NORFOLK — The Hague is an often-photographed scene. The Y-shaped inlet along the Elizabeth River is flanked by some of the city’s most expensive homes, and the Chrysler Museum of Art stands on the East side.
Many residents of the mermaid city know what’s around the Hague.
But what lives in it?
First, it’s important to understand the ecosystem of the entire Elizabeth River, according to Joe Rieger, deputy director of restoration at the Elizabeth River Project.
Unlike other rivers, where water flows from mountains or lakes down to the ocean, the Elizabeth River’s freshwater comes from the Great Dismal Swamp and stormwater. Because of high and low tides, the water goes back and forth, and Rieger said many times, the water at the southern branch may never make it out of the system. Then it ends up back in another position, such as in the Southern or Eastern Branch of the river. Rieger said this makes the Elizabeth River a “trap estuary.”
Any creature you see in the Elizabeth River could show itself in the Hague, but certain creatures such as oysters tend to thrive.
“Even though this is a very urbanized area, it still has high diversity when it comes to fin fish and invertebrates,” Rieger said. “We’ve done a number of trawl surveys throughout the system, and we spot things like seahorses everywhere from the Lafayette River, down past Nauticus and over to the Eastern Branch. There’s a lot of diversity in the ecosystem. We have dolphins. We’ve even had manatees in the river.”
From cownose rays to dolphins and seals, creatures often associated with the ocean can sometimes be spotted along the Elizabeth River, Rieger said.
“The Hague has pretty poor water quality because of the flushing aspect of it,” Reiger said. “The Hague probably has 30 or 25 large water outfalls that enter into the Hague. So because of that, it takes a lot of pollution into that water body. We just haven’t done a lot of investigations to look at the diversity of what is actually living in there, but the likelihood of all these things that I just mentioned is pretty high that you could find it.”
In recent years, the city and environmental groups have worked to restore parts of the Hague. For one project, a basin in a low-lying open space area is being constructed as part of a larger restoration of the Hague’s watershed. The stormwater wetland will improve water quality, stabilize eroding banks, and establish a habitat for native wildlife. Along the Hague’s banks, pedestrians on the adjacent sidewalk can see new grasses planted to help restore native species.
In recent years, more shrimp are being spotted in the river, which Rieger said was likely driven by rising water temperatures. Other species, such as striped bass, have been struggling more because of the change in temperature combined with overfishing.
People who spot wildlife in the river are encouraged to post about their finds, especially for larger animals like dolphins. In the coming weeks, Rieger said the Elizabeth River Project will launch Otter Spotter, a data collection program, where community members can report sightings of the mammals in the river.
“We always love people posting to our Facebook page or letting us know when they see something cool on the river,” Rieger said.
Eliza Noe, eliza.noe@virginiamedia.com
