Texas is ranked 6th in terms of shoreline mileage with 3,359. It has only 68 fewer miles of shoreline than California. The coastline measurement is a bit different (see definitions below).
Obtained from Yahoo! Answers:
Top ten longest shorelines:
1 FLORIDA 8,426 miles (longest saltwater shoreline)
2 Louisiana 7,721
3 Maine 3,478
4 California 3,427
5 North Carolina 3,375
6 Texas 3,359
7 Virginia 3,315
8 MICHIGAN 3,288 (longest freshwater shoreline)
9 Maryland 3,190
10 Washington 3,026
Top ten coastlines:
1 FLORIDA 1,350 miles (longest saltwater coastline)
2 California 840
3 Louisiana 397
4 Texas 367
5 North Carolina 301
6 Oregon 296
7 Maine 228
8 Massachusetts 192
9 South Carolina 187
10 Washington 157
Definitions:
Shoreline is the perimeter of the land along the water’s edge, measured to the closest exactness possible. Shoreline is, therefore, usually longer for a particular location than is its coastline.
Coastline follows the general line of the coast, but sometimes, in the case of small inlets or bays, the coastline is measured as running directly across the bay or inlet to rejoin the coastline on the opposite side. Coastline is not measured as precisely as is shoreline.
