A large recirculating gyre or bulge (anticyclonic buoyant lens) can occur in buoyant outflows to the coastal ocean. Laboratory experiments were conducted to examine the characteristics, evolution, and impact of bulges for coastal buoyant outflow. It was determined that the freshwater storage within the bulge was approximately 60–70% of the buoyant outflow. A (buoyant) coastal current propagates downshelf of the bulge. The scales of the downshelf propagating coastal currents are larger in the absence of a recirculating bulge. Scaling arguments are presented that show the coastal current dynamics can be classified by a two-variable non-dimensional parameter space: the ambient depth parameter, h/H, and the bottom slope parameter, R/yb. We also examine the influence of the Kelvin number (K) and fractional depth (h/D) on bulge formation. Here K=W/R is the ratio of the width (W) at the mouth of the estuary to the  deformation radius (R), and h and D are the buoyant layer and ambient ocean depths, respectively. The buoyant outflow flows across the entire width of the estuary for narrow estuaries (i.e., K≤1). In contrast, for wide estuaries (K>2), dense oceanic water inflows on the left and the buoyant waters outflow on the right (looking seaward). It is shown that these experimental measurements and oceanic observations are in accord.