DATE: Sunday, August 31, 1997               TAG: 9709020276

SECTION: LOCAL                   PAGE: B3   EDITION: FINAL 

SOURCE: BY PAUL CLANCY, STAFF WRITER 

                                            LENGTH:   95 lines

BOOK'S 2ND EDITION DEPICTS A THRIVING BAY

Ghost crabs dodging and darting across the sand. Mantis shrimp snagging little crabs with vicious claws. Swarms of sea roaches racing about pilings and jetties. Canada geese skidding on the water as they land in a riot of honking.

These are scenes from the largest estuary in North America and one of the largest in the world, the Chesapeake Bay. It is teeming with more than 2,000 species of plants and animals, but many so small and exotic that most people never have seen or heard of them.

Alice Jane and Robert L. Lippson hope to expose readers to this watery world with their recently published second edition of ``Life in the Chesapeake Bay.''

The husband-and-wife team contends that the abundance and diversity of living creatures is evidence that the Chesapeake, despite its setbacks, is alive and, in fact, throbbing with life.

Witness the growing number of predatory birds, such as pelicans, osprey, herons and cormorants, Alice Lippson says. ``These birds would not be here if the fish life were not there. The fish wouldn't be there unless there were a food source. If you put it all together, the birds themselves seem to be tangible evidence of improvements.''

``You can't believe what's in this water - this Bay is a marvelous place,'' Robert Lippson adds.

The new edition of ``Life in the Chesapeake Bay,'' just published by Johns Hopkins University Press, is intended as a field guide for people strolling along the water's edge, peering down from a jetty or pier, treading a marsh or hauling in a day's catch of fish, oysters or crabs.

Alice Lippson, a biological illustrator and researcher in estuarine ecology, has done hundreds of drawings for the book. Her husband, also a marine scientist, is a former assistant director of the National Marine Fisheries Service.

Together they have roamed the Bay on Odyssey, their 40-foot trawler-like research vessel. Now, when not promoting their latest book, they're busy cruising the Intracoastal Waterway from Norfolk to Key West, the focus of their next title.

This Saturday at 4:30 p.m. the Lippsons will be at the Virginia Marine Science Museum's IMAX Theater for a slide presentation and book signing.

Their first edition of ``Life in the Chesapeake Bay'' was published in 1984. It focused on marine animals and plant life. The new book includes broad coverage of birds, and its treatment of marsh life has been expanded into a chapter on wetlands.

Instead of organizing the book by species, the Lippsons chose to place each plant or animal in its natural habitat. So each ecosystem in the Bay, from sand beaches to deep water, is treated as a whole, with each organism's relationship to others explained.

For example:

Sea slugs, some of them ``beautifully delicate'' and graceful, gliding over seaweeds and grasses.

Sponges, worms, snails and tiny crabs clinging to and living in and among oysters in the few still-healthy oyster bars.

Fishes of the bottoms, the shallows, the streams and open waters, as well as invaders from the ocean - almost 300 species - spawning and feeding on the Bay's bounty.

Snapping turtles snapping at just about anything, including insects, ducklings and mammals and, when alarmed, producing a ``foul-smelling anal musk.''

Strange-sounding creatures such as bamboo worms, jingle-shell and white-fingered mud clams, windowpane flounders, naked gobies, kitty-cat sea slugs, thick-lipped oyster drill snails and pumpkinseed sunfishes, to name a few, also thriving in the Bay.

The Lippsons, who have lived around the Bay for more than 30 years, now reside on a creek among pines near St. Michael's, Md., where they see crabbers and wading birds at work in the morning.

Their part of the Bay has seen a resurgence of sea grasses, a sign of health. Neighbors don't understand, she said, and complain about the smell of dead leaves.

For Alice Lippson, it means soft crabs, pipe fishes, sea horses shedding, mating and finding shelter. ``This habitat is so rife with life, it's a treasure trove,'' she says.

The Bay gradually changes from fresh to brackish to salty water as it flows south - and life forms and conditions change. The lower Bay sees a heavy invasion of saltwater creatures, including bottlenose dolphins and loggerhead turtles. Their growing presence, an indication that they're finding food, is another sign of health, the authors say.

Meanwhile, they say, Hampton Roads has weathered 200 years of abuse from heavy industry thanks in part to the powerful tides that flush the lower Bay.

``We have been very concerned that people are turning their backs on the Chesapeake Bay because they think it's dying,'' Robert Lippson says. ``Our mission is to show that it's worth saving.'' ILLUSTRATION: Graphic

LEARN MORE

Alice Jane and Robert L. Lippson, co-authors of the recently

published second edition of ``Life in the Chesapeake Bay,'' will

give a slide presentation and sign books at 4:30 p.m. Saturday at

the Virginia Marine Science Museum's IMAX Theater. Cost is $3,

except for museum members, who are admitted free. For reservations,

call 437-6006.

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