The North Carolina Coastal Federation is celebrating National Estuaries Week through Saturday. What started as a single day in 1988 has transformed into a week-long celebration and education effort for these habitats.
The public is invited to join the group Friday to clean up litter along coastal waterways, including in Dare and Carteret counties.
Sara Hallas, the federation’s education and outreach director, said there's more than 2 million acres of estuarine habitat in North Carolina. Their unique combination of freshwater and saltwater gives estuaries a crucial role in the ecosystem.
“The estuary is sometimes nicknamed the 'nursery of the sea,'” Hallas said. “Most of the seafood that we eat, those animals spend part of their life in the estuary. So, it's a really important habitat for that nursery ground for animals to lay their eggs or raise their young, or to find shelter during migration.”
Estuaries can be home to natural water filters, like oysters or grasses with intricate root systems, hinting at the role these wetlands can play in human lives as well.
“Stormwater runoff is the number one cause of water pollution off of the North Carolina coast,” Halles said. “The estuaries have a great opportunity to help to filter that out. But, as we have been paving roads, or building new buildings or marinas, there have been loss of habitat in our estuaries.”
Furthermore, estuaries can help protect shorelines from flooding and reduce shoreline erosion, according to Hallas, making it all the more important to protect these wetlands.
Hallas said helping the public understand their need for protection is particularly critical after recent federal actions. Last month, the Environmental Protection Agency removed federal protections for millions of acres of wetlands.
