Lowcountry Estuarium

12/03/2020

Hello folks,

As many of you know, the founder of the Estuarium, Bob Bender, passed earlier this year. I will keep this page online to memorialize Bob's contributions to the Lowcountry.

“Whereas, Bob Bender became a Lowcountry Native in 1979, arriving in his hand-painted Nash Rambler”

03/13/2020

I was at the Sands an hour ago getting mud snails to feed two tulip snails. In a tiny creek I came across a half dozen blue crab pairs mating. If there’s a soft shell crab festival this year the main course will be coming from North Carolina again.

10/05/2019

The marsh is turning. Yesterday green – today yellow – tomorrow brown. Yes, the leaves elsewhere bring beauty but it’s our treasured spartina that brings life. It will break off, float about and decay into particles tiny.
Say detritus – say it again. Smell it in the mud. It will feed the spawn of spring. It is our maple syrup to be tasted in the oyster. It is the gift of life to our waters and it is we now responsible for its continuing cycle.
Lest we forget.

04/05/2019

April 5, 2019 New Moon tide At Pigeon Point Landing on Albergotti Creek. Salinity 26 ppt water temp. 70. No shrimp brown or white to be found. And after such a mild winter. Go figure.

03/21/2019

March 2019 full moon low tide at Pigeon Point Landing. Water temp. 56 with 27 ppt salinity and nothing in the net. It’s the first I’ve thrown the net this season and I really expected a mess of brown shrimp. These waters never cease to surprise me. That’s what makes them so wonderful. There’s enough predictability in the world right now.

Empty Bucket Moon

02/13/2019

This is with regard to the Town of Port Royal's river buffer ordinance

Mr. Mayor and Council,

This is to register my support for the proposed changes to the town’s river buffer ordinance being considered.

Aside from the positive aspects of runoff filtering, storm surge mitigation and increased property values that have or will be mentioned; there is the fact that undisturbed shorelines are also historically natural habitats.

These habitats vary in form as related to location and provide homes to a wide variety of species not found elsewhere. These strips of water frontage that are all too easily damaged or destroyed are integral to the maintenance of a sustainable estuarine system.

The Port Royal Sound Estuarine System is a public resource owned by none and shared by all. As such it must be protected by those like yourselves when you have the need and power to do so.

Thank you for your thoughtful consideration,

Bob Bender
Curator
Lowcountry Estuarium

12/21/2018

Happy Winter Solstice.

12/06/2018

Threw the net for the last time this year on today’s new moon tide. Water temp. 54, salinity 25ppt and no shrimp or any other critter to be found. Here’s hoping for a mild winter and early spawn. Will start throwing again in March as the waters warm. Best of the Holidays to all.

11/26/2018

This is the reply received from Dr. Kendrick with DNR re. small shrimp. It is followed by his OK of my request to quote him.

Thanks for reaching out. I am interested to hear that folks are catching very small white shrimp this time of year. We did have reports of extremely late spawning by white shrimp, which would account for the 1” shrimp you have reported. As you know, this is somewhat unusual and we are working to understand how and why this is occurring this year. Thanks for passing along the information and I will let you know if we are able to figure this out.

No problem Bob. We are still working to see how unusual this may be. We know that a few late stragglers can come in each year, but if it is a larger-scale event, it may be something we want to investigate more.

Mike

Michael R. Kendrick
Assistant Marine Scientist
Crustacean Research and Monitoring Section
SCDNR Marine Resources Research Institute

11/24/2018

Pigeon Point Landing one day after the moon – salinity 26ppt – water temp. 56. First time I’ve been able to throw the net since the August 1st surgery. Was expecting large end of season white shrimp. WRONG! On 6 casts I brought in 7 small to very small (1 inch) white shrimp. Why May and June size are around in November is beyond me. Will contact DNR in search of explanation.

09/25/2018

The Estuarium remains closed but I was back at The Sands yesterday for the first time since surgery. Banded tulips are most happy with the mud snails I brought them. Surgical wounds are healing well but it’s going o take time to regain strength.

09/08/2018

The Estuarium remains closed and will be for a while yet. On late Wed. I returned to MUSC with post-op infection now being addressed. Arm and thigh tissues involved in the surgery are healing nicely. Unfortunately I had no way to communicate and no one but Carol Murphy who brought me knew where I was. It’s a mystery to me how it happened or who all was involved but a group of dear friends and family came together to get my laptop to Debbie Dawsey Davis who dropped it off here on her way to sweet Blythe’s art show opening in McClellanville. Anyway – a new treatment has begun for the one most troublesome post-op issue and I hope to be home Monday. Best to all.