Life along the Inner Coast: A Naturalist's Guide to the Sounds, Inlets, Rivers, and Intracoastal Waterway from Norfolk to Key West

469 Pages·2009·21.99 MB·English

by  Robert L. Lippson

Life along the Inner Coast
Life along
the university of north carolina press
chapel hill
robert l. lippson (cid:1) alice jane lippson
the Inner Coast
A Naturalist’s
Guide to the
Sounds, Inlets,
Rivers, and
Intracoastal
W aterway
from Norfolk
to Key West
(cid:1)
This book was published with the assistance of Progress Energy.
© 2009 The University of North Carolina Press Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Illustrations © 2009 Alice Jane Lippson Lippson, Robert L.
All photographs by Robert L. Lippson, Life along the inner coast : a naturalist's guide to
except for photograph by Ed Watson on p. 335. the sounds, inlets, rivers, and intracoastal waterway
All rights reserved from Norfolk to Key West / Robert L. Lippson and
Manufactured in the United States of America Alice Jane Lippson.
Set in Warnock Pro and The Sans p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
The paper in this book meets the guidelines for
isbn 978-0-8078-3303-2 (cloth : alk. paper)
permanence and durability of the Committee on
1. Natural history—Atlantic Coast (U.S.) 2. Intra-
Production Guidelines for Book Longevity of the
coastal waterways—Atlantic Coast (U.S.) 3. Coastal
Council on Library Resources.
ecology—Atlantic Coast (U.S.) 4. Mangrove ecology—
The University of North Carolina Press has been a Atlantic Coast (U.S.) 5. Barrier island ecology–Atlantic
member of the Green Press Initiative since 2003. Coast (U.S.) 6. Atlantic Coast (U.S.)—Environmental
conditions. I. Lippson, Alice Jane. II. Title.
qh104.5.a84l57 2009
578.75'10916348--dc22 2009016645
13 12 11 10 09 5 4 3 2 1
We dedicate this book to our mentors
and cherished friends who have inspired us
throughout our lives:
T. Wayne Porter
Michigan State University
Ranice Crosby
Johns Hopkins University
Romeo J. Mansueti
Chesapeake Biological Laboratory
(former husband of Alice Jane Lippson
who died at age forty in 1963)
L. Eugene Cronin
Chesapeake Biological Laboratory
William Hargis Jr.
Virginia Institute of Marine Science
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Contents
Preface ix appendix a: Plant and Animal
Species List 407
Introduction 1
appendix b: Bird Species List 431
(cid:1) one
Forested Wetlands, Wooded Glossary 433
Shorelines, and Swamps 37
Selected References 437
(cid:1) two
Index 443
Marshes and Mangrove Swamps 75
(cid:1) three
Beaches 137
(cid:1) four
Intertidal Flats 163
(cid:1) five
Places to Settle: Pilings, Floating
Docks, Rubble Structures, and
Mangrove Prop Roots 193
(cid:1) six
The Shallows 245
(cid:1) seven
Weed Beds and Seagrass Meadows 335
(cid:1) eight
Live Bottoms: Oyster Reefs, Patch
Reefs, and Worm Rocks 375
This page intentionally left blank
Preface
A little over 100 years after Captain John Smith and private sailboats and motor yachts began cruising
his fellow crew members settled along the marshy south to Florida in the fall and north in the spring.
shores of the James River, colonists began planning The Inner Coast between Norfolk and Key West
canals that would link the Chesapeake Bay with in the 1900s up until about the 1970s was sparsely
Albemarle Sound to the south. In fact, in the early settled; oh, to be sure, there were the ports of Nor-
1760s, a company called the Dismal Swamp Adven- folk, Beaufort, Charleston, Savannah, and Miami,
turers, which was owned by George Washington and but there were few towns in between, and most of
a few associates, dug the fi rst canal, the “Washington those towns were sleepy little watermen’s commu-
Ditch,” to transport cypress and juniper logs from nities where boats tied up at the shrimp docks. Hil-
the heart of the Dismal Swamp. By 1805 a shallow ton Head Island was only just being developed, and
draft canal had been dug that linked Deep Creek near heavily wooded Daufuskie Island, lying just south
Norfolk with the Pasquotank River, which fl owed of Hilton Head, was a land from another time, with
into Albemarle Sound. Then in 1859, a rival group only a small community of homes, most owned by
completed the Albemarle and Chesapeake Canal, Gullah people.
which connected Hampton Roads through the North This was about the same time that more and more
Landing River into Currituck Sound and then into people were being attracted to the coasts: the Pacifi c,
the Albemarle. But the two competing companies the Gulf of Mexico, and the Atlantic. Some moved
suff ered fi nancial woes and as a result had diffi culty permanently into developing communities; others
improving their facilities. lived part-time in condominiums; and many others
In 1912 the federal government purchased the were seasonal visitors in resorts, hotels, and other
Albemarle and Chesapeake Canal and in 1925 pur- rental properties. The migratory trend of humans
chased the badly silted Dismal Swamp Canal and has not diminished, and some studies indicate that
began the costly process of upgrading both canal more than 60 percent of the U.S. population now
systems. Canals were widened and deepened and lives within 50 miles of our coasts. They come for the
weary bridges were replaced, and boat traffi c then warmer climate, for fi shing, boating, and golfi ng. Be-
began increasing in the toll-free Intracoastal Water- cause their friends and families have already moved
way. Tugs and barges carrying lumber and other to the coast, they are beckoned to “come on down.”
commodities shared the waterway with passenger There are fewer and fewer sleepy villages along
steamers on their routes from Norfolk to the south- the Inner Coast; now there are gated communities
ern ports of Elizabeth City and Beaufort, North Caro- and “look at me” houses nestled on the edges of wet-
lina, and by the mid-1900s, increasing numbers of lands and in some cases on former wetlands. Islands