This mangrove forest, located between VIERS and the VIERS wetlab/dock on Greater Lameshur Bay, was killed when Hurricane Hugo hit the islands in 1989.  Increased salt concentrations as the ocean source was cut off during the 1995 Hurricane Maryland and the evaporation of water eventually led to a mudpan filled with dead mangroves.  Until this year, the area was dry, as seen in pictures from last year and two years ago, but Hurricane Lenny in 1999 had seemed to reopen the channel to the ocean and allow the tides come in again.

The mud was ankle deep, extremely odoriferous, made "schleping" as we walked though, and was hungry for shoes and sandals.  This year, with the tides coming in, black mangroves were regrowing -note the green growth close to the ground around the class.  Millions of fiddler crabs decided to take residence here, and scattered and hid when we sludged through to the other side of the swamp.  Several herons were also spotted in the distance, and sandpipers were seen here during morning birdwalks.

When we finally crossed the swamp, with only one mishap of poor Evars falling down, and pushed through the thorn bushes, the ocean was a welcome sight.  All of us attemped to wash away the mud that seemed to be permanently stuck to whatever had touched it, and we turned the waters brown.

Ironically, our next destination, a mangrove pond that in previous years had been thigh-deep was now bone dry.  We did not find anything living there -only empty dried fiddler crabs and a set of bones we thought were from a dog.