East Cove National Wildlife Refuge is located south of Lake Charles, Louisiana

Lake Charles, Louisiana

Lake Charles is the fifth-largest incorporated city in the U.S. state of Louisiana, located on Lake Charles, Prien Lake, and the Calcasieu River. Located in Calcasieu Parish, a major cultural, industrial, and educational center in the southwest region of the state, and one of the most important in...

 along the southeast shore of Calcasieu Lake

Calcasieu Lake

Calcasieu Lake is a brackish lake located in southwest Louisiana, United States, located mostly within Cameron Parish. The lake is paralleled on its west shore by Louisiana Highway 27 and is located about 17 miles south of Lake Charles, Louisiana....

 in Cameron Parish

Cameron Parish, Louisiana

Cameron Parish is the parish with the most land area in the U.S. state of Louisiana. The parish seat is Cameron and as of 2010, the population was 6,839...

. It is accessible only by boat.

Wildlife and habitat

The habitat is an estuarine marsh in the heart of the Cameron Creole Watershed.

Nineteen miles of lake shore levee and five water control structures are used to control water and salinity levels in this wetland.

Abundant fishery resources such as fish

Fish

Fish are a paraphyletic group of organisms that consist of all gill-bearing aquatic vertebrate animals that lack limbs with digits. Included in this definition are the living hagfish, lampreys, and cartilaginous and bony fish, as well as various extinct related groups...

, shrimp

Shrimp

Shrimp are swimming, decapod crustaceans classified in the infraorder Caridea, found widely around the world in both fresh and salt water. Adult shrimp are filter feeding benthic animals living close to the bottom. They can live in schools and can swim rapidly backwards. Shrimp are an important...

, and crab

Crab

True crabs are decapod crustaceans of the infraorder Brachyura, which typically have a very short projecting "tail" , or where the reduced abdomen is entirely hidden under the thorax...

s as well as migratory birds and alligator

Alligator

An alligator is a crocodilian in the genus Alligator of the family Alligatoridae. There are two extant alligator species: the American alligator and the Chinese alligator ....

s are found in the area.

See also

• List of National Wildlife Refuges: Louisiana