Royal Tern 



Black Skimmer 



these upper-beach communities holds 

 other treasures as well. When sargas- 

 sum seaweed blows ashore on strong 

 southeast winds from the Gulf 

 Stream, its cargo can include tropical 

 fish and other animals that use it for 

 shelter, Wood says. 



"Attached are all kinds of differ- 

 ent animals and algae," he says. "And 

 inside the clump, if you find it fresh, 

 there's a chance you'll find dead fish 

 or even live fish if they're still moist." 



Look for a long-leafed, brown 

 plant with tiny air sacs. Tangled 

 within, you might see pipe fish, file 

 fish, sea horses, crabs, snails and sea 

 slugs. This landing is a great find for 

 beachcombers, but it's a field day for 

 the ghost crab and other scavengers 

 that rely on the tides to deliver their 

 next meal. 



You might also see purple bubble 

 shells washed in from the Gulf 

 Stream, sometimes by the thousands, 

 or stranded sea urchins, sand dollars 

 and starfish bleached by the sun. 



But perhaps the most remarkable 

 sight you could encounter in this zone 

 is a female sea turtle trudging ashore 



to lay eggs in the sand. This is a 

 nighttime ritual that occurs during 

 summer months on mostly undis- 

 turbed beaches. The endangered log- 

 gerhead and green turtles are two 

 species that routinely nest on Caro- 

 lina beaches. 



Remember, if you happen onto 

 this nesting ritual, turtles are dis- 

 turbed by flashlights and voices. 

 Give the turtle her space. And in 45 

 to 80 days, a batch of tiny hatchlings 

 will dig out of the sand at night and 

 head into the ocean, guided only by 

 moonlight. The odds, however, are 

 stacked against their survival. Hatch- 

 lings must maneuver an obstacle 

 course over the sand and past hungry 

 predators such as ghost crabs, gulls 

 and raccoons. Nighttime is the right 

 time to see many of these coastal ani- 

 mals - from ghost crabs near the 

 dunes to fish in the shallows - be- 

 cause they're out looking for food. 

 On dark nights, you can see hun- 

 dreds of ghost crabs hunting in the 

 swash or mole crabs glowing a faint 

 green from their diet of biolumines- 

 cent microorganisms. 



"This is a wonderful time to ex- 

 plore the beach," Powell says. 



subtidctl 

 zone 



This is the wettest of the three 

 beach zones, where a raft serves you 

 better than a lawn chair, and a wave 

 carries you faster than your feet can. 

 Here, where the waves churn shallow 

 coastal waters, small fish and a bevy of 

 unique sea creatures live. 



This zone is especially rich in life 

 you can't see — the microscopic phy- 

 toplankton and zooplankton that hang 

 in the water. In turn, it nourishes the 

 fountain of life that springs out of this 

 zone. 



If you pick your time right — usu- 

 ally the still of early morning or 

 evening — you can see schools of 

 small fish running in the thinning 

 crests of waves just before they break, 

 says Spence of Sea Grant. The translu- 

 cent green water frames the hand-sized 

 fish, usually menhaden, like an 

 aquarium. 



Another favorite among children 

 are the surf fish — the minnowlike sil- 



6 JULY I AUGUST 1993 



