Albemarle Sound

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Albemarle Sound is a large estuary on the coast of North Carolina where several rivers, including the Chowan and Roanoke, flow together. It is separated from the Atlantic Ocean by the Currituck Banks, a barrier land that includes Kitty Hawk at its eastern edge. Roanoke Island sits at the sound’s southeastern corner and connects to Pamlico Sound.

Much of the water in Albemarle Sound is brackish or fresh because river water flows into it, not salty ocean water. Some parts of the sound have their own names, like Croatan Sound between Dare County and Roanoke Island, and Roanoke Sound along the island’s eastern shore. The stretch from near the Virginia line down to Currituck County is known as Currituck Sound. The sound is also part of the Atlantic Intracoastal Waterway.

People have lived around Albemarle Sound for thousands of years. The indigenous Pamlico used dugout canoes to fish in the sound during the Late Woodland period and set up seasonal camps.

The first European explorers reached Albemarle Sound in 1586. By the 1650s and 1660s, settlers from Virginia established farms and trading posts along its shores. The sound became an important inland route for ships carrying goods between colonies, and it also exported tobacco, herring, and lumber.

In 1663, Albemarle Sound was named part of the Province of Carolina and was linked to the group of Lords Proprietors, including George Monck, the 1st Duke of Albemarle, for whom the sound is named.

Ferries were once the main way to move through the surrounding swamps. The Edenton–Mackeys ferry operated from 1734 to 1938, when a bridge was built. A longer bridge over the sound was completed in 1990.

Fishing has long been a key industry. In colonial times, enslaved people fished for shad, striped bass, and herring, often using very long nets. Herring were salted for export, and shad was packed on ice to be sent to northern colonies. In the 20th century, striped bass tournaments drew many recreational anglers and helped make Albemarle Sound famous for sport fishing.

Today, water pollution from industry and farming has greatly reduced the sound’s fisheries, cutting them by about seventy percent.