About Albemarle-Pamlico Sounds
Estuarine Area
Estuary Area = 5500 km2
Pamlico Sound ~120 km x 40 km
Albemarle Sound ~70 km x 20 km
Croatan & Roanoke Sounds ~15 km x 5 km
Sounds Depths
Mean depth ~4.5 m
Range 2 to > 7 m
Maximum ~7.5 m in northern Pamlico Basin
Water Temperatures
February 7°C
July 30°C
Well-mixed 3oC horizontal, 1oC vertical
Salinities
February <5 to 19 ppt
September <5 to 32 ppt
Well-mixed, mean 0.66 ppt vertical
Water Residence Times
Pamlico: 24 days (mean), range 10 days to 2 months (Stanley 1992)
Neuse: range 2 to 6 months (Cooper et al. 2004)
About Albemarle-Pamlico Lakes & Reservoirs
Neuse Basin
Falls Lake: Dam completed in 1983
About Albemarle-Pamlico Rivers
Neuse Basin
Declared nutrient-sensitive in 1993
North Carolina estuaries contribute 76 percent of the total estimated surface area of Carolinian Province estuaries, an area extending from Cape Henry, Virginia through the southern end of Indian River Lagoon on the east coast of Florida.
(Source: Hyland et al. 2000)
The estimated date for the onset of oyster reef degradation in Pamlico Sound was 1902. No scientist alive today has ever seen an undisturbed, fully functioning oyster reef (Source: Kirby 2004)
Starting in 1983, 26 bald eagle chicks were taken from Michigan, Florida and Pennsylvania and brought to Lake Mattamuskeet (Hyde County) to be raised and released in the wild. From those chicks, it is estimated that 140 adult eagles now fly in North Carolina’s skies. (Source: G. Livingston, AP 8/7/05)
Half of the area used as nurseries by fish from Maine to Florida is provided by the Albemarle-Pamlico Estuarine System (Source: Mallin et al. 2000)
The Albemarle-Pamlico Estuarine System sustained nearly 30 hurricanes in the past 100 years (www.nhc.noaa.gov).
The mean depth of the Neuse River estuary and Pamlico Sound is 3.6 m (Burkholder et al. 2004).
The Chowan River derived its name from the Algonquian Indian tribal name Chowanook, meaning “They of the South.”
Researchers from the State Climate Office of North Carolina analyzed data from nine National Weather Service Cooperative stations across North Carolina and discovered that over the past 100 years the coastal and piedmont regions of North Carolina are warming and drying out. One of the most noteworthy temperature trends was seen in the coastal station, Elizabeth City, which showed an overall increase in temperatures of 3.17 degrees Fahrenheit from 1911 to 2002. The greatest precipitation change was observed at the piedmont station in Chapel Hill. From 1893 to 2002, the station showed a decrease of about 4.1 inches. (http://www.nc-climate.ncsu.edu/office/newsletters/2006Spring/2006spring.pdf)