name is unclear. The most popular story is that Captain Mifflin Kenedy (1818–1895), after visiting the Arctic Baffin Bay as a young man, gave the same name to the bay in Texas because of the remarkable contrast between the bays. The Arctic Baffin Bay is located between the Baffin Island of Canada and Greenland, and it is about
Baffin Bay (Texas) 310 times larger by area than the Baffin Bay in Texas. The Baffin Bay has three branches, which are named as follows (counterclockwise on the map above): Alazan Bay on the north (green), Cayo del Grullo (purple) and Laguna Salada (blue). Several ephemeral streams, including San Fernando, Santa Gertrudis and Los Olmos, flow into the bay, but only when it rains. Because of the scarce freshwater inflow and extensive evaporation, which is promoted by shallow water and warm climate, the bay has a relatively high water salinity reaching 75‰ (parts per thousand) in its northern part. Between 1946 and 1948