for families and children , and enjoy seasonal explorations of the salt marsh , bird walks , and open houses at the Baruch Marine Lab . The Field Laboratory campus includes a large building for research and education activities , two seawater buildings , outdoor mesocosms , boardwalks , piers , a maintenance shop , and boat sheds .
The mission of the Baruch Institute is to provide a better understanding of marine and coastal resources to improve the well-being of people , animals , and the surrounding environment .
The People Dennis Allen , Ph . D ., did his undergraduate work at Hobart College in Geneva , New York , and earned his master ’ s and doctorate degrees at Lehigh University in Bethlehem , Pennsylvania . He and his colleagues have been sampling plankton in the salt marsh creeks of the North Inlet every two weeks since the early ’ 80s .
On the day we visited , Senior Research Resource Specialist Paul Kenny , originally from Tramore , County Waterford , Ireland , who has been conducting studies with Allen for almost 35 years , was also onboard the boat from which they dropped specially made nets to obtain samples . The nets were of two different weaves — one especially small in size admitted only the smallest of creatures and plants ; the second type of net with a slightly more open weave captured larger organisms .
Each sample teemed with life , some barely visible and some eye-catching like the tiny , flashing silver-eyed fish that darted about . Allen and Kenny carefully recorded data about each sample to add to their findings compiled over the last threeand-a-half decades . Their studies are an integral part of the research about plankton that is taking place around the globe . Scientists are viewing the state of the various organisms in our
waters with growing concern . They focus on the undeniable connections between these organisms and the air we breathe .
The Purpose According to Dennis Allen , the purpose of long-term ecological research at the Institute is “ to characterize changes in the abundance , distribution , and population dynamics ( reproduction growth rates , behavior ) of more than 100 key species of estuarine animals and understand the factors that drive those changes .
With evidence that observed changes in animal populations and habitat are related to increases in water temperature , sea level , and rainfall patterns , our research results from this relatively pristine coastal system indicate impacts of changing climate .”
During the afternoon hours , Allen and Kenny will return to the Inlet to collect data on some of the fish , shrimps , and crabs that inhabit its waters . They are easy-going , soft-spoken men , focused on the data they are gathering . Each sample is entered carefully into a small , well-worn spiral notebook and then entered into a computer database .
They have been sampling for over three decades and know their “ office ”— the vast acres of the Hobcaw Barony and the tidal creeks of North Inlet — intimately . They preserve their samples studiously , but their work is punctuated by pauses to watch a bald eagle soar overhead or to enjoy a flock of white ibis that passes over the distant marsh .
They recognize their constituents — the pod of dolphins that moves through the waters , every bird that lingers , each type of grass in the marshes . They operate far from the bustle that is Georgetown , moving slowly through the waters , knowing from experience how the area has changed over the years . NK
10 Naturally Kiawah