Stokes Inlet is an inlet

Inlet

An inlet is a narrow body of water between islands or leading inland from a larger body of water, often leading to an enclosed body of water, such as a sound, bay, lagoon or marsh. In sea coasts an inlet usually refers to the actual connection between a bay and the ocean and is often called an...

 in the Goldfields-Esperance region of Western Australia

Western Australia

Western Australia is a state of Australia, occupying the entire western third of the Australian continent. It is bounded by the Indian Ocean to the north and west, the Great Australian Bight and Indian Ocean to the south, the Northern Territory to the north-east and South Australia to the south-east...

.

The inlet is situated 65 kilometres (40 mi) from Esperance

Esperance, Western Australia

Esperance is a large town in the Goldfields-Esperance region of Western Australia, located on the Southern Ocean coastline approximately east-southeast of the state capital, Perth. The shire of Esperance is home to 9,536 people as of the 2006 census, its major industries are tourism, agriculture,...

 in Stokes National Park

Stokes National Park

Stokes National Park is a national park in Goldfields-Esperance region of Western Australia , 538 km south-east of Perth.The National Park is located west of Esperance on the southern coast...

 and is set is a large river

River

A river is a natural watercourse, usually freshwater, flowing towards an ocean, a lake, a sea, or another river. In a few cases, a river simply flows into the ground or dries up completely before reaching another body of water. Small rivers may also be called by several other names, including...

 valley

Valley

In geology, a valley or dale is a depression with predominant extent in one direction. A very deep river valley may be called a canyon or gorge.The terms U-shaped and V-shaped are descriptive terms of geography to characterize the form of valleys...

 with permanent deep water and high dunes located on either side. Thick bushland and paperbark trees surround the inlet and grow down to the waters edge. It is in a largely unmodified condition.
The inlet functions primarily as a result of wave energy and is a wave dominated estuary

Estuary

An estuary is a partly enclosed coastal body of water with one or more rivers or streams flowing into it, and with a free connection to the open sea....

.

Geography

The inlet is managed by the Department of Environment and Conservation with a catchment

Drainage basin

A drainage basin is an extent or an area of land where surface water from rain and melting snow or ice converges to a single point, usually the exit of the basin, where the waters join another waterbody, such as a river, lake, reservoir, estuary, wetland, sea, or ocean...

 that extends over 100 kilometres (62 mi) inland and is fed by two main rivers: The Young

Young River (Western Australia)

The Young River is a river in Western Australia that rises south of the Frank Hann National Park then flows in a south easterly direction for a distance of before flowing into Stokes Inlet which discharges into the Southern Ocean....

 and Lort River

Lort River

Lort River is a river located in the Goldfields-Esperance region and the Eastern Mallee sub-region of Western Australia.The headwaters of the Lort River begin in the Peak Charles National Park and its surrounding vacant Crown land...

.
The inlet itself is 10 kilometres (6 mi) long and 2 kilometres (1 mi) wide with an area of 14 square kilometres (5 sq mi) and receives an annual flow of 5 million cubic metres.
The central basin has an area of 8.6 square kilometres (3 sq mi) with intertidal flats having an area of approximately 2 square kilometre (0.77220431718507 sq mi).

The mouth of the river is in the middle of Dunster Castle Bay, it is closed by a sandbar that cuts the estuary

Estuary

An estuary is a partly enclosed coastal body of water with one or more rivers or streams flowing into it, and with a free connection to the open sea....

 off from the sea and only opens every few years. As a result the salinity

Salinity

Salinity is the saltiness or dissolved salt content of a body of water. It is a general term used to describe the levels of different salts such as sodium chloride, magnesium and calcium sulfates, and bicarbonates...

 and water level fluctuate greatly dependent upon the amount of evaporation

Evaporation

Evaporation is a type of vaporization of a liquid that occurs only on the surface of a liquid. The other type of vaporization is boiling, which, instead, occurs on the entire mass of the liquid....

 and river flow.

Flora

The aquatic flora of the estuary are dominated by the small green algae

Algae

Algae are a large and diverse group of simple, typically autotrophic organisms, ranging from unicellular to multicellular forms, such as the giant kelps that grow to 65 meters in length. They are photosynthetic like plants, and "simple" because their tissues are not organized into the many...

 Polyphysa peniculus the stonewort Lamprothamnium papulosum and the seagrass Ruppia megacarpa.
The waterbody of the inlet is fringed with Salt Water Paperbarks

Melaleuca cuticularis

Melaleuca cuticularis, or Saltwater Paperbark is a native tree of Western Australia.- Description :M. cuticularis is a tree that typically grows to a height of - and is fairly dense....

 with sedge

Sedge

- Plants :* Acorus calamus, sweet flag, a plant in the Acoraceae family* Any of the plants in the family Cyperaceae- Animals :* A collective noun for several species of birds, including bitterns, cranes and herons* Sedge-fly, caddisfly- Other uses :...

s and samphire

Samphire

Samphire is a name given to a number of very different edible plants that happen to grow in coastal areas.*Rock samphire, Crithmum maritimum is a coastal species with white flowers that grows in the United Kingdom...

 common along the sandy sections.

Fauna

Marine species flourish at times when the bar is open such blue manna crabs

Portunus pelagicus

Portunus pelagicus, also known as the flower crab, blue crab, blue swimmer crab, blue manna crab or sand crab, is a large crab found in the intertidal estuaries of the Indian and Pacific Oceans and the Middle-Eastern coast of the Mediterranean Sea. The name "flower crab" is used in east Asian...

, juvenile prawn

Prawn

Prawns are decapod crustaceans of the sub-order Dendrobranchiata. There are 540 extant species, in seven families, and a fossil record extending back to the Devonian...

s, cockle

Cockle (bivalve)

Cockle is the common name for a group of small, edible, saltwater clams, marine bivalve molluscs in the family Cardiidae.Various species of cockles live in sandy sheltered beaches throughout the world....

s and mussel

Mussel

The common name mussel is used for members of several families of clams or bivalvia mollusca, from saltwater and freshwater habitats. These groups have in common a shell whose outline is elongated and asymmetrical compared with other edible clams, which are often more or less rounded or oval.The...

s have all been identified in the inlet.
Many fish species inhabit the estuary such as the common minnow, hardyhead

Craterocephalus

Craterocephalus is a genus of small and slender brackish or freshwater fish from Australia and New Guinea in the Atherinidae family.It contains 25 species, some of them as follows:* Darling River hardyhead...

s, gobie

Goby

The gobies form the family Gobiidae, which is one of the largest families of fish, with more than 2,000 species in more than 200 genera. Most are relatively small, typically less than 10 cm in length...

s and larger species such as Black Bream and Sea Mullet.