Port Royal Sound Field Guide

Life in the Port Royal Sound Watershed

Unlike most estuaries, the Port Royal Sound receives limited freshwater and sediment inputs from larger river systems, making it essentially an inland sea with tremendous food sources and habitat for all forms of life. With its deep salty water and extensive salt marsh, the Port Royal Sound is considered one of the most productive ecosystems in the world, which means that the plant and animal life is richer here than most places on Earth. Use this Port Royal Sound Field Guide to explore some of the many species that consider this system home for at least some part of its life cycle.

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Stone Crab

Menippe mercenaria

Classification: Marine Invertebrate

Status: Not Evaluated

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Ornate Chorus Frog

Pseudacris ornata

Classification: Amphibian

Status: S3 - Vulnerable

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Cope’s Gray Treefrog

Hyla chrysoscelis

Classification: Amphibian

Status: S4-5 - Secure

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Bird-voiced Treefrog

Hyla avivoca

Classification: Amphibian

Status: S3 - Vulnerable

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Red-cockaded Woodpecker

Leuconotopicus borealis

Classification: Birds

Status: S2 - Imperiled

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Frosted Flatwoods Salamander

Ambystoma cingulatum

Classification: Amphibian

Status: S1 - Critically Imperiled

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Wood Stork

Mycteria americana

Classification: Birds

Status: S2 - Imperiled

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Northern Long-eared Bat

Myotis septentrionalis

Classification: Mammal

Status: S1 - Critically Imperiled

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Atlantic Sturgeon

Acipenser oxyrinchus oxyrinchus

Classification: Fish

Status: Not Evaluated

Did You Know?

Super Salt Marshes

The Port Royal Sound watershed includes more than 200,000 acres of salt marshes – about half of the marshland in the state! Salt marsh is an incredibly important ecosystem — it provides food and habitat for species that live in and along the water, and an acre can store (sequester) more carbon than an acre of the Amazon Forest!

Baby Sharks!

Approximately 20 species of sharks and rays call the Port Royal Sound home for at least part of their lifecycle. Most of the sharks who live here are small species, usually under 5 feet long. But, some of the bigger shark species come into the Port Royal Sound to have their pups — Baby Sharks!