South Carolina

Carol and Zoe have been on a tour of the southern Atlantic bight and first stop was the Santee Delta. As normal we were traveling light...

TSA particularly like our poles and rods taped together with some padding to prevent 'taking an eye out'

We have an ongoing study in the marshes of Cape Romain to look at the lengthening (aka headward erosion) of small creeks. These creeks have large regions at their ends, barren of all vegetation and intensely burrowed by little tiny crabs.

Carol sitting in a creek head - you can see the crab holes and you can also see where the channel is forming - the area with water still in it.

At high tide, the creek heads are full of water and, as the marsh drains, the water is funneled through the creek heads which are lower than the surrounding marsh platform.

Carol perched precariously on a sinking plank in about half a meter of water watching for fish.

In these photos we were trying to determine once and for all how active the burrowing crabs were during higher stages of the tide and whether they were actually digging up sediment while the marsh was inundated. They were not. But Carol and I "enjoyed" a four hour stint, sitting on a plank up to our armpits in water (at high water). Still we were able to get some water samples of suspended sediment over the tide, a few extra velocity measurements and draw a definite conclusion about the experiment being a waste of bloody time... And some people pay a lot of money to float in tanks of saltwater and get covered in mud, so it was a bit like a spa day.

We were also joined by the crew from University of Houston, who inspected the creeks and their vegetation and found out that this year the creeks have grown even faster than previous years.

No photos please! Steve is protective of the *star* graduate students Huy and Carol....

While we enjoyed a bit of coring, some sed-pad deployment and a little shear strength measurement, the highlight of the trip was, of course, measuring the SET again, but second to that was taking a bit of time at high tide to go and visit Light House Island. In a recent storm the shoreline was breached and the barrier island overwashed. (And we were able to sunbathe on the sand... which is much nicer than MUD).

Overwash on the barrier island - you can see waves breaking on the offshore (left hand) side. The water only breaches the island at high tide.

The sand from the barrier beach has been washed back into the marsh by large storm waves. Now it covers the marsh grass in lobes.

Carol's toe made a friend

Peace

Thanks to all our friends at Belle Baruch where we stayed, the Baldings who lent us their boat and the fisherman in McClellenville - especially Bob and his wife who provided wonderful lemonade after a 13 hour stint on the marsh.

Next it was off to Sapelo Island in Georgia (courtesy of the University of Houston taxi service otherwise known as Prof Steve Pennings and Huy Vu).