. Coast watch. Marine resources; Oceanography; Coastal zone management; Coastal ecology. who, with ECU biologist Graham Davis, has studied and written about the sea- grasses in the sound. They say some of the native grasses are returning. But the fish haven't yet come back and the birds haven't been convinced that Currituck is the right place to nest and raise their young. Ernie Bowden, a 65-year-old lifelong resident and observer of the Currituck Banks, thinks he knows why. "The seagrass beds disappeared in the late 1950s, though right after World War II they were abundant," Bowden
. Coast watch. Marine resources; Oceanography; Coastal zone management; Coastal ecology. who, with ECU biologist Graham Davis, has studied and written about the sea- grasses in the sound. They say some of the native grasses are returning. But the fish haven't yet come back and the birds haven't been convinced that Currituck is the right place to nest and raise their young. Ernie Bowden, a 65-year-old lifelong resident and observer of the Currituck Banks, thinks he knows why. "The seagrass beds disappeared in the late 1950s, though right after World War II they were abundant," Bowden says. The absence of the seagrasses began a chain of events that Bowden says can't be reversed. "The real problem in Currituck Sound is the filling in of the sound because of shoreline erosion," says Bowden, who remembers when the sound's five-foot deep waters were 12 feet deep or more. "Once the grasses disappeared, the waves just rolled in at will, cutting away at the shore like crazy. When I was a boy it was unusual to see a wave even 18 inches high. Now it's not unusual to see them three feet or ; Bowden admits his observations of the sound are not truly scientific. "But I've lived here all my life and my father did and his father before him," he says. "I've witnessed what's happened ; The most obvious change brought about by the death of Currituck's sea- grasses has been the decline in fish and bird populations. "In 1957, we began to see the demise of the migratory waterfowl and bass," says Bowden, who once operated a private hunting club near Corolla. "Hunting and fishing like they used to do with the big hunting clubs is prac- tically history in Currituck Sound. There's just nothing for them to eat here ; Will the sound ever return to its glory days, when its waters rolled clean and fresh and the residents along its shores enjoyed its beauty? "In terms of waterfowl, it probably won't,"
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Keywords: ., bookcentury1900, bookcollectionunclibra, booksubjectoceanography
