THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Monday, July 24, 1995 TAG: 9507240030
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY ELIZABETH THIEL, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: HATTERAS VILLAGE, N.C. LENGTH: Long : 126 lines
The tea-colored water, holding millions of tiny suspended particles, appears dead at first to the humans behind the masks.
Gradually, though, 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 from behind clumps of widgeon grass, baby shrimp zipping around.
``I see a flounder,'' shouts one boy, lifting himself out of the water and 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 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.''
It just goes to show that there's much to see in the shallows behind the barrier islands, despite their lack of crystal-clear water.
Huge beds of sea grass beneath the surface are breeding grounds for many types of creatures and free restaurants for the predators who feast there.
It's like a living bumper sticker for the importance of wetlands.
Which is one reason the National Park Service hosts snorkeling classes every Thursday afternoon at this 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 sealife born and nurtured to adulthood in marshy areas.
Little of the controversy touches the shore where the Park Service runs its snorkeling program, protected as it is within the bounds of Cape Hatteras National Seashore. And the small education that travelers receive on their hour-long 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 the dead sea grass that has blown ashore, Fraser warns participants not to expect the same kind of snorkeling they might have experienced in blue waters, such as those 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 says later, standing calf-deep in water, watching class participants float on their bellies ``There's things going on out here below the surface that you might not be aware of.''
To get the best view of life beneath the sound, he suggests snorkelers walk slowly to the edge of a grass bed, drop gently to their knees to avoid stirring silt, and lower their masked faces into the water, coming to a float alongside or on 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, though, 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.''
But, she amended, ``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 also try the Park Service's seine net program, in which a fine net is tossed into the water, returning filled with a mix of sea life.
But snokeling has its charms, too, Lessard said. ``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: Snorkeling in Pamlico Sound
[Color Photo]
DREW C. WILSON
Staff
A wee Willy Wiggler's eye view of vacationer Adam Barr surveying
Pamlico Sound.
Alex Fraser, right, cautions his class to remain still and patient
as they explore the sound.
DREW C. WILSON
Staff
Zack Neubert, left, and Phillip Jancosko, both 10 and of Cabot, Pa.,
don't bother to remove their mouthpieces to compare fish finds.
Swift-moving streams near their homes prevent the type of expedition
that snorkeling in Pamlico Sound affords.
TAKING CLASSES
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. But enrollment in the program is limited.
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