November/December 2005

Still Waters and an Empty Sky

Virginia and North Carolina join forces on project to help restore the life and livelihood of Currituck Sound

By Kip Tabb

Two ecological wonders—the Back Bay National Wildlife Refuge and North Landing River Preserve—lie resting at the southern doorstep of Virginia Beach. These are slow-moving bodies of water, their shores filled with deer, fox and raccoon and the vegetation dense and fecund. The waters, however, are open and silent. Waters that should be teeming with the cacophony of life harbor only the sound of the wind and carry the sight of a lone flight of waterfowl when they were once carpeted with the birds as they ended their winter’s journey.

It was a place of beauty and abundant wildlife. “Before us we could see hundreds of snow-white swans, some feeding, some arching their graceful necks over their wings, others with their wings set, allowing the breeze to impel them gently along and all enjoying themselves in the rays of a magnificent sun.” (Frank Leslie’s Illustrated Newspaper, Feb. 26, 1870)

It was not only the migratory waterfowl that filled the waters of the sound—the black bass fishing was world-renowned. Brian Hostetler grew up fishing and hunting on North Landing River and works in wildlife management today. He recalls bass fishing in the 1970s. “You would land them in your boat, and there were so many you couldn’t keep them in, and they would jump off the bow,” he says.

Due to nature’s abundance, a different kind of tourist industry thrived. Starting in 1859 when the first of the hunt clubs was founded (the Currituck Club, located in Poplar Branch) until the mid 1960s, it was the heyday of hunting clubs on the Back Bay and Currituck Sound—a time when a way of life was defined by the seasons and a time when whole families would work the fields in the summer and guide or work in the clubs in the winter. Back Bay and North Landing River are the northernmost reaches of the Currituck Sound—a small but extraordinarily complex body of water. In the south, it is separated from Albemarle Sound by the narrow spit of land that forms Powells Point, and extending north well into Virginia, it is a naturally occurring impoundment with characteristics unlike any other estuary.

The nearest saltwater source for Currituck Sound is Oregon Inlet, some 40 miles to the south, and its freshwater sources are small, slow tributaries. Because it is so far removed from any saltwater source, the sound is generally freshwater, but its southern end is slightly brackish at times, when a sustained south wind blows the saltier waters of the Albemarle Sound north. Movement of water across the sound is usually determined by the wind—commonly called wind tides—and strong sustained winds can cause fluctuations of up to three feet.

It is an environment in decline. Where the waters of the sound were once a vast feeding ground, covered with migratory waterfowl and swarming with game fish, open water sits—a shallow estuary that is a pale reflection of its past glory.

For the rest of this story, see the November/December 2005 issue of Hampton Roads Magazine, currently available on newsstands.