To cover the entire Albemarle-Pamlico Sounds region, you must journey from the rolling hills of the piedmont to the flatlands of the coastal plain to the windswept shores of the Outer Banks. You will travel from Prince George County in Virginia to Morehead City in Carteret County, NC. You will cross more than 9,299 miles of freshwater rivers and streams and 1.8 million acres of brackish estuarine waters.
The Albemarle-Pamlico Sounds region - 30,000 square miles of watershed - is the second largest estuarine system in the United States, second only to the Chesapeake Bay. It is composed of seven sounds - the Albemarle, Currituck, Croatan, Pamlico, Bogue, Core and Roanoke - and five major river basins, as well as beaches, marshes and bottomland forests.
Within this diverse geographic region is one of nature's most complete and dynamic ecosystems. The sounds, rivers, creeks, wetlands, and terrestrial areas in the A/P estuarine system support a variety of uses, and we depend on the system to supply food, recreation, jobs, a mode of transportation, and vital habitat for fish and shellfish. In addition, its diverse ecological communities provide a rich natural heritage for humans and wildlife.
Economically, the Albemarle-Pamlico Sounds estuarine system represents the region's key resource base through commercial fishing, tourism, recreation, and resort development. Economic benefits are also derived from uses of the natural resources for mining, forestry, and agriculture.
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