Part of an ongoing series on North Carolina’s observance of America’s 250th.

When Halifax was founded in 1760 on the south bank of the Roanoke River, the town became a thriving commercial and social hub, largely because of its access to the Albemarle Sound, but as the American Revolution took hold in the 1770s, the town found itself at the epicenter of North Carolina’s move from British rule to independence.

North Carolina’s Fourth Provincial Congress met in Halifax in the spring of 1776, when delegates from across the colony unanimously adopted a document recommending freedom from England that was later called the “Halifax Resolves,” according to state historians.

“North Carolina played a significant role in winning America’s independence,” Gov. Josh Stein said in a statement. “The creation and adoption of the Halifax Resolves on April 12, 1776 was the first official action by any colony calling for independence from Great Britain, forever cementing North Carolina’s place in history as ‘First in Freedom.’”

The state will commemorate the 250th anniversary of the document with “Prelude to Revolution: Halifax Resolves Days,” at the Historic Halifax State Historic Site in Halifax County.

Scheduled for 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Friday through Sunday, there will be living history vignettes, lectures, live colonial music, Tryon Palace Fife and Drum Corps performances, historic trades and weapons demonstrations, a military parade, food trucks, vendors, exhibits, tours and themed photo booths.

The site, which holds a smaller-scale observation each year in April, features several authentically restored and furnished buildings including the 1838 Jail, the 1790 Eagle Tavern and the Underground Railroad Trail. 

Halifax Resolves Days is a signature event for America 250 NC, the state’s official initiative led by the North Carolina Department of Natural and Cultural Resources to commemorate the 250th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence and celebrate the state’s role in the American Revolution.

Signature events like this “honor our state’s pivotal role in shaping the American story. From historic reenactments to cultural festivals, these events will inspire, educate, and unite communities across the state.”

N.C. Department of Natural & Cultural Resources Assistant Communications Director Michele Walker told Coastal Review that some event highlights include a ceremony with the state-recognized Haliwa-Saponi Indian Tribe, a living history reenactment of the Provincial delegates debating independence, the annual Halifax Resolves Day Ceremony April 12 at the colonial courthouse site, and live music and a drone show at dark on King Street.

A full schedule is available on the event website.

As part of “Halifax Resolves Days,” the state will officially open Historic Halifax State Historic Site’s newly renovated visitor center at 25 St. David St., “unveiling a modern facility and a new exhibit detailing Halifax’s significant role in the state’s history,” according to the release.

Starting Friday and continuing through Oct. 6, visitors to the center will have the unique opportunity to view the Halifax Resolves document on loan from the National Archives in Washington, D.C.

This is the first time the Resolves document – the only known copy to exist — is believed to be returning to Halifax since it was sent to the Continental Congress in Philadelphia in 1776. The State Archives of North Carolina holds the journal copy of the Resolves that will be displayed in Halifax this fall, the state said.

“The opportunity to view this 250-year-old document in the place where it was created is a truly once-in-a-lifetime experience,” N.C. Department of Natural and Cultural Resources Secretary Pamela B. Cashwell said in a statement. “The Halifax Resolves is one of the most important pieces of our state’s story — its date is emblazoned on our state flag — and we’re so excited for North Carolinians to see it in person.”

Halifax’s role in the American Revolution

The Roanoke River, which is one of the five largest rivers in the Southeast that flows from the foothills of the Appalachian into the Atlantic Ocean, begins in Montgomery County, Virginia, enters North Carolina in Warren County and flows through Halifax, Northampton, Bertie, Martin, Washington counties, before emptying into Batchelor’s Bay of Albemarle Sound, according to state documents.

English colonists from Virginia in the early 18^th century settled in the Roanoke River Valley and began farming the fertile land. In the following decades, a plantation system evolved that relied on slave labor to grow wheat, corn, peas, tobacco, and other staple crops for markets outside of the colony.

At the behest of the merchants, Halifax was founded in 1757 to use to their advantage the river’s access to the Albemarle Sound and its ports. Though a smallpox epidemic in 1758 stalled settlement, the town was settled in 1760 as the seat of Halifax County, which was designated Jan. 1, 1759. There were nearly 60 houses and public buildings at the time.

“This new town was at a major crossroads between North-South trading paths between the American colonies and West-East trading paths between the coast and the interior of the state. With this advantage, the small town quickly became a major trading center and river port for good moving between the backcountry, the plantations, and Virginia,” the state continues.

Not long after, the town became the backdrop for monumental political events during the American Revolution.

After the patriot victory Feb. 28, 1776, at Moores Creek Bridge in Pender County, the battle that effectively ended British rule in the colony, 83 delegates met in Halifax April 4, 1776, for the Fourth Provincial Congress of North Carolina.

Related: Rainy remembrance marks Revolution’s first decisive win

The delegates unanimously adopted on April 12, 1776, the document now called the “Halifax Resolves.”

“The Halifax Resolves were the first official action by any of the 13 colonies to call for independence from Great Britain. It is acknowledged as an important precursor to the Declaration of Independence,” Walker told Coastal Review.

The document gave William Hooper, Joseph Hewes and John Penn, the state’s representatives to the Second Continental Congress, authority to vote for independence. The Second Continental Congress was the governing body for the colonial governments that coordinated resistance to British rule during the American Revolution.

The Fourth Provincial Congress adjourned on May 15, 1776, after appointing a single Council of Safety to rule the entire colony. While the council was meeting in Halifax on July 22, 1776, the group learned that the Declaration of Independence had been signed in Philadelphia on July 4, 1776.

“The council adopted a resolution declaring North Carolinians ‘absolved from all Allegiance to the British Crown’,” according to the historic site’s webpage.

Cornelius Harnett, a resident and Revolutionary patriot, was selected for the North Carolina’s first public reading of the Declaration of Independence to the town of Halifax Aug. 1, 1776.

The Fifth Provincial Congress assembled in Halifax that November, and by Dec. 18, the delegation had approved the new state’s first constitution. As its last official act Dec. 23, 1776, the congress appointed Richard Caswell as the first governor of the State of North Carolina.

“This one small town of Halifax saw the adoption for national independence, the first state constitution and the election of the first governor after colonial rule. Clearly Halifax was a front runner for the independence movement in not only North Carolina, but the entire nation as well,” according to the site.

Walker said that this was the state’s big moment in Revolutionary history, and Historic Halifax State Historic Site preserves this important action for all North Carolinians.

Visitor center renovation

Division of State Historic Sites Public Information Officer Terra Schramm told Coastal Review that in 1976, during the nation’s Bicentennial, this visitor center first opened its doors to welcome guests to Historic Halifax State Historic Site, which was established in 1965.

The North Carolina General Assembly appropriated $5.2 million to renovate the visitor center in 2022 and to complete the restoration of the William R. Davie House, a part of the historic site, in time for the nation’s 250th anniversary this year, she continued.

“The renovation of this building is now complete the interior has been thoroughly replaced, new climate control systems installed, the building foundation sealed, a clerestory added to light the lobby, and the conditioned interior space expanded from 4,900 square feet to just over 6,000 square feet,” Schramm said.

Of note, is a specially designed document display case that has been built to meet security and environmental control standards outlined by the National Archives and Records Administration.

“The case will be used to exhibit a rotation of significant historical documents, starting (appropriately) with the Halifax Resolves,” Schramm explained in her email response.

Clearscapes of Raleigh was hired to design and oversee the work, with Calvin Davinport Inc. of Rocky Mount serving as the general contractor. New historical exhibits for the building were designed by Design Dimensions of Raleigh, she said.

Featured Image

The sun sets over Albemarle Sound in Edenton earlier this month near the N.C. Highway 32 bridge in this photo submitted by Tom Brennan of Edenton. “For the past couple of years I’ve been flying my drone over the Albemarle Sound capturing the dramatic cloud formations, sunsets and sunrises,” Brennan told Coastal Review. “This time of year the sound becomes impossibly calm with remarkable sunsets.”

Submit your photo.

The Perquimans River is a narrow, twisting coastal river that never leaves Perquimans County.

It’s rarely more than 50 or 60 feet wide until it suddenly opens up just upriver from Hertford, the county seat. As it passes Durants Neck a little more than a mile south of the town, the river becomes a broad estuarine waterway offering a direct route to the Albemarle Sound.

County Manager Frank Heath stood recently on the edge of a wide, bulkheaded boat basin telling Coastal Review about the Perquimans County Marine Industrial Park that, after more than 10 years of false starts and missed steps, finally completed the first phase of the project last year: The $7 million deep-water boat basin now allows direct water access to the Albemarle sound.

“It’s 350 feet wide, more than a football field in width, and it goes inland 700 feet,” he said. “We do have such spectacular water resources, to me, it makes sense that we start with this.”

For some time, there have been calls to develop the county’s water access. More than 65 years ago in 1958, in celebration of the bicentennial of the founding of Hertford, W.G. Newby compiled “Town of Hertford Bi-Centennial” note, among other historic facts, “One of the very important contributing factors in the growth of a town is transportation. We have here … a great and beautiful river, the Perquimans.”

The author went on to note that by 1958 the river “is only used by a fleet of oil tankers that supply oil of home, U.S. Navy and other uses. However, it could be put to work of industry and we hope some day that this will come to pass.”

The basin, Heath explained, is phase one and it took a while to complete that first step in developing the county’s waterfront for commercial use.

“We spent quite a bit of energy getting the grants for phase one,” he said.

Getting the first phase completed, began Heath said, “12 or 13 years ago” when North Carolina identified Hertford as a secondary marine resource when the Wanchese Marine Industrial Park ran out of space.

It was, Heath explained, a much-needed economic lifeline for the county.

“The textile industry left in the 1980s and ’90s, we had several good-sized factories, those shut down,” he said. “We have an agricultural-based economy, which is very important, and we want that to continue to thrive, but we also want other industries to come in.”

Originally a state project, as plans moved forward, it became apparent that the state was not in position for the grants needed to build the marina project.

“What they found as … a state entity, they weren’t eligible for state grants, like the county would be. So, they transferred the ownership back to the county, and in the past, say, four years, we have been piecing funds together to get this done,” Heath said.

The county’s plan for the marina targets companies that need water access for large scale construction projects as likely tenants for the marina.

“There are builders from this area and outside the region, we’ve talked to companies that are looking to reshore back (return manufacturing) into United States,” Heath said.

At least one company has moved from Hampton Roads to Hertford. East Coast Steel Fabrication, a company providing heavy steel fabrication for barges and marine structures, is located immediately adjacent to the basin, although it is not part of the marina.

Heath mentioned there have been contacts with potential customers for the marina, although any announcement remains months in the future.

“I would think by the beginning of next year, we would have some news, if not sooner,” he said. “I’d love to have something before the end of the year.”

There is still work to be done.

There is not yet a road to the basin. Heath mentions the county is working with the North Carolina Department of Transportation on getting a road built.

“I’ve worked in cooperation with NCDOT. They’ve helped me do cost estimates and preliminary drawings, and I included that in requests that I’ve sent to the General Assembly to try to get funded through a budget process,” Heath said, adding that the budget impasse in the state legislature this session has stalled funding.

As a short-term solution, the county does have the funds to put in a gravel road something Heath said would be done in the next three months.

Phase two of the project will include a substantial extension of the boat basin, although Heath is careful to not get ahead of himself.

“We spent quite a bit of energy getting the grants for phase one. For grants for phase two to open up, getting the current basin leased out, is going to be important, because it proves the case itself. So, my primary goal now is to market to potential companies that need that kind of access,” he said.

Perquimans County is not considered an economically distressed county by North Carolina. The state uses a three-tier rating system, with Tier 1 being the most distressed and counties with a rating of 3 having the healthiest economies.

Perquimans County falls squarely in the Tier 2 category, but at least part of that economic health is created by workers who don’t work in the county.

“Our goal is to create jobs here in Perquimans County,” Heath said. “We have a lot of people that go to Hampton Roads to work, and we’d like to give them a place at home to work.”

That would, he noted, be more convenient for the workers, but there is more to it than that. Workers employed in the county also spend money in the county.

“They could buy gas here, they could buy lunch here. You’re going to stop by the grocery store and stop by the hardware or the auto place where you work,” Heath said. “We want to recapture that leakage.”

Scientists with the Morehead City-based Geodynamics have undertaken a large-scale survey of the Albemarle Sound’s 522 square nautical miles.

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s Office of Coast Survey, the nation’s nautical chart-maker, tasked the company, which focuses on collecting and processing high-resolution lidar and orthoimagery for coastal and marine resource programs, with the hydrographic survey of the sound’s shallow, complex environments.

“The project, which is now underway and expected to be complete this summer, is the first modern charting survey of the Albemarle Sound in more than 100 years,” Geodynamics representatives said Tuesday.

Data from the hydrographic survey will be used to update NOAA National Ocean Service charts and products, and characterize the estuarine environment to help manage a healthy and sustainable seafood industry and help monitor future changes to the estuary ecology, according to the company.

The data also will provide forecasters at NOAA’s National Water Center with bathymetric data to create a multi-dimensional hydrodynamic model that incorporates water level changes from riverine, storm-induced and sea level impacts to better understand nutrient movement and inundation.

“We are honored that NOAA Coast Survey recognizes our vast expertise in hydrographic surveying and geospatial solutions, and experience in shallow complex environments, to entrust us with a project of this magnitude,” Geodynamics Program Manager Dave Bernstein said in a statement.

“Our purpose-built vessels and advanced survey technologies will collect over 18,500 nautical miles of sonar data to help NOAA greatly improve safe navigation in the Albemarle Sound and its connecting waterways, while providing even greater insights into the effects of water level change and coastal resiliency and how nutrient movement is impacting the environment,” he added.

To collect the sonar-based, high-resolution data, Geodynamics has been using six different types of vessels: a vessel capable of multi-day, 24-hour survey operations, three daily operation vessels, and two uncrewed surface vehicles.

The data is being managed through a survey information management system, or SIMS, which is a collection of online applications and eGIS geographic information system services for survey planning, management and quality control in an interactive online environment.

Geodynamics was founded in 2001 by researchers in marine geology, coastal science and remote sensing and was acquired in March 2021 by NV5, a company that works with public and private sector clients to support infrastructure, utility and building assets and systems. For more information, visit the Geodynamics website.

Because current stock conditions show that the number of older, larger fish in the striped bass population has declined in the Albemarle Sound Management Area, a new harvest slot limit of 18 to 25 inches will take effect Jan. 1 for recreational and commercial striped bass fisheries.

All striped bass measuring less than 18 inches and greater than 25 inches total length must be immediately returned to the waters where they were caught.

The Division of Marine Fisheries announced Monday the date the new size limit will be in place.

Striped bass can live to be at least 31 years old. Larger and older female striped bass can produce millions of eggs annually. By protecting striped bass greater than 25 inches, the number of older females in the stock will increase spawning stock biomass and provide resiliency to the stock, officials said.

The new size limits and additional measures are to rebuild the Albemarle-Roanoke striped bass stock and increase the abundance of larger females in the population, officials said. These measures were approved by the North Carolina Marine Fisheries Commission in November as part of Amendment 2 to the North Carolina Estuarine Striped Bass Fishery Management Plan, available on the Division website.

The Albemarle Sound Management Area includes the Albemarle, Currituck, Roanoke, and Croatan sounds and all their tributaries, except the Roanoke, Middle, Eastmost, and Cashie rivers, where striped bass recreational regulations are set by the state Wildlife Resources Commission. For the commission’s striped bass seasons and regulations visit the website or call 919-707-0010.

A workshop is set for residents in the Albemarle Council of Governments, which serves Camden, Chowan, Currituck, Dare, Gates, Hyde, Pasquotank, Perquimans, Tyrrell and Washington counties, to share ideas and strategies on resilience during an in-person meeting in November.

The Albemarle Regional Resilience Portfolio Project In-Person Public Workshop is from 6-7 p.m. Thursday, Nov. 10, in the Albemarle Commission Office, 512 S. Church St., Hertford.

Five to 10 prioritized strategies or projects will be included in the final portfolio, which will identify specific ways to help communities prepare for and recover from natural disasters and climate hazards. Strategies can include natural or man-made infrastructure projects, housing, communications and outreach, planning/policy, analysis or assessments, or any other type of effort that supports the region’s ability to withstand floods, heat waves, and other climate hazards

An initiative of the Regional Resilience Portfolio Program, the portfolio currently in development is one of two final products being created in partnership with each of the nine regional councils of governments. The regions are, in addition to the Albemarle, Kerr-Tar, Upper Coastal Plain, Mid-Carolina, Mid-East, Lumber River, Cape Fear, Eastern Carolina and Triangle J, except for Wake, Durham and Orange counties.

The portfolio program is a component of Regions Innovating for Strong Economies & Environment, or RISE, Program, a partnership between the N.C. Office of Recovery and Resiliency and N.C. Rural Center, in collaboration with the N.C. Councils of Governments.

RISE is funded by a $1.1 million U.S. Economic Development Administration grant, with support from both NCORR and N.C. Rural Center.

The Duke Energy Foundation has committed $600,000 to offer Accelerator Grants to the regions for priority projects identified as an outcome of the program. RISE is managed by NCORR, a division of the N.C. Department of Public Safety. To learn more about the program or what’s happening in each council of government region, visit the RISE website.

Whether building boats for business or recreation, or used as a means to freedom, boatbuilders, along with their vessels and shipyards, have impacted the maritime history of the Albemarle Sound.

The Museum of the Albemarle in Elizabeth City is recognizing the boatbuilding traditions of the region with a new exhibit, “Rock of the Eye: Boatbuilding Traditions Around the Albemarle Sound.”

The exhibit opening Oct. 10 is to include graphics and artifacts that illustrate the boatbuilding traditions that go back generations. Museum hours are 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Monday through Saturday.

Boatbuilders of the Albemarle region have constructed vessels, many by intuition and feeling, the “Rock of the Eye.” Builders pass along knowledge and technique from one generation to the next, with each adding their own unique style.

A few still build their own boats in their backyards to keep traditions alive. Many coming from long-standing fishing traditions, these boatbuilders take pride in their work as they ensure that the art of boatbuilding continues for future generations, according to the museum.

The Museum of the Albemarle is at 501 S. Water St., Elizabeth City. For more information call 252-335-1453 or visit www.museumofthealbemarle.com.

There will be stricter harvest restrictions in place Jan. 1 for commercial and recreational striped bass fisheries in the Albemarle Sound Management Area.

The Albemarle Sound Management Area is designated as Albemarle Sound and all its joint and inland water tributaries, except for the Roanoke, Middle, Eastmost and Cashie rivers.

The reduced harvest is needed to end overfishing on the Albemarle-Roanoke striped bass stock, according to Division of Marine Fisheries officials.

The spring recreational harvest season will open with a one-fish-per person per day possession limit with harvest allowed seven days a week. The recreational spring fishing season will close when allowable landings are predicted to be reached or on April 30, whichever comes first.

The Division of Marine Fisheries may reduce the recreational harvest days per week to prolong the season if it predicts that harvest may exceed allowable landings prior to April 30. Any remaining allowed landings will be available for a fall season.

The commercial season will open March 3 to coincide with the American shad gill net fishery and will close when allowable landings are predicted to be reached or on March 24, whichever is first. Any remaining allowable landings will be available for a fall season to coincide with the 2021 flounder season in the Albemarle Sound.

The harvest reductions are required because the most recent stock assessment for Albemarle-Roanoke striped bass indicated the stock is overfished and overfishing is occurring. A 57% reduction in landings is necessary to end overfishing, bringing the new total allowable landings to 51,216 pounds, split evenly between the commercial and recreational sectors.

The new management measures were implemented through a Revision to Amendment 1 to the North Carolina Estuarine Striped Bass Fishery Management Plan.

Contact Charlton Godwin with the Division of Marine Fisheries at 252-531-6753 or Charlton.Godwin@ncdenr.gov.

State Division of Water Resources officials have received reports of discolored water in Chowan County and urge the public to avoid contact with green or blue water, specifically in the Albemarle Sound and adjoining waterbodies.

Division staff announced the recommendation Wednesday to avoid contact with the discolored water in Edenton, Rocky Hock and Elizabeth City and are monitoring the blooms and have sent samples to the division’s Water Sciences Section for analysis.

Cyanobacteria, or blue-green algae, blooms have been occurring in the area over the past few years, and some forms of can produce toxins that are harmful to humans and animals.

State health officials encourage the public to avoid areas showing signs of an algae bloom, which can fluctuate depending on weather conditions and may move around collecting in coves and along shorelines.

State water quality and health officials recommend the following precautions to avoid the harmful effects of certain algae:

• Do not allow children or pets in or near water that appears bright green, blue, discolored or has visible surface film or scum. Anyone exposed should be washed with soap and clean water, including pets.
• If your child becomes ill after being in water where an algal bloom is occurring, seek medical care immediately. If your pet begins to stumble, stagger or collapse after being in a pond, lake or river, seek veterinary care immediately.
• Do not handle or touch large mats of algae and avoid handling, cooking or eating fish from waters with blooms.

Learn More

• To report a potential algal bloom contact the local DWR regional offices.
• For more information on potential health effects from algal blooms, visit the N.C. Division of Public Health’s website.
• To learn more about algal blooms in North Carolina, visit Division of Water Resources.

Reprinted from North Carolina Health News

After a decades-long absence, large-scale algae blooms have for the past four years returned in parts of the Chowan River, Edenton Bay, Albemarle Sound and Little River, and counties are looking to the state for help.

On July 5, the N.C. Department of Environmental Quality, Division of Water Resources reissued a warning to the public to avoid contact with green or blue water in the Albemarle Sound and adjoining water bodies in the far northeastern regions of the state.

State officials with the N.C. Division of Water Resources continue to urge the public to avoid contact with green or blue water in the Albemarle Sound and adjoining waterbodies, due to an algal bloom that has lingered in the area since May 14, 2019. https://t.co/H0MiCuqj06 pic.twitter.com/85FJWPXl9u

— N.C. DEQ (@NCDEQ) July 5, 2019

Another harmful algae bloom had been reported that same day, in Dances Bay on Little River, the next in a series of alerts that have been issued throughout the spring and into the summer. 

Algae blooms have lingered in the area since May 14 and have been observed in parts of the Perquimans, Pasquotank and Chowan rivers. 

The algae contributing to the blooms are cyanobacteria, or blue-green algae, some species of which can produce harmful toxins called cyanotoxins. 

State health officials are encouraging the public to avoid contact with large accumulations of algae and asking the public to prevent children and pets from swimming or ingesting water in an algal bloom. Counties affected so far include Bertie, Chowan, Pasquotank and Perquimans. 

More recently, on Tuesday, state Department of Health and Human Services officials released a report urging the public to stay out of the east side of Chowan River, near Arrowhead Beach, north of Edenton. A bloom of cyanobacteria, after about a week of monitoring, was producing the toxin microcystin at levels officials consider “a high risk for acute health effects during recreational exposure.” 

“Environmental conditions controlling toxin production by cyanobacteria are not well understood and can change rapidly over time and location,” according to the report, which advised people in the area, especially those with children and pets, to avoid the water, wash with soap after any contact and not to handle dead fish from affected waters.

Since their return in 2015, these annual summer blooms in and around the sound have triggered advisories for swimming and eating fish. Researchers agree 2015 had the worst blooms seen in the sound since the late 1970s, and 2019 is continuing a pattern of blooms starting earlier, before the heat of the summer creates the prime conditions for blooms to occur. 

But researchers aren’t sure why. 

How blooms burst

Blooms thrive on warm temperatures, sunlight and nutrient-rich waters. The sources of blooms often narrow down to two culprits: nitrogen and phosphorus. These enter waterways through stormwater runoff, which carries them from lawns, roads, septic systems and agricultural fields.

Hans Paerl is an aquatic microbial ecologist at the University of North Carolina Institute of Marine Sciences in Morehead City. Paerl said these excess nutrient inputs are precursors to blooms.

“A bloom, in simple terms, means excessive growth of algae to the point when you can almost see it, and it’s a visible phenomena because of the high biomass of organisms in the water,” Paerl said. “So in order to generate that much biomass you need sufficient nutrients. 

“Human nutrient over-enrichment has been identified as pretty much the basic cause of blooms.”

Wet winters and springs, followed by warm summers with droughts and stagnant water, combine with increased nutrient inputs to create the perfect storm for the maximum bloom, Paerl explained.

“That’s pretty much the formula,” said Paerl who’s been studying blooms in North Carolina and around the world for more than 40 years. “That’s the formula for them to dominate the system and that is what’s happening in the Chowan and Albemarle.”

Identifying nutrient hot spots and sources is the key to combating algal blooms. Staff from the state Division of Water Resources regularly monitor and map elevated algal densities and blooms. 

The division’s interactive map of state blooms recorded six cyanobacteria blooms in the Albemarle in May and June and two more in July.

Sarah Young Perkins at the Division of Water Resources said follow-up monitoring of blooms depends on staff time, the bloom types and the public’s use of the water bodies. Priority is granted to water bodies that are used heavily for recreation and affected by cyanobacterial blooms, but she said frequent monitoring is difficult because of staff limitations and the tendency for blooms to migrate and dissipate rapidly. 

Wary Communities

Cyanobacteria blooms are easy to spot. They usually appear bright green, or milky blue when they start to decay. The cyanotoxins they can produce can be hazardous to human health.

Paerl said DEQ has done a good job alerting the public on blooms and their hazards, but he still worries about human exposure to pathogens from fish kills caused by low-oxygen conditions in the water.

“There’s a variety of issues that would make one be very leery about swimming, for example, in affected water, and for sure ingesting anything from those waters, including catching fish,” said Paerl, who noted shellfish also present risks.

Mark Powell, a consultant for the Albemarle Resource Conservation and ​​Development Council, or ARC&D Council, said there is no shortage of local concern about the blooms.

“When people go out and use the water for recreation — pulling inner tubes with kids — people want to know if the water is safe to swim in,” Powell said. 

“Our general rule is if the water is green, just don’t get in it.”

Mike Ervin has seen a lot of blooms in his lifetime. Ervin, director of the Edenton Historical Commission, has lived in the area on and off since 1962. He’s aware of the dangers but not too concerned. 

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, cyanotoxins affect the nervous system, and symptoms of exposure can vary from skin irritation to neurological problems. The effects vary depending on exposure, whether through skin contact, inhalation or ingestion, as well as duration and the specific cyanotoxin involved. 

“I’ve swam in it many a time,” Ervin said. “You come out green, you come out with it attached to you, but I’ve never seen people go to the emergency room and say, well I’ve been swimming in the water. I’m not saying it doesn’t happen but I’m saying I’ve never seen it.”

He said the warnings have more to do with making sure people err on the safe side. 

There’s no automatic reporting of any adverse health effects from an algae bloom to the state Department of Health and Human Services. When the department does get reports, they get passed along to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

According to the division, thus far, no human or animal illnesses have been attributed to harmful algae blooms in the state. Cyanotoxins have never caused a human death in the United States but have caused the deaths of pets, livestock and other wildlife, according to the CDC.

From blooms and back again

Ervin said he hasn’t seen any bad blooms this year, and the blooms so far have been quickly dispersed by wave action and wind movement. But he noted some years are worse than others.

“I can remember back in the ’70s and even into the early ’80s the entire river was green,” Ervin said. “I mean it was nasty.”

Paerl began his work in North Carolina in 1978. The first big project he worked on was figuring out how to control blooms in the Albemarle.

“They were having pretty large blooms like they’re having now that were causing problems,” Paerl said. “Not only this issue of surface scum but also toxicity associated with the blooms.”

As for the cause, Ervin singled out a fertilizer plant in the Hertford County town of Winton that dispersed phosphates into the river.

“You know a lot of places make the proclamation that the algae blooms were caused by hog waste runoff and fertilizer runoff, but we’ve never had that in this area until actually the fertilizer plant was built,” Ervin said. “And then those phosphates ran into the water, and of course they eventually had to close that plant.”

Paerl said their study at the time also concluded phosphorus inputs, and to some extent nitrogen inputs, entering the river had to be reduced.

“After we made that recommendation and the state put a tighter noose on phosphorus inputs coming into the system, sure enough, the blooms abated,” Pearl said. “We can all pat ourselves on the back for having come up with the right formula for controlling the blooms, but lo and behold, 20 to 25 years later we’re now back into a bloom situation on the Chowan.”

The 2015 blooms on the Chowan river and Albemarle sound were extensive, Powell said, and blooms have occurred in varying degrees, duration and locations in the area of the sound every summer since.

“When the algae blooms popped up again in 2015, after an absence of 30, 35 years, it was a real shock to everybody,” Powell said. “Because we hadn’t seen them for a long time and we thought the water quality was pretty good.”

Paerl, Ervin and Powell all agreed, 2015 was the Albemarle’s worst since the late 1970s.

Nathan Hall, an assistant professor with the UNC Institute of Marine Sciences, acknowledged there were in fact blooms occurring prior to 2015, and even between the 1980s and the 2000s. 

“However, the general consensus is that the bloom situation has gotten worse, and it’s backed up by the state’s chlorophyll a data that has doubled at many stations in the past 20 years,” Hall said. 

Paerl said that as far as the “early days” of Chowan River blooms go, excessive nutrient inputs from an upstream fertilizer plant in Tunis and a pulp and paper mill on the Virginia side of the river were largely to blame. 

“As far as agriculture goes, one of the main culprits from agricultural runoff is actually nitrogen,” Paerl said.

Paerl said he wouldn’t solely blame agriculture for the nutrients. While he said there is more general agricultural activity in the basin, there is also gradual urbanization. 

“If you drive across the bridge there, the Chowan bridge to Edenton, you’ll see there’s more condos along the water there, and you know everyone likes to have green grass all the way down to the edge of the water, and to do that you’ve got to apply more fertilizers,” he said.

“So I would not point the finger at only agriculture, it’s combined human pressure on the system that’s happening,” Paerl said.

“When inputs from these plants were greatly reduced, the blooms dissipated, so this was considered a success story with regard to nutrient management,” Paerl said. “It is less clear why the resurgence in blooms has occurred, but it is likely a combination of gradual increases in nutrient loading and climatic changes.”

This includes more extreme climatic conditions like increased episodic storms, related runoff and protracted droughts. 

Ervin speculated that increased rain could be contributing to the blooms and also wondered if disturbances such as dredging on the river could be stirring up nutrients deposited in the riverbed during the days when the fertilizer plant was operating. 

“There is an urgent need to get a better understanding of what the combination of environmental drivers is that is leading to the resurgence of blooms,” Paerl said.

Uncharted waters for spreading blooms

Paerl expects a similar solution as in the 70’s – nitrogen and phosphorus inputs need to be reduced. But that reduction may need to be greater than before, as other conditions such as climatic events and weather patterns have become more favorable for blooms. 

“The bar has been set higher, so to speak,” Paerl said. 

The issue in getting over this bar, however, is funding. 

“No one has really done these experiments yet to actually determine what those reductions need to be,” Paerl said.

Paerl and his colleagues have anticipated this resurgence as a result of water warming associated with climate change and the associated increase in extreme precipitation events. Similar resurgences have occurred nationwide, for example, in Lake Erie and the Mississippi River.

He said Lake Erie’s last big blooms had also been resolved in the 1970s. This summer, he is on a team funded to study the causes of the reappearance of blooms there.

Paerl and his colleagues recently proposed studies in grant applications, but they were unable to get the funding.

“It’s frustrating because you know we’re pretty geared up to look at this issue, we’ve written several proposals to pursue it. I’ve warned them for at least two years that this was going to happen again and now it’s happened, so that’s where we’re at,” he said.

For now, researchers at the institute are lending their expertise to the ARC&D Council, while they conduct a grant-funded study begun in 2017. The council is based in Edenton and heavily relies on citizen scientists to monitor and determine the causes of blooms. So far, the study has found blooms are occurring in areas of slow-moving, shallow water. 

After no appearance last year, there was a large bloom earlier this summer covering about 1,600 acres in the lower Little River. Powell attributed this to a dry spring, early summer and slow water movement during a hot spell. The bloom didn’t last long, Powell said, but it was pretty extensive.

“They popped up in some new areas that we haven’t seen them before,” Powell said, citing both Little River and the Perquimans River.

A community’s call for help

The ARC&D Council has endorsed a “Water Quality Call to Action,” which individuals, organizations and municipalities are joining to ask state officials to do more for their struggling waterways. 

“The algal blooms we are seeing here in the warmer months are sure signs of a sick river,” according to a statement on the Pasquotank County government website. “These algal blooms are a threat to fisheries, recreation, property values, human health, and our regional economy.”

The resolution asks the state legislature to secure funds to strengthen “critical” drainage and water quality infrastructure in the area, specifically seeking increased monitoring. It suggests monitoring would be conducted through local governments, organizations like ARC&D, universities and citizen scientists. It also asks for financial incentives to landowners for maintaining buffer areas of swamp forest and funds for local governments to annually clear debris from creeks, rivers and canals.

Eight counties around the sound, the Pasquotank Soil and Water Conservation District and the Albemarle District of Soil and Water, which covers five counties, have adopted and sent to legislators the resolution. 

This story is provided courtesy of North Carolina Health News, a nonprofit news service covering health and environmental issues in North Carolina. 

Featured Photo

Mike Lee, right, fishes his pound net for striped bass that researchers will tag. Photo: Ladd Bayliss

Julie Harris and Tyler Moore implant a tag in a striped bass. Photo: Ladd Bayliss

Things are a little different this morning for Mike Lee, a lifelong commercial fisherman who works the inshore waters of our northeastern coast. His wooden skiff slices through the tannic waters of the Roanoke River. White perch are languidly squirming along his boat’s worn deck looking for an escape, and  double-crested cormorants are waiting patiently for whatever leftovers can be scavenged from the pound netter’s harvest.

But today, there are other rummagers alongside – and they’re not looking for leftovers.

Julie Harris is following Lee, looking for striped bass. A researcher at N.C. State University, she wants to implant them with sonic tracking tags. One of the principal investigators  in this three-year study, Harris hopes  to better understand the migration patterns and mortality rates of the iconic striped bass of Albermarle Sound and the Roanoke River.

Known colloquially as “rockfish,” striped bass (Morone saxatilis) are “anandromous,” meaning that they spend most of their lives in saltwater but migrate up freshwater rivers to spawn. The Roanoke River is one of the most important breeding waters for the bass, along with the Chesapeake Bay and the Hudson and Delaware rivers.

It’s hard to imagine such a powerful, ocean-minded fish  weaving through the bends of the tea-colored Roanoke, but, nevertheless, they make the journey every year.  Harris wants to know more about those  migrations, while better understanding mortality rates.

Her project is being paid for with money from the state’s recreational saltwater fishing license. Partnering with N.C. State on the project are the U.S. Geological Survey, the N.C. Division of Marine Fisheries and the N.C. Wildlife Resources Commission. Harris began work with Lee last year, in a mutually beneficial “fish for science” partnership.

Lee fishes with pound nets, an ancient fishing method that corrals fish through a maze of nets. They don’t  kill what they catch. For Harris, they’re perfect.

“This has been the most successful method we have found to collect in the Lower Roanoke,” she said.  “We need all of our fish to be alive and healthy, which is exactly what you get from a pound net-harvested fish.”

Although the coastal fish markets of the northeast coast rarely have dry floors, times have been tough for the estuary fishermen. Since 2000, the numbers of fish houses along the sound have taken a big hit because of development and fisheries regulations.

“I have nowhere local to take my fish,” Lee said., “If I want to make any money, I have to haul my catch to Wanchese – and that’s nearly 200 miles round trip. Having Dr. Harris here to buy our fish really helps us out during a tough time of year.”

Ever since the moratorium on the river herring in September 2007, fishermen like Lee have struggled. According to a historical analysis by Joe Hightower, the other principal N.C. State researcher on this project, the 1996 landings of river herrings ended up comprising only five percent of recorded landings between 1880 and 1970.

Mike Lee’s pound nets in the Roanoke River are perfect for collecting live specimens of striped bass for tagging. Photo: Ladd Bayliss

This serious decline only ensured that the colloquial fishery of the Roanoke would have to go on without the herring. “Once the herring fishery was taken away, we weren’t left with much else besides our rock, perch and catfish. The rest of the stuff in the river just isn’t worth handling,” said Lee.

Now, thanks to N.C. State, Lee is able to get premium market price for striped bass that he doesn’t have to bother transporting and selling in Wanchese.

A tagged striper. Photo: Ladd Bayliss

“Instead of selling striped bass around here for a lesser price, N.C. State will take my fish from my net for me for premium price,” said Lee.

Harris and Tyler Moore, a research technician, are waiting this morning for  Lee to lift his  net  from the water. Once the culling of fish in the net begins, the striped bass are transferred to live wells on N.C. State’s boat.

Moore and Harris perform the surgeries to implant the tags on the water underneath a cypress grove, working swiftly to ensure the fish are healthy upon release. “We’ve had very little mortality in the seasons I’ve been tagging,” said Harris.

They anesthetize the fish and implant them with three tags.

Used in all sorts of aquatic organisms, the sonic tag is a thing of beauty. By outfitting striped bass with this special tag, scientists can better gauge the  real-time movements of the fish. The signal that the tags emit are picked up by stationary receivers at specific inlets and estuarine or river locations that recognize the tag numbers. The tag emits a signal every 30-90 seconds up to a distance of 200-300 meters. If a receiver is within range, the tag number is recorded with a timestamp.

The researchers implants another type of tag that is picked up by hand-held scanners at  fish houses and boat ramps to quantify recreational and commercial catch mortality rates.. A third tag is one that most fishermen are accustomed to seeing – a plastic tube that protrudes from the fish’s body. Instead of the standard yellow state tag, Harris uses red ones. Anyone catching one of her tagged stripers is entitled to a $100  reward..

So far, researchers have implanted 150 sonic tags into Roanoke River striped bass. “We have had some really great data so far,” said Harris, “We have been able to learn a lot about the migration timing of these fish, and how it relates to temperature.”

Charlton Godwin, a biologist with the N.C. Division of Marine Fisheries, said Harris’ study will be helpful in comparing historical striped bass migration data. Beginning in the 1950’s, William Hassler of N.C. State conducted several mark and recapture studies on the striped bass. “With Dr. Harris’ data, we will be able to compare Dr. Hassler’s data as well as our own computer modeling and stock assessments to get a better idea of the fish, its numbers and migration patterns,” said Godwin.

Aside from the invaluable scientific data that will be collected for such an economically-viable fish, Harris’ study bodes well for fostering a continued relationship between scientist and traditional fisherman. And for Lee, the partnership with NCSU is a match made in heaven. “We look forward to it every year,” said Lee, “NCSU has really helped us out.”

•  For more information about Roanoke River striped bass study, visit the Web site