SEAGRASS SURVIVAL 



But Mother Nature was not yet 

 finished with Currituck Sound's sea- 

 grasses. By the late 1970s, the salt- 

 heavy seawater that had poured into 

 the sound during the Ash Wednesday 

 Storm had disappeared. Lighter, fresher 

 water prevailed. The milfoil began a 

 decline that continues today. And sci- 

 entists aren't sure what process or 

 combination of processes caused the 

 choking weed to wither, especially in 

 southern parts of the sound. 



"Invading weeds like this tend to 

 take over for awhile and then fade out," 

 says East Carolina University biologist 

 Marc Brinson. Perhaps, he says, the 

 milfoil's decline can be traced to a 

 series of weather-related events like 

 those that destroyed some milfoil beds 

 in Pamlico Sound in the mid-1980s. 



Today, nearly half the milfoil that 

 once dominated seagrass beds in Cur- 

 rituck Sound is gone, says Brinson 



ECU's Graham Davis studies milfoil 

 in Currituck Sound. 



who, with ECU biologist Graham Davis, 

 has studied and written about the sea- 

 grasses in the sound. They say some 

 of the native grasses are returning. 



But the fish haven't yet come back 

 and the birds haven't been convinced 

 that Currituck is the right place to nest 

 and raise their young. 



Ernie Bowden, a 65-year-old lifelong 

 resident and observer of the Currituck 

 Banks, thinks he knows why. 



"The seagrass beds disappeared in 

 the late 1950s, though right after World 

 War II they were abundant," Bowden 

 says. The absence of the seagrasses 

 began a chain of events that Bowden 

 says can't be reversed. 



"The real problem in Currituck 

 Sound is the filling in of the sound 

 because of shoreline erosion," says 

 Bowden, who remembers when the 

 sound's five-foot deep waters were 12 

 feet deep or more. 



"Once the grasses disappeared, the 

 waves just rolled in at will, cutting away 

 at the shore like crazy. When I was a 

 boy it was unusual to see a wave even 

 18 inches high. Now it's not unusual to 

 see them three feet or more." 



Bowden admits his observations of 

 the sound are not truly scientific. "But 

 I've lived here all my life and my father 

 did and his father before him," he says. 

 "I've witnessed what's happened here." 



The most obvious change brought 

 about by the death of Currituck's sea- 

 grasses has been the decline in fish 

 and bird populations. 



"In 1957, we began to see the demise 

 of the migratory waterfowl and bass," 

 says Bowden, who once operated a 



private hunting club near Corolla. 

 "Hunting and fishing like they used to 

 do with the big hunting clubs is prac- 

 tically history in Currituck Sound. 

 There's just nothing for them to eat 

 here anymore." 



Will the sound ever return to its glory 

 days, when its waters rolled clean and 

 fresh and the residents along its shores 

 enjoyed its beauty? 



"In terms of waterfowl, it probably 

 won't," says Brinson. "But it's not just 

 the seagrass beds that are a problem. 

 They need to stop the excessive hunt- 

 ing in the area, to preserve the species 

 that do come there." 



Brinson says some of the sea- 

 grasses that died in the 1960s and 

 1970s have returned to portions of Cur- 

 rituck Sound and Back Bay. And in 

 areas where milfoil once dominated, 

 the seagrasses are making a comeback. 



He also says excessive erosion in 

 Currituck hasn't been positively linked 

 to the demise of seagrass beds. "In 

 fact, if there's filling in the sound and 

 the depth of the water is less than it 

 used to be, that would make condi- 

 tions better for the growth of 

 seagrasses, which need shallower 

 water to survive," he says. 



But Bowden has a less optimistic 

 view. He thinks future visitors to Cur- 

 rituck Sound will never again witness 

 the bountiful waters that he grew to 

 love as a young boy. 



"I don't think it will ever be the same 

 again," Bowden says. "When some 

 things are messed up, they're messed 

 up for good." ■ 



