Currituck Banks North Carolina National Estuarine Research Reserve is a component site of the
North Carolina National Estuarine Research Reserve
The estuarine system of the North Carolina National Estuarine Research Reserve is the third largest in the country, encompassing more the . This system is of prime economic importance to the coastal area—90 percent of the commercial seafood spec ...
Corolla, North Carolina
Corolla ( ) is an unincorporated community located in Poplar Branch township, Currituck County, North Carolina, United States, along the northern Outer Banks. It has a permanent population of approximately 500 people; during the summer vacat ...
. Currituck Banks is one of three original National Estuarine Research Reserve sites dedicated by NOAA in 1985. The reserve encompasses 965 acres of varied habitat and is bordered by the
Currituck Sound
Currituck Sound () , from the North Carolina Collection's website at the . The Currituck banks are a part of a 70 mile long barrier spit that extends from
Virginia Beach
Virginia Beach is an independent city located on the southeastern coast of the Commonwealth of Virginia in the United States. The population was 459,470 at the 2020 census. Although mostly suburban in character, it is the most populous city ...
to Oregon Inlet.
Description
The reserve is an example of a low-salinity estuarine ecosystem, and contains a variety of habitats, including
beach
A beach is a landform alongside a body of water which consists of loose particles. The particles composing a beach are typically made from rock, such as sand, gravel, shingle, pebbles, etc., or biological sources, such as mollusc sh ...
maritime forest
A maritime forest is an ocean coastal wooded habitat found on higher ground than dune areas within range of salt spray. They can be found along the Atlantic and Pacific Northwest coasts of the United States. They can also be found in areas of So ...
, brackish and freshwater
marshes
A marsh is a wetland that is dominated by herbaceous rather than woody plant species.Keddy, P.A. 2010. Wetland Ecology: Principles and Conservation (2nd edition). Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, UK. 497 p Marshes can often be found at ...
,
tidal flats
Mudflats or mud flats, also known as tidal flats or, in Ireland, slob or slobs, are coastal wetlands that form in intertidal areas where sediments have been deposited by tides or rivers. A global analysis published in 2019 suggested that tidal f ...
Boston Globe
''The Boston Globe'' is an American daily newspaper founded and based in Boston, Massachusetts. The newspaper has won a total of 27 Pulitzer Prizes, and has a total circulation of close to 300,000 print and digital subscribers. ''The Boston Glob ...
as being among the coast's most beautiful nature preserves; the review noted that the reserve and surrounding area is nearly empty of people during the off-season.
Fauna
The reserve is home to a wealth of birds and fish, including commercial and game fish species. The reserve allows
hunting
Hunting is the human practice of seeking, pursuing, capturing, or killing wildlife or feral animals. The most common reasons for humans to hunt are to harvest food (i.e. meat) and useful animal products ( fur/ hide, bone/tusks, horn/antler, ...
(with a registration form required), and is also listed as an
eBird
eBird is an online database of bird observations providing scientists, researchers and amateur naturalists with real-time data about bird distribution and abundance. Originally restricted to sightings from the Western Hemisphere, the project ...
hotspot for
birdwatching
Birdwatching, or birding, is the observing of birds, either as a recreational activity or as a form of citizen science. A birdwatcher may observe by using their naked eye, by using a visual enhancement device like binoculars or a telescope, by ...
eastern gray squirrel
The eastern gray squirrel (''Sciurus carolinensis''), also known, particularly outside of North America, as simply the grey squirrel, is a tree squirrel in the genus ''Sciurus''. It is native to eastern North America, where it is the most prodi ...
, cottontail and marsh rabbit, opossum, raccoon, gray fox, bobcat, muskrat, river otter, and the invasive
nutria
The nutria (''Myocastor coypus''), also known as the coypu, is a large, herbivorous, semiaquatic rodent.
Classified for a long time as the only member of the family Myocastoridae, ''Myocastor'' is now included within Echimyidae, the family of ...
. The uniquely brackish water allows both salt water and freshwater species of fish to thrive here. Saltwater fish species include speckled trout, flounder,
red drum
The red drum (''Sciaenops ocellatus''), also known as redfish, channel bass, puppy drum, spottail bass, or simply red, is a game fish found in the Atlantic Ocean from Massachusetts to Florida and in the Gulf of Mexico from Florida to northern Mexi ...
, mullet and striped bass. Freshwater fish species include
largemouth bass
The largemouth bass (''Micropterus salmoides'') is a carnivorous freshwater gamefish in the Centrarchidae ( sunfish) family, a species of black bass native to the eastern and central United States, southeastern Canada and northern Mexico, bu ...
perch
Perch is a common name for fish of the genus ''Perca'', freshwater gamefish belonging to the family Percidae. The perch, of which three species occur in different geographical areas, lend their name to a large order of vertebrates: the Per ...