LIVING RESEARCH 

 LABORATORIES 



By Pam Smith • Photos by Scott D. Taylor 



"Watch this. I'm herding 

 fiddler crabs !" 



The youngster bends down to get a 

 closer look as the fiddlers — led by a red- 

 clawed, dominant male — race away en 

 masse from her advancing steps. 



Others in the group join her in a 

 semicircle near the water's edge. They watch 

 the crabs react to the expanding and 

 contracting perimeter of their "corral." 

 "This is cool," proclaims the girl. 

 The behavior of thousands of fiddler 

 crabs that surface at low tide on the shoals of 

 the Rachel Carson Estuarine Research 

 Reserve is one of the discoveries that will 

 amaze this mixed-age study group. 



Led by John and Mary Ann Davis, 

 retired educators-turned-volunteer-guides, the 

 group's arrival by ferry coincides with the 

 low tide — when part of nature's hidden 

 world is temporarily exposed. 



Though they'll cover only a fraction of 

 the 2,000-plus acre island complex in the 

 course of their day trip, the study group will 

 sample the biodiversity and importance of 

 this productive estuarine environment. 



Estuaries are defined as places where the 

 fresh waters from rivers and streams mix with 

 the salt water from the ocean. This is, to say 

 the least, an oversimplified explanation of a 

 complex system that provides wildlife habitat 

 and the spawning and nursery grounds for 

 important commercial finfish and shellfish. 



North Carolina boasts more than two 

 million acres of tidal inlets, sounds and bays, 

 saltwater marshes and freshwater swamps, 

 maritime forests and shrub thickets, and 

 freshwater and brackish creeks. These diverse 

 estuarine ecosystems support food-chain 

 "supermarkets" that sustain aquatic and other 

 wildlife. 



Continued 

 COASTWATCH 17 



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