Salt marshes are found around the world, but the one you are about to tour can be found right here in South Carolina on the North American continent. Salt marshes are located only along the coast. This is because a salt marsh is an area that is flooded by saline (salty) water. The salt marshes are better developed as you move farther south in South Carolina.
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Spot and croaker are closely related fish. They look alike, with light vertical bands, but the spot is named for a dark spot just behind its gill cover. All members of this group of fish make noises...
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There are several species of flatfish that occur in South Carolina. These include flounder, soles, and tonguefish. The flatfish lie slightly buried on the bottom, where they wait for prey, such as...
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The hard clam, or quahog, is common along our coast. The clams are sold commercially as littleneck, cherrystone, or chowder clams, depending on size, with littlenecks about an inch in diameter and...
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Three different species of shrimp are collected commercially from offshore and from the salt marsh. They are the pink shrimp, the brown shrimp, and the white shrimp. They are large, up to 10 inches in...
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Blue crabs are active predators and effective scavengers. They occur throughout the estuary. They can swim by using their last pair of legs, which have been modified into paddles instead of walking...
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At low tide, the periwinkles crawl down to the base of the stem, where algae grow best, and graze the algae off the stems. When the tide rises, however, the periwinkles crawl up the stems. Why don't...
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The wrens build their nests in the tips of living Spartina. The nests are made out of dead Spartina. They are not open, but are covered, so the nest looks like a ball of dead grass. There is a hole on...
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Clapper rails live their whole lives in the salt marsh. They even nest in clumps of Spartina just above the water. The downy black young are hard to see against the dark marsh mud. Both the adults and...
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White ibis use their long, curved bills to probe into the burrows of the fiddler crabs and pull them out to eat. IBIS. Along with the clapper rail, white ibis are the major bird consumers of the salt...
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These tiny balls of sand or mud, perfectly round, are called pseudofeces because they look like fecal pellets. Like true feces, they are bits of indigestible material, but they have never passed...
