Episode 120 (July 23, 2012): Estuary Rap and Rhyme

Click to listen to episode (2:52).

Please see below (after the transcript and show notes) for links to news and upcoming events.

TRANSCRIPT

From the Cumberland Gap to the Atlantic Ocean, this is Virginia Water Radio for the week of July 23, 2012.

This week, we feature some rap and some rhyme about a particular kind of aquatic ecosystem that’s vital to coastal areas worldwide.  Have a listen for about a minute and twenty seconds.

SOUND. 

You’ve been listening to excerpts from two estuary education videos from the National Estuarine Research Reserve System.  As you heard, an estuary is formed when freshwater bodies—such as rivers—meet salty, coastal water bodies.  Estuaries typically are biologically very rich and provide crucial reproduction areas for many fish and shellfish.  The Chesapeake Bay is the largest estuary in the United States.  Other estuaries in Virginia include the lower sections of the Potomac, York, and other large river tributaries to the Chesapeake, as well as Back Bay in Virginia Beach, the northernmost part of North Carolina’s Albemarle-Pamlico estuary.

For other water sounds and music, and for more Virginia water information, visit our Web site at virginiawaterradio.org, or call us at (540) 231-5463.  From the Virginia Water Resources Research Center in Blacksburg, I’m Alan Raflo, thanking you for listening, and wishing you health, wisdom, and good water.

SHOW NOTES 

Acknowledgments and Sources: This week’s audio was excerpted from online videos “Estuary Rap” (4 minutes/44 seconds; 2002) and “So What is an Estuary—So Now You Know,” (7 minutes/2 seconds; 2003), provided for educational uses by the National Estuarine Research Reserve System (part of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, or NOAA).  These videos are part of a video gallery at the System’s “Estuary Education” Web site, http://estuaries.noaa.gov/Default.aspx, which includes many other resources for learning and teaching about estuaries.  Information on estuaries was taken from the NOAA/National Ocean Service Web site at http://oceanservice.noaa.gov/education/tutorial_estuaries/welcome.html.   Information on Back Bay in Virginia was taken from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service’s Web site on Back Bay National Wildlife Refuge, at http://www.fws.gov/backbay/ and the “Back Bay National Wildlife Refuge Comprehensive Conservation Plan” (December 2011), online at http://www.fws.gov/northeast/planning/Back%20Bay/finalccp.html.  Detailed information on Virginia’s estuaries in the Chesapeake Bay watershed is available from the Virginia Institute of Marine Science’s Web site on the Chesapeake Bay National Estuarine Research Reserve, at http://www.vims.edu/cbnerr/index.php.

Photos—The 28 units of the National Estuarine Research Reserve System are shown on the following map, provided by NOAA at http://nerrs.noaa.gov/Default.aspx.

Recent Virginia Water News

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Water Meetings and Other Events

            For events related to Virginia's water resources, please visit the Quick Guide to Virginia Water–related Conferences, Workshops, and Other Events, online at http://virginiawaterevents.wordpress.com/.  The site includes a list of Virginia government policy and regulatory meetings occurring in the coming week.