HYDROGRAPHY OF THE MARINE WATERS 69 



openings. Apparently as a result of fill carried southward from the Virginia 

 Capes headland, there are no inlets along the northern reaches of the bar. 

 From the standpoint of exchange between sounds and ocean, the greatest 

 inlets are in the central area, Ocracoke Inlet being the most prominent. 



To create and maintain a new inlet or to deepen an existing one is to oppose 

 strong natural forces. It can be done at any point if the engineering is ade- 

 quate (which means proper financing) to withstand the extremes in adverse 

 wind and currents. On the other hand, inadequate construction may mean 

 money completely wasted as when New Inlet closed immediately after being 

 artificially reopened in 1924. The public seems to class all proposals for new 

 inlets as improvements for the fisheries as well as for navigation. This is an 

 extremely hasty assumption. The increase in salinity in the sound side of a 

 new or deepened inlet might increase clam production and possibly the yield 

 of certain other forms, but the popular concept that more inlets will mean 

 increased migrations into the sounds is unfounded. This may be true or partly 

 so; yet there may be some detrimental results. For example, if the discharge 

 of brackish water through an inlet attracts fish, the addition of inlets may so 

 reduce this factor for any given inlet as to make it less than the amount 

 necessary to stimulate migration. Studies should be made of the relation of 

 inlets to the habitats and migrations of pertinent fisheries forms. Such studies 

 should be both basic and practical, ranging from physiological studies of the 

 influence of brackish water on fish behavior to before and after observations 

 around new inlets created by nature. North Carolina affords natural models 

 for the latter work, the greatest limitation being lack of data on past 

 conditions. 



The North Carolina sounds consist of about 2,500 square miles of typically 

 productive shallow waters, seldom as much as 20 feet deep. The bottom areas 

 are of sand, or mud, or a mixture of the two. A statement of the areas now 

 capable of serving as oyster bars cannot be made but, in view of past history, 

 it is assumed that with proper management vast areas, including some now 

 depleted, can serve well in this respect. 



Rivers draining about 30,000 square miles, almost all within the Coastal 

 Plain and Piedmont Plateau, discharge into these sounds. Salinities range 

 from fresh water at the river mouths to almost the full concentration of sea 

 water at the inlets from the ocean. The tidal range is so small that, except at 

 inlets, most changes in water level result primarily from wind-driven water. 

 From the limited data available it appears that the temperature in these 

 sounds generally approximates that of the overlying air, being slightly colder 

 as a rule. There is very little freezing in mid-winter. 



To the seaward of the offshore bar there are about 14,000 square miles of 

 shallow water (to the lOO-fathom curve which is the edge of the continental 

 shelf). The adjacent Florida Current of the Gulf Stream System makes the 



