Albemarle Sound
The Albemarle Sound is a large estuary on the coast of the State of North Carolina in the United States . It is located at the confluence of a number of rivers, including the Chowan and Roanoke Rivers . The Albemarle Sound is separated from the Atlantic by the Outer Banks , a peninsula and offshore archipelago with the town of Kitty Hawk at the eastern end . At the southeastern end of the Sound is the island of Roanoke Island , where the Albemarle connects with the Pamlico Sound . Large proportions of the water volume of the sound are sweet or brackish thanks to the rivers that empty into the sound , in contrast to the salt water that enters the sound from the connections to the open sea.
Small parts of the sound have their own names to distinguish the sub-regions from the large expanses of water of the Albemarle Sound, such as Croatan Sound , which lies between the mainland at Dare County and Roanoke Island, and the eastern part of this island, known as Roanoke Sound referred to as. The long stretch of water between the southern Virginia state line and the southern border of Currituck County is called Currituck Sound .
The strait forms part of the Atlantic Intracoastal Waterway . On the coast of the Sound in what is now North Carolina, the continent was first settled by English colonists. Many of the towns and cities on the banks of the Albemarle Sound are now part of the Inner Banks .
history
Before the Europeans settled Albemarle Sound, Native Americans , Indians from the Algonquin tribe , lived in the region. They drove the sound with dugout canoes and fished the water.
In 1586, the first European explorers sailed into the Albemarle Sound, and half a century later the first settlers from the Virginia colony emigrated south and established agricultural settlements and trading posts along the Sound. Soon after, the sound was an important trade route, small vessels, known as Coasters , brought merchandise from the other colonies. Larger merchant ships transported spices, silk and sugar from the West Indies to exchange these goods for tobacco, herring and wood.
Ferries were a common method of moving goods through the swamps surrounding the sound. One of them linked the towns of Edenton and Mackeys from 1734 until 1934 when a bridge was built over the Sound. Another, longer bridge with a length of almost 5 kilometers was built in 1990. During the Civil War , the Battle of Albemarle Sound took place in the Sound in April 1864 .
The most important branch of the economy was fishing , in late spring mainly herring , alse and sea bass were caught, the nets of the fish were sometimes over one and a half kilometers long and were often used 24 hours a day. The herring was cured for export to Europe , while Alsen was stored on ice and transported across the Chowan River to the northern colonies for sale . Regional sea bass fishing tournaments brought many anglers to the area, and the sound was considered one of the best perch fishing areas in the world. The overfishing of the Sound in recent years has reduced fish stocks by 70 percent.
Web links
- Albemarle-Pamlico National Estuary Program
- Elizabeth City Area website
- Website Kitty Hawk
- Roanoke Island website
Coordinates: 36 ° 3 '54.7 " N , 76 ° 3' 52.3" W.