It’s the second-largest estuarine system in the lower 48 United States, with more than 3,000 miles of open water making its way east from 43 counties in North Carolina and 38 counties and cities in Virginia. It’s 31,000 square miles of creeks and streams, rivers and sounds, and Beaufort County sits right in the middle of it.

Sept. 16-23 is National Estuaries Week, a nationwide nod to estuarine systems in the U.S. and how important they are to the lives of many, fueling both industry and recreation and stocking the ocean with many of its aquatic species.

“All estuaries serve as cradles of the ocean — the place where so many different types of fish and shelfish live and spend part of their life, so often with the young growing up in the protected waters of estuaries,” said Tom Stroud, director of the North Carolina Estuarium, located on the waterfront in Washington. “Our role has, from the beginning, been to help people make a connection to the estuary, to understand why it matters, to see ways that they can help keep the estuary’s health.”

The beginning was in 1987, when Congress named the Albemarle-Pamlico Estuarine System an estuary of national significance and the Albemarle-Pamlico Estuarine study was launched.

“That really kind of initiated the greater public understanding of what the rivers and sounds actually do,” Stroud said. “The estuarium itself is an outgrowth of the study — the whole idea and concept evolved from that.”

While the region’s waterways are certainly a great place to have a home or take a boat ride, what most don’t realize is that the Albemarle-Pamlico Estuarine System supports a wide variety of industry including forestry, agriculture, commercial and recreational fishing, tourism, mining energy development and more, according to the Albemarle-Pamlico National Estuary Partnership. That it drives industry is just one reason why the estuary’s health is so important to all residents of North Carolina.

In comparison to other estuaries, the Albemarle-Pamlico Estuarine System is healthier simply because of its rural location, Stroud said. The comparative lack of development in eastern North Carolina means there’s less pollution and sedimentation harmful to its aquatic life.

“Historically, going back hundreds of years, since development has been a little more limited here — say in comparison with Chesapeake Bay, Long Island, San Francisco Bay — that has allowed us to maintain a relative health for longer than they did,” Stroud said.

The main polluters of the Albemarle-Pamlico Estuarine System are non-point-source runoff — or generalized runoff from fields, parking lots and roadways that wash chemicals from fertilizers, pesticides, fuels and more into the water.

“That leads to both the sedimentation in the water — being cloudy and the problems that ensue from that — as well as a lot of nutrient overloading from fertilizers that can get into the waterway and overstimulate the growth of algae,” Stroud said.

Point-source pollution coming directly from industry or wastewater treatment plants, is far less common in the region.

“There’s certainly some of that in our system, but not to the degree it’s seen in a lot of more urbanized estuarine regions,” Stroud said.

But the estuary has been threatened over the last several years by rollbacks of legislation that was meant to prevent sedimentation and nutrient overload in the waters, such as the elimination of buffers when developers are building near streams, rivers or even ditches. An example of a buffer is a strip of natural plants between a lawn and the river that soaks up nutrients that would be harmful to the waterways before they can actually run off into the water. Elimination of such preventative measures can cause lasting damage, Stroud said.

“I don’t think it’s a wise course. I think it will lead to long-term damage and really hope we can reestablish some safeguards that were in place for a number of decades that I think were reasonably effective in taking care of our water,” he said.

Even with legislation in place to protect the state’s waterways, the average person can do a lot to help protect the health of the estuary. Stroud said taking a moment to pick up litter that could end up in a ditch, creek or river is helpful, as is being responsible in the use of fertilizers and pesticides: those with waterfront property, or a stream or creek running through the property, are encouraged to have a buffer in place; those who live in neighborhoods should be aware that anything they put in their yard can wash into the street — especially if a lawn is fertilized just before it rains.

“Don’t just throw things out in the street and think everything’s going to be fine, because what ends up in the streets eventually ends up in our waterways,” Stroud said.

The mission of the Estuarium is to educate and make sure people know that the waterways are much more than a nice place to look at. The Albemarle-Pamlico Estuarine System’s health represents the health of the entire region, according to Stroud — not taking care of it would impact life from the smallest of fish to the wealthiest of waterfront homeowners.

“The most obvious effect is that fisheries will be damaged and that will ripple from fish right in the estuary itself, but so many fish that live in the estuaries as juveniles go back into the oceans. So, it has a ripple effect on the food chain,” Stroud said. “The simple destruction of an ecosystem that so many people love and enjoy in different ways would be really a shame for the whole region. It matters to people — anywhere from just liking to walk along the water, to sitting on their porch, to riding in boats and sailing and fishing. The waterways are the heart of the region, and if it was just a dead system out there with no real direct connection to us, I think that would really take the soul out of a lot of people here.”

The North Carolina Estuarium is located at 223 E. Water St. and is open Tuesdays through Saturdays from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.