Snorkeling to preserve environment

Aug 03, 2023

Larry Griffin

[email protected]

On Saturday, Aug. 26, curious snorkelers descended below the Tuckaseegee River to discover what life lived beneath the water.

They did so as part of a new event from the North Carolina Wildlife Resources Commission (NCWRC)’s Blue Ridge Snorkel Trail, intended to spread goodwill and awareness regarding the aquatic life in the river.

According to one of the event sponsors, Callie Moore of conservation nonprofit MountainTrue, the event Saturday was a way for those interested to go on a guided snorkeling tour and receive tips on how to get the most out of it.

The Blue Ridge Snorkel Trail opened earlier this year. There are 10 pilot sites along the various river basins in the region, with one of them being in Bryson City Island Park in the Little Tennessee River.

The event was sponsored by MountainTrue, along with the Watershed Association of the Tuckaseegee River, or WATR, which works to monitor and maintain water health.

The morning saw many people coming out to Bryson City’s Island Park with swimming gear, some in full body suits. They took snorkels and went under the surface of the river, spending a Saturday learning up-close about what’s in the river.

Two young children, Jackson Sturges and Knox Bell, came back up sporting several rusted old trinkets – they turned out to be a piece of an old moonshine jar and an air-line from a train, which was used to connect cars and get air between them.

“We found lots of treasure,” Jackson said.

Ralph Murphy, chair of the board for WATR, examined the boys’ finds and said the moonshine jar shard likely came from a gallon or a two-gallon jug. “I’d keep this,” he told the boys.

“It’s nice to have something local to do, and educational,” said Andrea Bell, Knox’s mother, there with the rest of their family.

Two other snorkelers, Darcy Fagen and Laura Luder, said they traveled from Georgia just for the morning’s event.

“We’re so excited to be here. We saw lots of fish, we saw mussels. We seek adventure,” Fagen said.

Moore said the intent of the NCWRC was not to gatekeep, however. She said those who are interested in snorkeling can go and do it any time on their own.

“The idea is the trail is, you won’t have to have a specific event to use it. People can just go buy a $10 to $15 mask and snorkel and go do it themselves.”

But she said the NCWRC would be hosting periodic events to try and get more interest in their programs.

Moore said the month of June would be an especially good time to go snorkeling, for future reference. “June is a good time for it. There are darters you can see, very small fish. They’re all different colors when they’re spotting in June. It’s like being in the Caribbean – except with cold water.”

But the larger intent of the project is to try and inspire people to take action to preserve the environment and the waters, Murphy said.

“We want to get kids in the water, seeing the flora and fauna living in the streams. Environmental education is extremely important, because of climate change. This is the next generation, the kids who will solve the problem. We need them to be educated and informed,” Murphy said.

He said he’d recently given a lecture in which part of the thesis was how to develop the next generation of naturalists, and the main idea he wanted to push was “get families in the woods, or on the river. Get families outside.”