Connecting people with the waters
and the lands of Port Royal Sound
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Port Royal Sound
Do you know frequent visitors to our region include large marine mammals such as migrating manatees and right whales? Closer to shore in the Port Royal Sound, residents include an impressive variety of shark species, Atlantic bottlenose dolphin, and several species of rays - even the enormous manta ray.
Port Royal Sound, located in Beaufort County, South Carolina is the ideal location to explore, research, and learn more about these amazing marine organisms known to occur in our waters. Beaufort County’s landscape is composed of a series of sea islands and salt marsh expansions embracing the protruding extensions of salt water from the Atlantic. By car, boat, kayak, bike or foot, anyway you chose to connect with Port Royal Sound will instantly bring you into the salt marsh ecosystem and within close proximity to some of the most amazing species. The awe-inspiring expansions of salt marshes and highly productive waters are what keep people here or coming back to the Port Royal Sound, a special gem of the Atlantic Ocean.
Image from Google Earth, 2011. The Port Royal Sound is located along the southeastern Atlantic shoreline in Beaufort, South Carolina.
Image courtesy of Beaufort County, 2011. The sea islands and surrounding lands of the Port Royal Sound.
The waters of Port Royal Sound are highly productive and nutrient rich in most part due to the growth anddecay of Spartina grass. The abundant detris results in turbid waters giving the smallest marine organisms a rich source of nutrients and an ability to hide in their salt marsh surroundings. The abundance of phyto- and zooplankton provide an essential resource that maintains populations of crabs, shrimp, and a high diversity of fish species. With so much food and habitat available, Port Royal Sound is home and reproductive grounds for many sportfish species such as red drum and cobia. Because of their health and productivity, our fisheries are major contributors to other fisheries within the Atlantic Ocean, based on recent genetic research.
So, why does Port Royal Sound have vast expansions of salt marsh habitats, highly productive and nutrient rich waters, healthy populations of shellfish and other marine organisms? There are a few contributing factors, Port Royal Sound is almost completely influenced by tidal water and not fresh water giving us high salinity waters comparable to that of ocean’s (30-35 ppt, respectively). Daily, the creeks and marshes flood and drain with the rise and fall of the ocean. Since the ocean water protrudes inward among and between our sea islands, we experience the highest tidal amplitudes on the Atlantic coastline, south of Maine. Port Royal Sound has very deep channels and a rolling underwater topography similar to off shore due to the lack of sediment loading from upstate rivers. It is speculated that Port Royal Sound is so similar to deeper waters offshore that the marine organisms cannot tell the difference.
So, how has Port Royal Sound maintained vast expansions of salt marsh habitats, highly productive and nutrient rich waters, healthy populations of shellfish and other marine organisms with the pressures of development and tourism? Through the hard work of Port Royal Sound Foundation and other like-minded partners, we work to support smart water and land use practices in order to conserve our natural resources. We believe our region will be a model for other coastal communities and celebrate what we have, learn how to best take care of it before it’s too late. Let us know when you are ready to connect with the waters and lands of the Port Royal Sound.