North Inlet, SC typifies the forested, high salinity salt marsh estuaries abundant in the southeastern U.S.  It is a bar-built estuary flooded by semi-diurnal tides that inundate numerous shallow tidal creeks branching through strands of the smooth cordgrass, Spartina alternaflora.   Tidal influence combined with little freshwater input (rainfall, runoff) results in well-mixed high salinity water.