Includes bibliographical references (pages 219-220) and index.

Ecology of the Chesapeake Bay. How salty is the water? ; Typical habitats of the Bay and its tributaries ; Classification of animals and plants -- Sand beaches. Dwellers on the beach ; Signs of life ; Ancient relics of the sea ; Shell guide -- Intertidal flats. Plant life on the flats ; Roamers over the flats ; The world beneath the intertidal muds -- Piers, rocks, and jetties. Barnacles ; Bugs of the pilings ; Worms on the pilings ; Sea squirts and the like ; Mussels ; Sponges ; Sea anemones ; Hydroids : feathery animals ; Whip coral ; Skeleton shrimps ; Bryozoans ; Termites of the sea -- Shallow waters. Fishes ; Plankton soup ; Crustaceans of the shallows ; Clams of the shallows ; Snails of fresher waters ; Arks of the lower Bay -- Seagrass meadows and weed beds. Underwater plants ; Seagrass meadows ; Weed beds of the upper Bay -- Marshes. Tidal freshwater marshes ; Irregularly flooded saltmarshes ; Regularly flooded saltmarshes -- Oyster bars. The famous oyster ; Life in, on, and among the oysters ; Crabs and other crustaceans ; Mollusks of the oyster community ; Fishes -- Deeper, open waters. Dwellers on the bottom ; Dwellers in the bottom ; Creatures of the open waters ; Fishes of the open waters -- Species list and distributions by salinity zones.