Albemarle Sound

Albemarle Sound is a large estuary on the coast of North Carolina in the United States. It is where several rivers, like the Chowan and Roanoke, meet the sea. The sound is separated from the Atlantic Ocean by the Currituck Banks, a sandy strip of land where the town of Kitty Hawk is found. This area is part of the bigger Outer Banks region.

Roanoke Island sits at the southeastern corner of Albemarle Sound, connecting it to another large body of water called Pamlico Sound. The water in Albemarle Sound is often not very salty because rivers add fresh water, making much of it brackish or even fresh.

Parts of Albemarle Sound have special names. For example, the area between mainland Dare County and Roanoke Island is known as Croatan Sound. The water near the eastern shore of Roanoke Island is called Roanoke Sound. The stretch of water from close to the Virginia border down to southern Currituck County is known as the Currituck Sound.

Albemarle Sound is also part of a waterway that runs along the Atlantic coast, called the Atlantic Intracoastal Waterway. Long ago, early English settlers from Virginia lived along the sound and created some of the first permanent European settlements in what is now North Carolina. Today, many communities near the sound are part of the Inner Banks region.

History

The Pamlico people and their ancestors lived in the area for thousands of years. They used dugout canoes to travel the sound and catch fish. They often set up camps for fishing during certain times of the year.

In 1586, the first European explorers sailed up the Albemarle Sound. After that, settlers from Virginia came and started farms and trading places. The sound was a key route for ships carrying goods like spices and sugars from the West Indies. They traded these for local products such as tobacco, herring, and lumber.

Fishing has always been important here. In the past, fishermen used big nets to catch fish like shad, striped bass, and herring. Today, pollution has made it harder to find fish in the area.