The Albemarle-Pamlico National Estuary Partnership has found that the amount of seagrass the state has lost over a 14-year period totals about 25 square miles.

The federal-state program that manages the Albemarle-Pamlico Estuarine System located in northeastern North Carolina and southeastern Virginia recently published these findings, an update to its 2021 report on the extent of high-salinity underwater grass in the Albemarle-Pamlico estuary.

APNEP Quantitative Ecologist Dr. Tim Ellis, an author of the study, explained that, although the study confirms that North Carolina has the largest amount of seagrass habitat along the U.S. Atlantic Coast, the critical coastal resource is declining, with an estimated loss of approximately 16,000 acres, or 16%, from 2006 until 2020.

Using data from three aerial surveys of soundside, high-salinity estuarine waters, or where seagrasses would most likely be expected to grow, between Manteo and Bogue Inlet, researchers found that the real extent of seagrass in 2006-07 was 109,607 acres, in 2013 was 95,157 acres, and in 2020 was 88,531 acres. That is a decline of about 1% a year, “despite suitable habitat available for expansion.”

These flowering plants that are fully submerged and are completely dependent on sunlight to flourish are often called subaquatic vegetation, SAV, seagrasses or underwater grasses. In addition to keeping “waters healthy by providing habitat, food, and shelter for aquatic life, sequestering carbon, protecting shorelines, absorbing and recycling nutrients, filtering sediment, and acting as a barometer of water quality,” seagrasses “enrich shallow aquatic environments around the world, providing sanctuaries for mollusks, crustaceans, and finfish as well as sustenance for waterfowl and other herbivores,” according to the report.

The declining trend is seen worldwide, “primarily due to water quality degradation, coastal development, dredging, fishing, boating, and other related aquatic activities, sea level rise, warming water temperatures, and tropical cyclones.”

North Carolina is experiencing annual rates of seagrass loss at or below the global average, but that’s cold comfort. “Because seagrass is sensitive to water quality, including nutrient and sediment pollution, a continued decline in the acreage of these underwater meadows indicates that the overall health of North Carolina’s estuaries may be declining,” APNEP states.

Ellis said that seagrass is a sensitive indicator of estuarine health because of its direct and complex associations with its surrounding environment. Seagrasses are also ecosystem engineers, meaning these plants modify the areas they inhabit by trapping sediments and absorbing nutrients to improve water clarity and by creating habitat to support biodiversity and biological productivity.

The study notes that the decline in North Carolina is not evenly distributed. “In the central portion of the study area, from Hatteras Inlet to Barden Inlet near Cape Lookout, seagrass acreage decreased 2.0% per year compared with a decline of 0.8% and 1.4% per year in the northern and southern portions of the study area, respectively.”

Over the 14 years there were three notable changes in the estuarine system’s seagrass meadows that were identified in the study, including that the total area of seagrass meadows is declining, the rates of change in extent vary, and coverage is shifting away from continuous toward more patchy and fragmented meadows.

Related: Work begins for periodic update of state coastal habitat plan

These “seagrass meadows are becoming more fragmented, meaning large, continuous beds are transitioning to more isolated and disconnected patches,” Ellis said. “This affects how well seagrass can provide critical habitat for fisheries and wildlife, stabilize sediments and protect shorelines, contribute to good water quality, and endure and respond to environmental changes, including major storm events.”

Over the period that the three surveys were conducted there were 10 tropical cyclones that directly impacted the Albemarle-Pamlico estuary, physically disturbing meadows, water quality and the stability of the barrier island inlets and flood deltas, APNEP notes.

Impact on marine life

Study co-author Jud Kenworthy, who researched seagrass for his more than 30-year career before retiring from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s National Centers for Coastal Ocean Science, said in an interview that “what we’re seeing in the patchiness is that we’re losing the cover of grass. Not only are we losing the total amount (of seagrass) in the entire coastal system, the increase in patchiness is also a decrease in cover where the seagrasses are actually occurring in those patches.”

The implications of seagrass patchiness and reducing cover cascade through everything, especially all the fisheries that depend on this habitat at some point in their life stage. “They’re exposed to less vegetation and a tendency for less cover due to the increase of patchiness,” he said.

Although some species will be affected by that process more than others, it could result in changes in food availability for different commercial and recreational fisheries cherished in North Carolina as part of the social and economic fabric, Kenworthy said.

When asked what species will see the biggest hit, Kenworthy said there’s probably a list of at least a dozen, including the keystone commercial and recreational fisheries like red drum, spotted sea trout and flounder, any species of shrimp, plus any marine life that use the estuary as a nursery and depend on the resources in seagrass beds.

Kenworthy added that many species totally dependent on the seagrass beds are not harvested but are food for larger predators.

“The one that comes to mind is the pinfish,” which consume seagrass. “Nobody that I know of eats pinfish, but a lot of people use pinfish for bait, and of course, pinfish are a major source of food for a lot of the larger species,” Kenworthy said. If there’s no seagrass for pinfish or other prey for larger species, the foundation of the food chain is going to be affected.

Kenworthy explained that if estuaries lose SAV, all the important ecosystem services like capturing, trapping and recycling nutrients, stabilizing sediments, storing carbon in the soil and providing habitat places for plants and animals, especially their food, are going to be affected.

“How dramatically these services are affected is going to depend on whether we find some sort of balance where the seagrasses reach an equilibrium or whether they tend to continue to decline,” he added.

Continued monitoring

Ellis said continued monitoring of seagrass allows APNEP and partners to closely track changes in the estuary to evaluate the effectiveness of existing conservation and management strategies and to adapt those strategies quickly as needed to meet desired protection and restoration goals.

“Based on the experience gained during these three surveys and our better understanding of the ecology of the seagrass ecosystem in North Carolina, APNEP and partners have intensified and expanded seagrass monitoring efforts, completing new subregional surveys of the Albemarle-Pamlico estuary in 2021-2025,” Ellis said.

In addition to aerial surveys, he continued, which are now conducted during both spring and fall each year to better capture the different peak abundances of the state’s temperate and subtropical seagrass species, monitoring also includes in-water sampling to collect information on species composition and abundance, depth, and water quality.

“Analysis of these additional survey data are underway and will enable APNEP to provide a more complete picture of seagrass status and trends in the Albemarle-Pamlico estuary,” Ellis said.

Ellis said It takes a lot of funding and coordinated effort to monitor seagrass in North Carolina, especially given its widespread distribution across the coast. APNEP relies on regional partnerships with state and federal agencies, universities, and others to build and maintain the collaborative network and leveraging of resources needed to address the many financial and logistical challenges of conducting a long-term seagrass monitoring and assessment program.

What’s causing the decline?

Why it’s happening though, that “is the $64,000 question,” Kenworthy said. “I don’t think you can pin any one thing on seagrass decline.”

Ellis agreed that understanding the causes of the changes they’re seeing is complicated “because seagrass in North Carolina faces many challenges, including rising and warmer waters, more frequent and intense storms, varying and marginal water clarity that limits the amount of sunlight that reaches the plants, and physical damage from human activities.”

Regardless, “the situation warrants the attention of managers to both better protect the resource where it remains and to evaluate restoration opportunities in areas where it no longer exists but could potentially thrive again.”

Kenworthy points to water quality, especially water clarity, as the biggest issue right now that can be managed immediately and reasonably. The plants in this warmer environment​ have high light requirements​,​ and when there’s turbidity and phytoplankton in the water from nutrients or sediments ​released from the land, the actual clarity of the water declines,​ and the plants get less light​.

​”Our biggest manageable challenge is to at least sustain or improve the clarity of the water.”

A powerhouse in the marine science and coastal management community, Dr. B.J. Copeland, 89, died Wednesday, Jan. 14.

Copeland left a lasting impact on the state as the director of North Carolina Sea Grant, a N.C. State University professor, and through his work with the Albemarle-Pamlico National Estuary Partnership. He served on the Marine Fisheries Commission, and was on the committee that drafted what is now the Fisheries Reform Act of 1997.

Copeland spent his childhood, along with his three siblings, on the family farm in rural Oklahoma. He earned his master’s and doctorate at Oklahoma State University, where he met his wife of more than 60 years, Jean Van Nortwick. They married Jan. 26, 1963.

He relocated to Texas in 1962 where he was a postdoctoral researcher and lecturer at the University of Texas Marine Science Laboratory at Port Aransas.

In a 2016 interview for the Core Sound Waterfowl Museum and Heritage Center’s Coastal Voices Project, Copeland said his “Ph.D. degree is in Limnology, the study of fresh water. So, I went to the University of Texas to see if salt water was the same as fresh water and indeed it is, except for a little bit of salt!”

He moved to Raleigh in 1970 for an associate professor position at N.C. State. Copeland said in the Q&A that he moved to North Carolina mainly because of the beginning of a marine science program jointly between N.C. State, the universities of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and Wilmington, and Duke University.

“We were trying to start a graduate program in Marine Science and so I was a researcher and a professor in the Zoology Department, Botany Department, and the new Marine Sciences program,” he said, adding that the new marine sciences program eventually became the Department of Marine, Earth, and Atmospheric Sciences at N.C. State. 

In 1973, he took on a new role as the director for what was then the North Carolina Sea Grant institutional program, explains an article on the 25^th anniversary of the program in the October 2001 issue of N.C. Sea Grant’s Coastwatch magazine.

Congress established the program in 1966, and began awarding grants in 1968. Sea Grant then became part of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, or NOAA, that was formed in 1970. UNC Chapel Hill administered the Sea Grant institutional program from 1970 to when Copeland took over and relocated the program to Raleigh.

“In truth, if Sea Grant wasn’t invented in 1966, someone would invent it today. People depend on Sea Grant for good information and to help them survive,” Copeland said in the 2001 article. “You can’t argue with priorities when they are to improve the quality of life and enhance economic opportunities. That’s what Sea Grant is all about.”

Copeland said that in the early days of trying to gather input on research and extensions needs, he talked with a man who working his eel pots and crab pots. Copeland said he asked the waterman what the program could do for him and the man responded, “’Sounds like you guys are just looking for something to do.’”

Copeland got the message, though. For Sea Grant to be accepted, the program would need to be relevant and deliver good information, he said in the article.

He began hiring staff who brought in their own experiences, leading the program to marine advisory work, promoting shellfish culture, addressing seafood processing issues, developing seafood recipes, outreach efforts, and research.

When Copeland took over the program in 1973, his goal was to elevate N.C. Sea Grant from an institutional program to be designated a Sea Grant College Program, which happened in July 1976. The program also got a budget of $1 million.

The federal-state partnership was supported with $2 in federal funds for each $1 in state funding, but in 1980, Sea Grant was zeroed out of the federal budget, leading to Copeland spending many days in Washington getting the Sea Grant message out, according to the 2001 article.

He said at the time that it wasn’t a stretch to show that Sea Grant was worth something and worth keeping.

“The direct impact was evident in the growth of the extension program. Initial work in fisheries and marine education were soon joined by aquaculture and mariculture. Coastal processes work increased, as did coastal law and policy efforts,” the article explains.

Copeland left Sea Grant in 1996 and began serving as graduate administrator for the Zoology Department at N.C. State. He retired from the university in 2002.

Current N.C. Sea Grant Executive Director Susan White told Coastal Review that she was fortunate have had Copeland as an early and regular mentor when she joined the North Carolina Sea Grant program as director in 2012.

“We had great lunches together, sometimes here in Raleigh sometimes closer to his home, and his knowledge of the intricacies of a statewide program that evolves regularly with the pressing needs of the times was relevant and timely as I was still learning the many paths for NC Sea Grant,” White said.

“B.J. always had great stories to tell about his time with NC Sea Grant, the challenges of federal funding support ebbing and flowing, the great characters of each of the team members, and his enjoyment of his time with the program. B.J. joined us for retirement parties and program reviews throughout the past decade, keeping his finger on the pulse. His practical advice, and huge laughs, were wonderful to be on the receiving end of,” she continued.

Copeland’s work with what is now Albemarle-Pamlico National Estuarine Program predates his time with Sea Grant and, once he began directing Sea Grant, his partnership with APNEP grew.

Copeland said in a Q&A with the program that he “was involved with APNEP before it was APNEP – before it even existed, in fact.” APNEP is an effort to understand, protect, and restore natural resources of the Albemarle-Pamlico estuarine system in North Carolina and Virginia, its website explains.

The only National Estuary Program in the 1960s was the Chesapeake Bay. In the late 1960s, “somebody got the happy idea that Congress ought to have an annual or biannual report on the status of the nation’s estuaries, so they commissioned one,” Copeland explained.

He went to Chapel Hill in 1968 to work on a report on the nation’s estuaries. He and the late Dr. Howard Odom wrote “Coastal Ecological Systems of the United States.”

“To do research for it, we went to every state and gathered material that had been written up or stuck in a drawer, and we took that data on coastal systems and turned it into a book. It was the first work on the status of the nation’s estuaries,” Copeland said.

A handful of Congressmen in the 1970s, including Walter Jones from North Carolina, who was chair of the House Merchant Marine and Fisheries Committee, pointed out that there’s an estuary in North Carolina.

Copeland continued that the whole setup of the National Estuary Program was changed to include not only Chesapeake Bay, but also other estuarine systems. The Albemarle-Pamlico system “includes a lot of water and a lot of territory – we were known as the second-largest ecosystem on the East Coast.”

In the early 1980s, work began on establishing the Albemarle-Pamlico as a National Estuary Program, and he helped form the first technical committee. “In 1987, we got the first grant for the program – for the Albemarle-Pamlico Estuarine Study (APES). We were a part of the National Estuary Program, authorized by Congress earlier that same year,” he said.

At the time, there were water quality problems that he described as “astronomical,” with algal blooms in the Chowan River, Albemarle Sound and Pamlico River. The Neuse River had fish kills.

“We had a crisis. You couldn’t sell seafood for a year, so we had to solve this problem. You’ve got to turn this thing around or the seafood industry is going to go down the tubes – that’s the reason for the program. But what people sometimes forget is that you can’t do all this at once. You’ve got to prioritize, you’ve get something understood and you find out it’s really connected to something else over here – it’s not easy,” Copeland told APNEP. “And so, we began to work. We had technical committees and proposals for projects and for priority research, and things began to trickle into state policies and state government.”

After the technical committee completed the Albemarle-Pamlico Estuarine Study and produced the Comprehensive Conservation and Management Plan for the region in 1994, the project was renamed as the Albemarle-Pamlico National Estuarine Program. In 2012, program was changed to partnership.

Southern Environmental Law Center Senior Attorney Derb S. Carter Jr. told Coastal Review that Copeland was leading the state’s Sea Grant program when the Coastal Area Management Act was enacted in 1974 and when the Albemarle Pamlico Estuarine Program launched. 

“Effective environmental and natural resource programs must be based on sound science.  We are all fortunate that B.J. was passionate about ensuring programs to manage our coastal resources incorporate the best science,” Carter said.

It was also in the 1980s when Copeland was appointed the first time to the Marine Fisheries Commission, and eventually helped draft the Marine Fisheries Reform Act in the 1990s.

In the 2016 Q&A for Carolina Coastal Voices project, Copeland said he became involved with fisheries management because Sea Grant has programs on commercial fishery, recreational fishing, interactions, management of fisheries, how things worked, and could translate research into management.

“And I got into fisheries management for real when I was appointed to the Marine Fisheries Commission in the 1980s, under the so-called, ah, Egghead Commission,” he explained, adding he served on the commission for four or five years before it dissolved.

“I mean, the state government decided that commissions weren’t really the way to go, so the Marine Fisheries Commission was actually dissolved and they started over again. And so there was legislative action to create a new commission, which kept getting things added to, and added to, and added to until we have a 19-member Marine Fisheries Commission,” he explained. This was in the mid-1980s.

“And that was also a disaster, because 19 people can’t make any kind of decision,” Copeland said.

The committee argued a lot and “what happened with the Fisheries Moratorium Act, I mean–that was one of the factors, that we had an unwieldy commission — no way to get there — we had regulations right and left, none of which were related to others. People were kind of fed up with the whole idea,” Copeland said. The fisheries moratorium “came because they wanted to stop, look, consider, and really come up with something. And so, we had a three-year moratorium on anything; on any regulation, on any activity, any new activity. And that resulted in the Fisheries Reform Act.”

The North Carolina General Assembly approved in 1994 the moratorium on selling any new commercial fishing licenses and established the 19-member Fisheries Moratorium Steering Committee to study the state’s coastal fisheries management process and recommend improvements.

The committee issued a draft report in late summer 1996, held 19 public meetings statewide, and adopted a final report in October 1996 that formed the basis for the Fisheries Reform Act, which was signed into law Aug. 14, 1997, according to the oral history project, calling it the “most significant fisheries legislation in NC history.”

Copeland was on the moratorium steering committee and as director of Sea Grant, he said he represented the research and information side.

As part of the moratorium, Copeland said, funds were appropriated for research that was administered through N.C. Sea Grant college program, and “I think I knew about all of the players. So, communication and interaction amongst the players was also important, and Sea Grant played a role in that, as well.”

Another part of Sea Grant’s role was to get the information out broadly and quickly, Copeland said they did that through a network “and we traded on two very important elements: one of them was the truth. If you’re a bearer of the truth, you usually get along pretty well. And so we had a reputation for doing that. And secondly, we thought that information was a necessary ingredient for anything we did. And so, we were doing that, too. It was kind of a natural fit.”

The committee was tasked with creating parameters for a Marine Fisheries Commission that “could actually function,” Copeland said, trimming it down from 19 to nine. The commission has three people from the commercial interests, three people from recreational interests, and three at large, all appointed by the governor. He served on the newly structured commission for 12 years.

Copeland said in the Q&A that “we were purveyors of the truth. We had a reputation of, you know, you can come and ask Sea Grant a question, you were going to get an honest answer. And so we could be a player without taking a side. And that was really important, because most people take sides somewhere, sometime. And so we worked very hard at not taking a side.”

He lamented that fisheries is going to take a hit because of misinformation, in the 2016 interview.

“Some of these environmental issues, which are going to get scuttled because of some misinformed position, somebody who’s more powerful than somebody else will get their way and so on. I mean, they practice the Golden Rule, you know: them what’s got the gold, rules. So, you know, I think things are going to get worse before they get better. I keep thinking that, one of these days the general public’s going to wake up and say, ‘We need to get rid of this bunch!’ but that’s not happening,” he said.

After the Fisheries Reform Act, Copeland said in an interview that he went back to the academic department at N.C. State and taught a couple of courses, retiring in 2002.

North Carolina Coastal Federation founder Todd Miller told Coastal Review that Copeland influenced the direction of coastal science and management in North Carolina for more than half a century.

“After ‘retirement,’ he continued to shape coastal policy and practice as a member of the N.C. Marine Fisheries Commission, an active participant in the Albemarle–Pamlico Estuarine Partnership, the Coastal Habitat Protection Plan process, and numerous other civic efforts,” Miller continued. “He built a Sea Grant program in North Carolina that earned international respect and, importantly, translated coastal research into practical solutions for real-world management challenges. Through his leadership and service, he profoundly influenced efforts to protect and restore the North Carolina coast and left it stronger for future generations.”

He and his wife owned a farm near Apex from 1978 until 2002 and later a farm near Pittsboro, according to his obituary, and he found joy in gardening and farming.

“For many who knew and loved him, B.J.’s deep voice and his loud belly laugh will always be remembered. His excellent memory and quick wit made him an entertaining teller of stories and jokes. We can only hope that some of us can tell them as well as he did. B.J. will long be remembered with gratitude, admiration, love and a big smile,” his obituary states.

His memorial is at 2 p.m. Friday at Pleasant Hill United Methodist Church in Siler City.

In lieu of flowers, donations may be made in memory of B.J. Copeland to: Boys & Girls Homes of North Carolina, P.O. Box 127, Lake Waccamaw, NC 28450, or Pleasant Hill United Methodist Church at P.O. Box 1322, Pittsboro, NC 27312. Arrangements are by Donaldson Funeral Home and Crematory.

North Carolina’s coast is made up of more than 2 million acres of estuarine habitat, transition areas where fresh water from rivers meet the salty water of the sea.

Restore America’s Estuaries, the National Estuarine Research Reserve Association and the Association of National Estuary Programs have sought to draw attention to these fragile ecosystems that are continually facing challenges by celebrating National Estuaries Week, Sept. 21-28.

National Estuaries Week is a time to appreciate “the countless recreational, economic, and environmental benefits that our estuaries provide while acknowledging that they are under threat from a warming climate and continued development that can damage these national treasures,” Daniel Hayden, president and CEO of Restore America’s Estuaries, said in a statement. “We hope you take time during National Estuaries Week to enjoy your local estuary and celebrate the benefits it provides.”

First held in 1988, National Estuaries Day later was expanded to a weeklong celebration. Last year, there were 36 events in 11 different states with more than 11,400 volunteers. This week, around 40 projects have taken place or are scheduled across the country, a handful of on the North Carolina coast. For a full list of events, visit the website.

The North Carolina Coastal Reserve and National Estuarine Research Reserve Program Manager Rebecca Ellin said there is still time to take part in activities planned to celebrate North Carolina’s estuaries.

The reserve program is made up of 10 state-protected sites totaling more than 44,000 acres of estuarine land and water. Four of the sites are under federal protection as well, in partnership with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. Under the North Carolina Department of Environmental Quality’s Division of Coastal Management, the land acquisition program was established in early 1980s as part of the North Carolina Coastal Area Management Act that went into effect in 1974.

Taking place all week is the Bioblitz at three reserve sites: Masonboro Island, Kitty Hawk Woods, and Rachel Carson in Beaufort. Visitors are encouraged to take photos of flora and fauna and upload them to iNaturalist, a website for the public to record observations while out in nature.

“Documentation of species at reserve sites contributes to natural occurrence records and provides baseline data for existing species,” Ellin said.

Reserve staff will have booths 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. Saturday at Olde Beaufort Farmers’ Market in Beaufort for Celebrate Estuaries Day and at the Femme in STEM event 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. at the North Carolina Aquarium at Fort Fisher.

Femme in STEM showcases the variety of science, technology, engineering and mathematics fields that are open for career paths, and is a celebration of women in STEM fields. The event “reminds how important it is for young girls to see someone like themselves in science and other STEM subjects. Reserve staff will have a booth for the event and engage all ages in hands-on learning activities,” Ellin explained.

The North Carolina Coastal Federation is kicking off its weekend with an estuaries-themed movie night starting at 6 p.m. Friday in its Wrightsville Beach office. Staff will have a booth at the Olde Beaufort Farmers’ Market Saturday as well.

The nonprofit is a member-supported organization with offices in Wanchese, Newport and Wrightsville Beach, and is one of the 10 member organizations of Restore America’s Estuaries.

But first, what is an estuary?

Coastal Federation’s Education Coordinator Bonnie Mitchell in the Wrightsville Beach office said that estuaries “create a unique habitat abundant with life.”

“These coastal water bodies support a diverse range of species, filter pollutants from the water, and act as natural buffers against storms. They play a crucial role in maintaining healthy ecosystems that directly impact public health by improving water quality, supporting fisheries that provide nutritious food, and protecting shorelines from erosion and flooding,” Mitchell said.

Often called “nurseries of the sea,” Coastal Education Coordinator Rachel Bisesi with the central office said that “estuaries provide a safe haven for many baby sea animals to grow up, since there is a plethora of food and hiding spaces, and fewer large predators than in the open ocean. Almost all seafood spends part of its life in an estuary and keeping them healthy is important for coastal communities and the economy.”

Education and Outreach Director Sara Hallas in the Wanchese office added that estuaries are her “favorite habitat” and loves “that there’s always dynamics that keep the estuary ever changing and there’s always something new to discover. Just as the estuary is important for animals to rest and find refuge, it serves a similar purpose for people to reflect and connect.”

Hallas echoed Bisesi that these habitats are important nursery grounds for animals to find shelter in calm water from larger predators, and for aquatic wildlife to lay their eggs and raise their young, and swim out to deeper waters when they’re ready.

“This supports the Federation’s motto, ‘No Wetlands, No Seafood,’ as the majority of the seafood that’s harvested — commercially and recreationally — depends on the estuary at some point in its life cycle. Estuaries are also important areas for animals to rest and refuel during long migrations,” Hallas said.

Ellin said that there is a lot of diversity found in the coastal and estuarine habitats along North Carolina’s coast since it includes two different biogeographic regions — the northern extent of southern species and the southern extent of northern species — and different tidal ranges and types of sounds.

The reserve sites “protect a range of coastal habitats found in North Carolina and are representative of the diversity of these conditions. Example habitats protected by reserve habitats include salt marsh, maritime forest, ocean beach, mud flat, maritime forest, swamp forest, pond pine woodlands, adding that these coastal habitats comprise North Carolina’s estuaries.”

Albemarle-Pamlico National Estuary Partnership, or APNEP, Director Bill Crowell said that preserving estuaries is crucial for several reasons, including estuaries’ ecosystem function and biodiversity, economic value, water quality, flood mitigation and cultural significance.

Like the reserve program, APNEP is under the state Department of Environmental Quality. APNEP is one of the first of 28 National Estuary Programs established by the Clean Water Act in the late 1980s, and protects around 28,000-square-mile watershed in southeastern Virginia and northeastern North Carolina.

The Albemarle-Pamlico region is one of the largest and most productive estuarine ecosystems in the United States, Crowell said.

“Estuaries are essential for functional ecosystems as they serve as vital habitats for a wide range of species, including fish, birds, and invertebrates. They provide breeding and nursery grounds, supporting both terrestrial and aquatic ecosystems,” he said. “Estuaries support important economic activities such as fishing, tourism, and recreation. Healthy ecosystems contribute to vibrant local economies, providing jobs and supporting livelihoods.”

Estuaries improve water quality because they act as natural filters, by trapping pollutants and sediments,” Crowell said. “This is essential for maintaining the health of both the estuary itself and the coastal waters it connects to,” Crowell said. And estuaries help with flooding. “Healthy estuarine ecosystems can absorb excess rainfall and storm surge, reducing the risk of flooding in surrounding communities and enhancing resilience to climate-related impacts.”

There’s also the social connection. “Many communities have deep cultural ties to estuaries, relying on them for food, recreation, and heritage. Preserving these areas helps maintain cultural identities and traditions,” he said.

Ellin explained that the reserve sites that stretch from North Carolina’s northern border to the southern border are protected for long-term research, education and stewardship.

“Research and stewardship work informs management of our sites and North Carolina’s coastal resources as they face increased use and changing environmental conditions by monitoring change and testing and evaluating restoration techniques such as living shorelines,” Ellin said. “Teachers, students, and decision-makers learn about the importance of our estuaries through interpretive field trips at the sites and how to incorporate science into their classrooms and daily decisions that may impact the coast and estuaries.”

Estuaries not only protect habitat and provide platforms for research and education, estuaries offer storm protection and economic benefits for nearby communities. “Protecting estuaries protects coastal habitat and the contributions they provide to healthy ecosystems and communities,” Ellin said.

All three of the Coastal Federation’s educators recognized that these ecosystems are increasingly under threat.

“Habitat loss and development, as well as stormwater pollution and climate change impact the health of the estuary,” Bisesi said.

Mitchell said that pollution, overdevelopment and climate change jeopardize these vital resources. “If we don’t act now to protect estuaries, we not only risk losing critical wildlife habitats but also endanger the well-being of our communities. Protecting estuaries is essential not only for biodiversity but for safeguarding public health and ensuring the sustainability of coastal life.”

Hallas added that, in addition to the risks Mitchell mentioned, estuaries are also at risk from the recent ruling that drastically reduced protections of wetlands across the United States. “How could we not protect something that’s so valuable to all living things, including the source of life: clean water.”

Hallas said that because estuaries provide protection from flooding, storm surge, erosion and water quality, “I feel like it’s our job to protect them in return.” Estuaries are “a haven of beauty on the North Carolina coast, a refuge for both humans and wildlife.”

The Coastal Federation publishes Coastal Review.

RALEIGH — While the need to manage water in the Albemarle-Pamlico peninsula is a centuries-old endeavor, rising sea levels and increasing impacts from climate change have been overwhelming prior flood-mitigation methods in the sprawling lowlands within the nation’s second-largest estuarine system.

“The Scuppernong River Basin in the heart of the Albemarle-Pamlico region in eastern North Carolina faces significant water management challenges due to factors such as changing precipitation patterns, manipulated land-use, and increasing water demand,” the Albemarle-Pamlico National Estuary Partnership, or APNEP, explained in a recent newsletter.

Piecemeal efforts to address the challenges are now starting to be stitched together in a regional approach, spurred by a $50,000 grant for community engagement from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration Office for Coastal Management Digital Coast and the National Estuarine Research Reserve Association, followed by a $200,000 grant from the state Department of Environmental Quality and a $200,000 in-kind matching grant for the recently launched Scuppernong Water Management Study.

“The goal was to have that community engagement and local input shape the study and inform, so it’s not just a desktop exercise, an engineering exercise,” Stacey Feken, APNEP project manager, recently told Coastal Review.

Origins of the study go back to plans to update a water-management plan for Lake Phelps, which had not been updated since the early 1980s. Pettigrew State Park was trying to figure out how to do the update, Feken recalled and, in the process, park officials decided that since water knew no boundaries, it would make sense to look at its management on a regional basis.

“We wanted to do this in collaboration with partners in the area, other land-conservation managers and the landowners and the communities,” she said, recounting what Pettigrew officials had conveyed.

Pettigrew had approached APNEP about five years ago for help, Feken said, and the partnership has since taken the helm in developing the study. 

“They brought us in to serve as a neutral, science-based partner,” she said. “So, we’re serving as a convener, doing everything from technical assistance and grant writing to the community engagement associated with the study.”

Grant applications for state parks were able to be broadened beyond park boundaries, and a funding request was made for the planning and engineering feasibility study through DEQ’s Water Resources Division.

Although the focus was initially on Washington County, where most of the 5,830-acre Pettigrew State Park and Lake Phelps are located, it was soon discovered that nearby local governments in Tyrrell County and organizations representing the counties and communities had been long asking for state assistance to cope with flooding issues.

Then, the COVID-19 pandemic interrupted the planning. Once the crisis passed, APNEP contacted the Albemarle Commission, a regional government council, to help in the effort. Other partners that have joined are Buckridge Coastal Reserve, Washington County, Tyrrell County, Washington County Soil and Water, Tyrrell County Soil and Water, Pettigrew State Park, Pocosin Lakes National Wildlife Refuge, and the North Carolina State University Cooperative Extension.  

A steering committee comprised of local stakeholders was created to serve as a liaison to the communities, ensure effectiveness and to advise the engagement team, which, in addition to APNEP, includes representatives from the North Carolina Coastal Reserve, North Carolina Sea Grant and The Nature Conservancy.

Cary-based contractor Kris Bass Engineering, through models, mapping and other tools, is to identify flood-prone areas, enhance understanding of water movement throughout the region and identify potential solutions to flooding.

“The study will help inform development of a comprehensive plan to address water management issues on both private and public lands inter-connected by an extensive drainage network on the northern portion of the Albemarle-Pamlico Peninsula,” the APNEP newsletter said.

As part of the comprehensive study, organizers are asking the public to share observations of how flooding impacts these communities by Jan. 15 through an online survey.

Results from the study could be used to inform other more localized studies, such as the Pettigrew State Park water management plan update, Feken said.

“My understanding with the engineers, they’re developing the modeling for the study so that it can be easily replicated in other areas of the region,” she said.

Feken said that she expects that another study would be done in the near future for the southern portion of the Albemarle-Pamlico region, which includes Mattamuskeet National Wildlife Refuge in Hyde County and the Pungo River area.

Located within some of the most rural and economically distressed counties in the state, communities in the Albemarle-Pamlico region have often felt forgotten as surrounding beach communities and urban areas with fat tax bases were thriving. 

But the uniqueness and ecological importance of the region have lately brought remarkable amounts of attention from conservation groups, nonprofits and government agencies, as reflected in efforts of groups including the North Carolina’s Natural and Working Lands initiative, North Carolina Office of Recovery and Resiliency, Coastal Resilience Community of Practice and the Audubon Society’s community-driven projects, among others.

The ecosystem is extraordinarily rich, and situated just feet above sea level, vulnerable, with pocosin peatlands, forests, sounds, bays and lakes that provide habitat for wildlife that includes endangered red wolves, black bears and numerous other mammals, plus thousands of waterfowl and other birds, as well as countless amphibians, fish and reptiles.

“It’s just such an amazing landscape in different ways,” Feken said.

The Department of Environmental Quality’s Division of Water Resources is to continue work on a submerged aquatic vegetation water clarity standard, members of the Environmental Management Commission’s water quality committee unanimously decided during its recent meeting.

Establishing a water clarity standard, which is a type of water quality standard, is one of several recommendations in an effort to preserve and protect seagrasses, a critical coastal habitat, in the 2021 amendment to the Coastal Habitat Protection Plan. Water clarity measures the amount of sunlight that can penetrate through the water. Submerged aquatic vegetation, often called SAV or seagrasses, need light to grow.

“The major cause of SAV loss has been due to water quality degradation from nutrients and sediments, which reduce light penetration needed for grass survival. A series of steps to improve water clarity are required,” according to the protection plan, a long-term, state-managed effort to improve coastal fisheries through habitat protection and enhancement work. “Nationally, water quality, in particular water clarity, is recognized as one of the most significant factors limiting SAV distribution, abundance, survival, and expansion.”

The recommendation in the protection plan states that by 2022, the Environmental Management Commission will receive guidance from the Nutrient Criteria Development Plan Scientific Advisory Council on establishing a water quality standard for light penetration, with a target value of 22% to the deep edge, or 1.7 meters, for all high-salinity seagrasses, and a light penetration target of 13% to the deep edge, or 1.5 meters, for all low-salinity seagrasses.

The North Carolina Nutrient Criteria Development Plan Scientific Advisory Council provides advice and recommendations to the state Division of Water Resources on site-specific nutrient criteria based only on data and scientific judgments about pollutant concentrations and their effects.

During the Environmental Management Commission’s water quality committee meeting Nov. 9, Commissioner Marion Deerhake, who chairs the committee, explained to fellow board members that setting a water clarity standard is the first step before the division can proceed with drafting rules to implement the standard.

The standard is to be based on the completed work of the Science Advisory Council, expected in the next few months, as well as the input of the Criteria Implementation Committee before the draft rule is presented to the Water Quality Committee, Deerhake said. The Criteria Implementation Committee is an advisory board of stakeholders that are to look at the practicality of implementing the standard.

After the commission approves a draft rule on water clarity standard, an extensive stakeholder process will follow, then the development of Implementation rules to apply that standard, she explained.

Deerhake asked that it be noted in the meeting minutes that the water quality committee members reached a consensus that the division is to continue working on water clarity standards for seagrasses.

Dr. Jessie Jarvis, an associate professor in the biology department at University of North Carolina Wilmington and Scientific Advisory Council member, explained to the committee that seagrasses have a lot of different roles in the coastal ecosystem.

Seagrasses serve as important and essential habitat for commercial and recreational fisheries, are a direct resource for marine herbivores like sea turtles, and as waters are warming, more fish are eating seagrass directly, she continued. These underwater plants are really important because they actually improve the water quality conditions. They help increase clarity, reduce sediments and nutrients, and can store carbon.

“There’s a lot of functions that they do, so keeping them around is a really good way to keep those functions happening. It’s also a lot cheaper to protect them than it is to actually restore them,” she explained.

Jarvis said that before a standard can be set, you have to look at the minimum amount of light that seagrasses need to survive, which can be calculated based on the maximum depth at which they grow, and then how much light is available at that depth.

“We have to assume that the light at the depth that they grow the deepest is the minimum amount of light they require. And then from that we can calculate any minimum light required for them to survive any particular depth,” she said. Adding, if you have light attenuation and the maximum depth, you can determine what percent SAV actually need to survive at any depth.

“One of the reasons that we’re so focused on clarity when it comes to SAV is they are found in the water column,” and there’s lots of other things that could potentially impact these seagrasses such as changes to salinity or dissolved oxygen. “But when you look at how much light SAV actually need to survive, it’s really high compared to other plants and even other marine plants,” Jarvis said.

Seagrass require from 4 to 29% of the surface light to survive. Terrestrial plants only need .5 to 2%. The seagrass, even at its lowest light level, needs twice as much light of a terrestrial plant. The majority of plants, including those in most of estuarine systems, require closer to 20%. Comparing terrestrial plants and marine plants, seagrass really require a lot of light.

“They have a very high minimum light requirement, and so their survival really depends on good water clarity. If you have good water clarity, they are much more likely to be able to withstand any other kind of disturbance,” she said.

Noting this link between water quality and seagrass led to researchers to establish the submerged aquatic vegetation as a sentinel species for water quality changes. Seagrasses react to water quality changes like other sentinel species such as oysters. But seagrass also need light. So, in addition to those chemical parameters that affect other underwater sentinel species, seagrasses also respond to changes in water clarity.

Another benefit for using SAV as an indicator of water quality is that they’re not harvested, Jarvis said. If there’s a change in seagrasses to any extent that you’re measuring, the changes can be primarily, directly linked to changes in environmental conditions only.

“In North Carolina, we are lucky enough to have the Coastal Habitat Protection Plan with a very strong recommendation to adopt a standard for light penetration for seagrass regions based on that low and high salinity breakdown,” she said. “So low salinity would be 13% to the deep edge which they defined in the CHPP as 1.5 meters and high salinity 22% to the edge of 1.7, based on a lot of the information that went into that, and again, the robustness and the really good repeatability of these measurements in July and September the Nutrient Criteria Development Plan Scientific Advisory Committee that supported the adoption of both the low and high standards.”

Jarvis explained that she worked with the Albemarle-Pamlico National Estuary Partnership, which mapped the entire Albemarle-Pamlico Sound in 2007 and 2013, and smaller segments in 2020.

“What we found is that overall SAV in North Carolina is declining at about a rate of about 5% of total area per year. Now that’s not the same everywhere. So, there are some problems areas for example, back in Bogue Sound that rate of loss is closer to 10%. And there are definitely areas where you could actually see these changes in SAV,” she said.

Karen Higgins, chief planning section for Division of Water Resources, also addressed the committee. She said told the members that the Nutrient Criteria Development Plan, or NCDP, is a plan for developing nutrient criteria for surface waters in North Carolina. The plan is required as part of a memorandum of understanding with the Environmental Protection Agency.

The plan was first developed in 2014 and 2019. Anytime the state updates the plan, it has to be reviewed and approved by EPA. North Carolina has approached the plan by having site-specific standards in three different types of water bodies. These are lakes and reservoirs, estuaries, and rivers and streams. The first site-specific standard was for High Rock Lake in Davidson and Rowan counties. Environmental Management Commission approved a site-specific standard for High Rock Lake earlier this year.

Right now, the scientific advisory committee is focused on Albemarle Sound and the Chowan River, in particular with seagrasses, Higgins continued. Clarity is critically important for submerged aquatic vegetation. The Scientific Advisory Council has been working with the division over the last year and a half looking at different components of the clarity standard.

The Division of Water Resources, Coastal Habitat Protection Plan and the Scientific Advisory Council are all on board with a magnitude value that is projected for seagrasses habitat. The council has also determined the duration, or when the standard applies, but there are some other pieces still under discussion such as frequency.

While the focus has been Albemarle Sound, “the direction and guidance from the Scientific Advisory Council is to expand the standard through all coastal waters, and so that’s something that we’re working through with the SAC as far as how to capture that in the standards,” Higgins said.

The Division of Water Resources is working with the Division of Marine Fisheries on plans to monitor seagrasses and they will be the primary collectors of this data. “We’re working with them and their staff to see what their existing protocols are and how we can incorporate this,” she said.

Deerhake followed up with the full Environmental Management Commission during its meeting Nov. 10, explaining that the Scientific Advisory Council was to meet soon to finalize their recommendation on a standard.

Water Resources staff is to then begin drafting rules to go before the water quality committee for consideration before reaching the full commission. “Our goal is to see it in the first quarter of 2023,” Deerhake said.

Two coastal research funding opportunities are now available for graduate students and undergrads.

Applications for the 2022 Graduate Fellowship in Estuarine Research, a partnership between Sea Grant and the Albemarle-Pamlico National Estuary Partnership, will be accepted until 5 p.m. Oct. 29.

The fellowship, which is up to $10,000, is for graduate students who propose research on one or more of the following broad focus areas: estuary spatial planning, submerged aquatic vegetation, coastal water quality, ecological flows and wetlands. The applied research must be within the North Carolina portion of the APNEP management area, which includes most of the northeastern region of the state.

Sea Grant is also accepting applications until 5 p.m. Oct. 29 for its inaugural Coastal Resilience Team Competition. The program will provide up to $20,000 for teams to conduct two-year projects that will lead to more resilient habitats and communities on the North Carolina coastal plain.

2022 Fellowship

Graduate students must propose hypothesis-based research within the North Carolina portion of the APNEP management area. Proposed work should relate to the APNEP Comprehensive Conservation and Management Plan and to North Carolina Sea Grant’s Strategic Plan, as well as demonstrate a commitment to diversity, equity, and inclusion aligned with the visions of Sea Grant and APNEP.

Applicants should demonstrate how their work and related outreach will benefit underserved and underrepresented communities.

“We are excited to continue partnering with Sea Grant on this graduate fellowship opportunity, which helps support research that informs the conservation and management of the nation’s second largest estuarine system,” said Tim Ellis, APNEP’s quantitative ecologist, in a statement.

John Fear, Sea Grant deputy director, said the fellowship helps train the next generation of scientists.

“Providing opportunities for students of all backgrounds is an overarching aim of this fellowship,” Fear said. “We strongly encourage proposals from graduate students at Historically Black Colleges and Universities and from Minority Serving Institutions, as well as from graduate students from traditionally underserved and underrepresented communities.”

Complete instructions, including more information on focus areas for proposals for the 2022 graduate fellowship, are available online. For more information, contact Fear at jmfear@ncsu.edu or Ellis at tim.ellis@apnep.org.

Coastal Resilience Team Competition

Each team will include two to four members, including at least one graduate student, who will serve as the project lead, and at least one undergraduate, who will assist.

“This fellowship opportunity builds off the previous great work of graduate students who have focused on the impacts of sea level rise in North Carolina,” said Sarah Spiegler, North Carolina Sea Grant’s coastal resilience specialist. “It’s vital that we continue research that addresses how to become more resilient to the impacts of climate change, and I look forward to a student-led team taking on this challenge.”

Officials encourage proposals from teams that include students at historically Black colleges and universities and at minority-serving institutions, and/or students from traditionally underserved and underrepresented communities.

Each team will conduct research that addresses one or more of these focus areas:

• The impacts of higher groundwater levels on forest, agriculture and community infrastructure.
• How changing precipitation patterns impact salinity levels in estuarine systems.
• The impact of higher temperatures on submerged aquatic vegetation communities in North Carolina.
• How coastal communities can engage underserved populations to better prepare them for future disasters.
• How aquaculture practices can buffer the industry against disasters.
• The economic impact of climate change on North Carolina coastal communities, including the effects on different sectors and populations.
• Additional research topics that address how coastal North Carolina can become more resilient to the impacts of climate change.

Proposals should explain how the proposed teams’ research and related outreach will benefit underserved and underrepresented communities. Access the full request for proposals online.

The winning team will present their work to North Carolina Sea Grant’s advisory board. Sea Grant’s science communicators also will work with the winners to publicize the team’s research through an array of products and media, as appropriate.