Assawoman Bays, and the St. Martins River, 
about 85,000 acres in all. With the exception 
of dredged channels, nearly the entire area 
is less than 6 feet deep at mean low tide. 
The bay waters are in contact with the 
ocean only through the narrow Ocean City inlet 
and through various creeks and narrows at 
the lower end of Chincoteague Bay. These 
connections cause a slight tidal fluctuation 
of the bays, usually amounting to less than 
1 foot, Extensive shoals, often less than 1 foot 
deep, border the barrier beaches; water is 
noticeably deeper along the mainland side of 
the bays. Because of evaporation, salinity in 
the coastal bays sometimes is greater than 
in the ocean. 
Vegetation 
Plants of this habitat are kinds that are 
able to withstand high salinities. Sea-lettuce 
and another green alga, Enteromorpha, are 
abundant in the shallower portions, and vari- 
ous species of red and brown algae are com- 
mon. Submerged vascular plants are local and 
scarce at present, although extensive beds 
of eelgrass grew over most of the coastal 
bay areas before 1931 (Cottam and Munro, 
1954), 
Fishes and Invertebrates 
Various fish, mollusks, and crustaceans are 
common throughout the coastal bay areas. 
Small razor clams, Tagelus divisus, tie bivalve 
Baltic macoma (Macoma balthica), amphipod crus- 
taceans (Gammaridae), and isopod crusta- 
ceans (Chiridotea coeca) were found inthe gullets 
or gizzards of waterfowl collected for food- 
habits study. 
Waterfowl 
Transient and wintering waterfowl are fairly 
common, and sometimes locally abundant on 
the coastal bays. Brant are especially nu- 
merous. They usually concentrate in shoal- 
water areas along the barrier beach side. 
Fair-sized flocks of Canada Geese and Black 
Dicks also are often present on the shoals, 
ranging back and forth from there to adjacent 
coastal embayed marshes and nearby agri- 
cultural fields, Diving ducks, sea ducks, and 
mergansers usually are most numerous in the 
deeper portions of the bays, near the mainland 
shores. The predominant waterfowl in deep 
water are Greater Scaup, Common Goldeneyes, 
Buffleheads, Oldsquaws, White-winged Scoters, 
Surf Scoters, and Red-breasted Mergansers. 
Others that occasionally are fairly numerous 
include American Widgeons, Canvasbacks, 
Lesser Scaup, and Common Scoters. 
12 
Results of sample counts on coastal bays 
are shown in table 9. 
The gullet and gizzard food contents of 22 
waterfowl collected on the coastal bays were 
examined. Sea-lettuce, eelgrass, corn, and 
several invertebrate species were the princi- 
pal foods in this small series. 
OCEANIC LITTORAL ZONE 
The portion of the littoral zone occupied 
by waterfowl extends outward from the beach 
for about 1 mile. In the Upper Chesapeake 
region this area covers approximately 26,000 
acres, including about 1,000 acres of shoal 
water. Macroscopic plant life is comparatively 
scarce, but many kinds of fish and numerous 
species of mollusks, crustaceans, and other 
invertebrates are plentiful. 
Many thousands of sea ducks occasionally 
flock in the littoral zone during the fall, 
winter, and spring. Predominant sea ducks 
(in the order of abundance) are Surf Scoters, 
White-winged Scoters, and Common Scoters. 
Oldsquaws and Red-breasted Mergansers 
sometimes are fairly numerous. 
Unusually large concentrations ofsea ducks 
were present in the oceanic littoral area be- 
tween Ocean City and the Maryland-Delaware 
line on April 6, 1946, and on March 1, 1955. 
Counts were made from 10 observation points 
on March 1, 1955, with these totals: Surf 
Scoters, 19, 014; White-winged Scoters, 4,700; 
Common Scoters, 1,893; Red-breasted Mer- 
gansers, 31; scaup, 3; and Ruddy Duck, 1. 
Counts from four observation points on April 
6, 1946, were: Surf Scoters, 8,400; White- 
winged Scoters, 8,004; Common Scoters, 6,300; 
and Red-breasted Mergansers, 21. 
COASTAL EMBAYED SALT MARSHES 
The shallow bays just back of the barrier 
beaches along the coast are fringed with 
coastal embayed salt marshes (fig. 3). These 
marshes, which include approximately 21,000 
acres in the Upper Chesapeake region, extend 
southward from Cape Henlopen, Delaware, 
about 55 miles to the lower end of Chincoteague 
Bay, where they adjoin the coastal sea-island 
salt marshes of Virginia. 
Vegetation 
Saltmarsh cordgrass is the predominant 
plant. It grows in nearly pure stands through- 
out most of the coastal embayed salt marshes, 
but the plants are much shorter than those of 
the same species in the extensive stands of 
the coastal sea-island salt marshes to the 
south, Emergent marsh plants that grow in 
scattered patches include saltmeadow cord- 
grass, saltgrass, needierush, blackrush, and 
