October 04, 1990 - The Churning Chain of Birth and DeathOctober 4, 1990 • The Suffolk Times C11
The Churning Chain of Birth and Death
By Paul Stoutenburah
I hope you will excuse my bringing
you along on another diving trip off our
East End but there are a few things I'd
like to share with you. First, the mil-
lions, no billions, of tiny crabs swim-
ming everywhere we went. The near
perfect weather had brought out the
boaters and I'm sure they saw what we
saw. This phenomenon of nature's
explosion of young makes sure her
species will survive even though the
vast majority will succumb to predation
along the way.
We could see that the water had some-
thing in it just a foot or so below the
surface; with a little bending over we
could see that it was alive. But when we
dropped over the side with our face
masks on, the world of tiny swimming
crabs came alive about us. It was as if
we were looking into an aquarium with
no sides. We were in their element and
they were everywhere. Looking up close
we could see they had their tiny defen-
sive claws outstretched, ready for battle.
They measured no more than an eighth
to three - sixteenths of an inch long and
were in continual motion.
Eggs of crabs are carried under the fe-
male until they hatch. Once swimming
free, they live on the rich plankton soup
of our bays and Sound, where they grow
rapidly. The abundance of these crabs
gives us an indication of how important
these waters are. Few realize that when
we're swimming or playing in the wa-
ters of our East End we are literally
swimming in someone's food supply.
Our Important Waters
As time goes by the public is slowly
starting to realize the importance of our
inshore waters with respect to the
potential they hold for all marine life.
Once we thought only of the fish we
caught or the crabs or clams or oysters
gathered. Today most realize that
without a basic food chain below we
will not have the bounties of the sea.
Right now our great marshes (the
ones that haven't been filled) that line
our creeks and inner bays are at their
prime. The tall thatch grass is like a
field of ripening grain. Its color has
changed from rich green to an autumn
gold. The tall seed heads once mature
will drop into the ooze of the bog
below where they will reseed the open
and eroded spots of the marsh. Like
soldiers of fortune they strengthen the
weak spots along the perimeter to make
sure there's a solid wall of tough
resilient grasses to buffer and slow
Plan Now
For The
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down the surging seas of the storm
tides. No better erosion control can be
found than nature's own marshes. The
seeds will also escape and find new
territories to reestablish and continue
their part in the scheme of things.
As winter comes along, the ice and
snow will crush and break the once
handsome tall grasses as they once more
start their most important role in our
marine environment. Like the leaves of
the forest that decay and return nutrients
to the soil, so it is with the marsh
grasses when they die and decay. Unlike
the forest that keeps its nutrients below
the trees, the nutrients of the marsh
move out with each tide to the multi-
tude of marine organisms awaiting their
life- giving payload.
So starts the food chain that is re-
sponsible for the majority of our fish
and shellfish. It's these complicated pro-
cesses of one order of organisms feeding
on another that we as humans even-
tually profit by. Without them we
would not have been able to catch por-
gies, flounder, bluefish, blackfish and
even one huge striper on our trip.
Time for a Breather
While we took a breather — and I re-
ally mean that, for diving can some-
times be strenuous — we tried to catch
some porgies with rod and reel. We had
gotten about a dozen or so when our at-
tention was drawn to some milling
birds up the beach right around the
rocks, so we decided to swing up and try
our luck casting for bluefish. We came
within a hundred feet or so of where the
fish were feeding. It was a spectacular
sight. When diving before, we had seen
great clouds of small, spearing -like fish
wherever we dove and realized it must
be these masses of bait that the blues
were after.
But there was something unusual
about this feeding. The blues had liter-
ally driven the bait fish into the shal-
lows of the shore amongst the rocks,
where they were thrashing about in an
orgy of feeding. We now moved in even
closer and could see the bodies and tails
of the darting bluefish as they lunged
and careened after the bait. We were so
taken by the frenzy before us we almost
forgot what we had come for. A few
short casts and we had enough bluefish
for our needs, and still the savage feed-
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ing milled about us.
Hundreds of laughing gulls swooped
in to pick up the pieces that were ev-
erywhere. If not the pieces of heads and
tails that had been bitten off, then
whole fish were caught as they were
driven to the surface to escape the terror
below. This was truly "out of the frying
pan into the fire." Yet it has been this
way since fish first swam in the great
seas of early time.
Then, all-of a sudden, it was over.
The gulls swung over to nearby rocks
to settle and rest until the next outbreak
of feeding. Here the riches of the sea
would nourish them as it had done for
the bluefish. Each would build up its
food bank to help it along its path till
t
the next feeding session.
The bluefish would grow bigger and
stay around for a month or so before
migrating to warmer waters. The laugh-
ing gulls would follow the food supply
like the fish to a warmer climate. It's
all part of the world we live in, a part
that might seem cruel and strange to
some yet one that is as natural as the
budding of a sweet - scented rose.
It's the variety and diversity that
make our world so interesting. It's too
bad that many have been weaned away
from it to become disciples only of
man's endless trinkets and trivial ways.
Should the vast majority follow these
manmade ways, we surely are going to
lose our appreciation for the natural
world and with it the concern for life.
ID
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