Estuaries provide a nurturing environment 

 for 90 percent of all commercially important 

 shellfish and finfish. 



dealing with estuarine shoreline develop- 

 ment. 



Riggs will produce the first in the 

 series, incorporating the original data as 

 well as new research findings. Subsequent 

 guidebooks will deal with policy and 

 mitigation methods. Walter Clark, Sea 

 Grant coastal policy specialist, and Spencer 

 Rogers, Sea Grant coastal erosion and 

 construction specialist, will contribute to 

 the series. 



W 



'hereas studies of single species, single 

 chemical processes, single geological features and 

 single processes of a physical nature have been 

 useful and often rigorous, the behavior of an 

 estuary depends on the total interaction of all the 

 chemical cycles, water circulations and species 

 behaviors. 



When the Albemarle-Pamlico sound 

 system was designated an "Estuary of 

 Concern" in 1988, a team of Sea Grant 

 researchers was dispatched to find solutions 

 for the ailing system. 



Skaggs and Gilliam would investigate 

 how land uses in the watershed affect 

 estuarine water quality. NC State's Ed 

 Noga would look at a disease suspected of 

 causing a four-year decline in blue crab 

 populations, and Walter Clark would 

 develop a pilot program that would serve as 

 a model for managing multiple uses of 

 public trust waters. 



Len Pietrafesa and colleagues from NC 

 State's Department of Marine, Earth and 

 Atmospheric Sciences, would be part of the 

 multidisciplinary effort. 



Pietrafesa, would lead landmark studies 

 of the circulation patterns of the Albemarle 

 and Pamlico sounds — their links to each 

 other and to surrounding bodies of water. 



He began looking at the sounds and the 

 narrow inlets between barrier islands that 

 funnel water in and out of the estuary. The 

 central coast, he says, is uniquely situated 

 relative to both winter northeasters and summer 

 tropical storms. "It's the center of mass for 

 winter storms, and the point where tropical 

 storms can re-intensify or even spawn." 



The estuaries and coastal systems have 

 learned to deal with storms, he says. But 

 often people get in the way of nature. When 

 water and winds build up in the shallow estuary 

 basins, the winds punch the water through 

 the narrow inlets into the coastal waters. 



Pietrafesa explains that during a 

 Nor'easter, when the wind blows down the 

 axis of the Pamlico Sound from NE to SW, 

 the system sets up like a teeter-totter with 

 the fulcrum at Bluff Shoals. The strong 

 northeast wind pushes water southward 

 allowing rivers to drain quickly. As winds 

 shift to the southwest, the water is pushed in 

 the opposite direction. 



But it's an ill wind that doesn't blow 

 some good. The same ocean surges that may 

 wash over barrier islands — claiming dunes, 

 buildings and roadways — also carry fish 

 larvae from the ocean waters into the sound 

 side of the barrier islands. 



On the backside of the storm, 

 Pietrafesa notes, winds from the west push 

 water to the backside of the barrier island. 

 Larvae enter the estuary in heavier sea water, 

 which sinks to the bottom of the water column 

 as wind-driven freshwater enters the system 

 from the west. As the storm subsides and 

 winds shift, the larvae are pushed west 

 safely into the estuary's nursery. 



Hurricanes also can mean unusual 

 nurseries of juvenile blue crabs. Recent 

 studies by Sea Grant researcher Dave 

 Eggleston concluded that hurricane winds 

 drive juvenile blue crabs toward the western 

 shore of the Pamlico Sound and into the 

 Croatan, Albemarle and Currituck sounds. 



l/i the ecological approach to environmen- 

 tal systems, man's role is considered as an 

 integral part of nature. 



What's a salt marsh without egrets and 

 ibises? Not much says James Parnell, 

 nationally renowned ornithologist at the 

 University of North Carolina at 

 Wilmington. Parnell has devoted much of 

 his research career to studying the habits of 

 colonial water birds. 



It was Parnell who first realized the 

 importance of man-made dredge spoil 

 islands that dot the state's estuaries. These 

 islands have provided nesting habitats for 

 large colonies of water birds, most of which 

 used to nest along once undeveloped 

 beachfront. 



Sea Grant funded his first water bird 

 census, the atlas resulting from the census, 

 subsequent publication evaluations and 

 numerous publications about avian 

 management. 



Scientists and resource managers say 

 the birds are important to the coastal food 

 chain and are indicators of environmental 

 quality. They say that waterbirds are so 

 vital to our coastal ecosystem that manage- 

 ment of their nesting and feeding habitat is 

 necessary. 



Parnell's later work, The 1993 Atlas of 

 Colonial Waterbirds of North Carolina 

 Estuaries and 7990 Management of North 

 Carolina 's Colonial Waterbirds — both 

 published by North Carolina Sea Grant — 

 are considered the ultimate management 

 guides. 



\an receives from the bay system and 

 its components the yield of aesthetic recreational 

 restoration, foods, services in processing wastes, 

 and other profits. If we draw on these systems 

 without returning some exchange of special value 

 to the estuary, we cause the aspects in which we 

 are expecting continued yield to be diminished. 



At the portal of the 21st century, North 

 Carolina Sea Grant remains committed to 

 supporting research and extension activities 

 to underwrite an estuarine policy that 

 balances a mutually sustainable give and 

 take of nature and society, n 



30 HIGH SEASON 2001 



