What is the importance of the Salt Marsh?

Port Royal Sound also boasts more than 200,000 acres of salt marshes – about half of the marshland in the state. Flooded daily at high tide, these estuarine ecosystems are highly productive habitats that provide food and shelter for an extraordinary array of terrestrial and marine animals.

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Equally notable, the salt content in the sound is very high. With so little freshwater flowing into the channel, the water is virtually as salty 20 miles inland as it is in the Atlantic. The high salinity, combined with the deep water, allows sea turtles, sharks, rays and dolphins to travel from the ocean to its upper reaches.