THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, July 23, 1995 TAG: 9507210255
SECTION: CAROLINA COAST PAGE: 04 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Cover Story
SOURCE: BY ELIZABETH THIEL, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: HATTERAS VILLAGE LENGTH: Long : 138 lines
THE TEA-COLORED water, holding millions of tiny suspended particles, appears dead at first to the humans behind the masks.
Gradually, though, like pupils growing used to a darkened room, their eyes begin to pick up the universe that exists beneath the knee-deep water of the Pamlico Sound.
Small, translucent fish, blue crabs watching suspiciously from behind clumps of widgeon grass, baby shrimp zipping around.
``I see a flounder,'' shouts one boy, lifting himself out of the water, almost forgetting to release the snorkel from his mouth in his excitement.
``I think I have a stingray over here, a small stingray,'' says Carol L. Jancosko, 44, a visitor to the Outer Banks from Cabot, Pa.
``I saw a bunch of trout,'' says Douglas Barr, visiting last week from Ohio with his wife and two sons. ``They were nice enough to come up and nibble on my toes.''
Believe it or not, there's much to see in the shallows behind the barrier islands, not reputed for crystal-clear water visibility.
The huge beds of sea grass below the surface are breeding grounds for all types of underwater creatures, and free restaurants for the predators who want to feast on them.
It's like a living bumper sticker for the importance of wetlands.
That's part of the reason why the National Park Service hosts snorkeling classes every Thursday afternoon, at the soundside parking area just north of Hatteras Village.
``It gives people a look at the different ways that life interlocks in the sound,'' said Alex Fraser, the Park Service interpreter who leads the snorkeling classes. ``And it also gives them a look at just how productive a wetland can be.''
Nationally, debate has raged over wetlands. At issue is just how much protection those areas should be given from construction and pollution, and whether such protection should come at the cost of property rights.
On the Outer Banks, developers have clashed with those in favor of protecting wetlands and preserving a livelihood for watermen who rely on a healthy supply of sea life born and nurtured to adulthood in marshy areas.
Little of the controversy touches the shore where the Park Service runs its snorkeling program, protected within the bounds of the Cape Hatteras National Seashore. And the small education travelers receive on their hourlong forays into the sea world may have no long-term effect on the national discussion.
But every little bit helps.
``It gives them a good reason to see that we ensure the health of our wetlands,'' said Fraser, who has a degree in biology from the University of Miami.
Leading his classes to the sound's edge, ripe-smelling from dead sea grass that has blown ashore, Fraser warns all comers not to expect the same kind of snorkeling they might have experienced in blue waters, such as off the Florida Keys or in the Caribbean.
``Don't be looking for a lot of colorful fish,'' he says.
``It's not always easy to spot stuff out here,'' he said later, standing calf-deep in water, watching class participants float on their bellies all around him. ``There's things going on out here below the surface that you might not be aware of.''
He counsels on the best way to get a choice view of life beneath the sound: Walk slowly to the edge of a grass bed, drop gently to your knees to avoid stirring silt, and lower your masked face into the water, coming to a float alongside or over top of the grass. Eventually, the very still snorkeler will begin to see an underwater world.
``It's really amazing,'' he said. ``It's another whole batch of stuff in the grasses from what you find in the reefs.
``I love a good bed of grass.''
For Jancosko, who has snorkeled over reefs in blue water, it was a bit of a disappointment.
``It's more beautiful'' on the reefs, she said. ``The water was aqua blue, and the fish were fluorescent. We had sharks swimming with us.
``There's a lot to see here, too. You just can't see it as clearly.''
Jancosko's 10-year-old son, Phillip, and his best friend, 10-year-old Zack Neubert, were more enthused.
``I liked seeing all the stuff down there, and the seaweed,'' Zack said. ``It's weird.''
Patricia A. Neubert, 42, Zack's mother and Jancosko's traveling companion, said this is the fourth year she's visited the Park Service's snorkeling program. She never gets bored.
``In Pennsylvania, where we live, all we have are the rushing streams,'' she said. ``You don't get to look below the surface. Here you get to look under the water and see what's there.''
Bill J. Lessard, 44, of Herndon, Va., recommended that people interested in marsh life try the Park Service's seine net program, in which a fine net is tossed and comes back with all kinds of creatures.
But Lessard said about snorkeling, ``I loved kind of floating on the grass, with it tickling up.''
Elaine E.J. Barr, of Ohio, said snorkeling in the sound was better for her than when she tried it in the Florida Keys last year.
``I was petrified,'' she said. ``We were out in the middle of the ocean and they told me to jump off the ship, with waves crashing over my head.
``This is my kind of snorkeling - nice and calm.'' ILLUSTRATION: Staff photos by DREW C. WILSON
[Two kids snorkeling, color cover photo, no cutline]
It's difficult to see Adam Barr, a vacationer from Ohio, as he
snorkles in the murky water over the eelgrass beds on the edge of
Pamlico Sound.
A class stands in the shallows and dons snorkeling gear while
listening to instructor Alex Frazier, right.
Zack Newbert and Phillip Jancosko of Cabot, Pa., bob in Pamlico
Sound during a National Park Service snorkeling class. Enrollment in
the class is limited and chosen by lottery.
What else is there to learn in in snorkeling class besides breathing
and exploring the water?
Well, if you're 10 years old like Zack Newbert and Phillip Jancosko
there's the challenge of finding out what it's like to try talking
to each other while wearing snorkeling mouthpieces.
Why not try it?
ABOUT THE CLASS
The Park Service offers its free snorkeling classes every
Thursday at 2:30 p.m. at the soundside parking area, half a mile
north of Hatteras Village. Enrollment in the program is limited,
however.
A lottery is held each Wednesday at 4:15 p.m. at the Park
Service's Hatteras Island Visitor Center in Buxton at the site of
the lighthouse.
Snorkels and masks are provided.
Visitors should be swimmers and should bring shoes or booties to
wear in the water.
Children 13 and younger must be accompanied by an adult.
by CNB