Near the opening of Jumping Run Creek, Bogue Sound is dosed to shell fishing. 



JUMPING 



RUN: 



Building Hope 

 for Closed 

 Shellfish Beds 



By Renee Wolcott Shannon 

 Photographs by Scott D. Taylor 



J umping Run Creek rises in southern Carteret County and runs toward the sea, sliding 

 through brushy woodland and stands of live oaks, mobile home parks, back yards and 

 businesses. Drainage ditches channel water to the creek, and it flows fast and clear, the 

 color of tea. In the creek mouth, where Jumping Run empties into Bogue Sound, fat 

 oysters and clams tempt diggers hungry for shellfish, but the beds are closed for all but 

 a few dry days every year. 



In Jumping Run, as in many coastal North Carolina watersheds, bacterial levels 

 are dangerously high. Though the shellfish are otherwise healthy, they are contami- 

 nated by bacterial levels that can reach into the thousands per 100 milliliters in some 

 tributaries. Counts of only 14 per 100 milliliters close a shellfish bed, while levels of 



more than 200 bacteria per 100 milliliters shut a creek down for swimming. 



Continued 



COASTWATCH 19 



