Schedule

Please note:  You will need RealOne for the September 23-24 broadcasts and either Windows Media Player or RealOne for the National Estuaries Day broadcasts (September 25-26).  These are both free downloads.

NERR - National Estuarine Research Reserve
NEP - National Estuary Program

National Estuaries Day

All times are Eastern Daylight Time

Barataria Terebonne Program has been

highlighted in yellow on September 26th.

A  Log on and discover a true blue blood, the American horseshoe crab! These prehistoric-looking creatures have been around since the age of the dinosaurs, but today their populations are dwindling in size. Learn why these unique creatures are important part of the food web and how their blood is used everyday to protect the health of humans.

B  Come explore an estuary with us!  Join staff and students as we look at a tidal flat and salt marsh and explore what lives here. See the unique animals and plants that make their home where salty ocean water mixes with fresh river water in this shallow edge of the land and ocean. Do you know what fiddler crabs eat? Tune in to find out!

C  Although oysters are a seafood species sometimes described as slimy and yucky they are an integral part of North Carolina estuaries. Learn about the life history of oysters, how they interact within their habitat and how people like NC Sea Grant’s Skip Kemp are working to help them regain their place in NC culture and estuaries. 

D  Come explore an estuary with us!  Join staff and students as we look at a tidal flat and salt marsh and explore what lives here. See the unique animals and plants that make their home where salty ocean water mixes with fresh river water in this shallow edge of the land and ocean. Do you know what fiddler crabs eat? Tune in to find out!

National Estuaries Day

Transitionswill be very short programs that make connections between different estuaries or demonstrate fundamental functions of estuaries.

1  With over 2 million acres of estuaries in North Carolina, these habitats encompass over 16% of the state. Visit examples of North Carolina "sounds" within the area of the North Carolina National Estuary Program and at the North Carolina National Estuarine Research Reserve's Rachel Carson Reserve.  Explore the diversity of estuary resources in this state.

2  TBA

3  Armand Bayou Nature Center is a 2,500-acre wildlife refuge and wilderness preserve nestled in the heart of the Upper Texas gulf coast. This “living laboratory” of ancient wetlands, bottomland forests, and coastal prairie is barely five miles from the ultra-cosmic NASA’s Johnson Space Center, Galveston Bay and yet in the midst of one of the most urbanized areas in the nation.  The majestic Armand Bayou estuary is home to over 370 species of birds, mammals, reptiles, and amphibians, including bison, alligators, deer, and hundreds of migrating birds. Armand Bayou lies along the Central Flyway, the largest migratory bird route in North America. The Galveston Bay Estuary Program invites you to join our scientific team as we visit the scenic vistas of this unique urban Texas wilderness. Prepare to be inspired, intrigued, and astonished!

4  TBA

5   Cities and estuaries often go hand in hand but the relationship is fraught with conflict. Seattle, Washington is a perfect example. Two hundred years ago the mouth of the Duwamish River was a meandering backwater thick with vegetation and home to salmon, crabs, eagles and a small number of people.  Today it's a bustling city with ocean freighters, freeways, and factories.  Tune in to this session and find out how it got that way, what it's like today, and what people are doing to make things better.

6  With over 2 million acres of estuaries in North Carolina, these habitats encompass over 16% of the state. Visit examples of North Carolina "sounds" within the area of the North Carolina National Estuary Program and at the North Carolina National Estuarine Research Reserve's Rachel Carson Reserve.  Explore the diversity of estuary resources in this state.

7  Come visit with us.  We invite you to explore the former hideout of Jean Lafitte the pirate in the rich waters of Louisiana’s Cajun Coast.  Here you will observe the rich bounty of shrimp, redfish, crabs and oysters, offshore oil rigs, pelicans and other resident and migratory birds.  You will learn about the levees that protect these fragile wetlands and why this national treasure, the Barataria-Terrebonne National Estuary is “the fastest disappearing landmass in the world”.

8   Join us in beautiful North Inlet estuary as we explore the coast of South Carolina and the world of watersheds from our salt marsh boardwalk.  We will host our sister Reserve near Charleston, SC-the ACE Basin NERR- and we’ll compare our two Reserves and their watershed uses.  We will also demonstrate a great interactive water cycle model and learn about stormwater runoff, pervious and impervious surfaces, and many other watershed issues.  And of course, we’ll take a look at the unique variety of plants and animals that make our estuaries their home.

9  The location selected for the 2003 South Slough Estuary Live segment,  the Hinch Road Bridge area of the Winchester Creek Tidelands Restoration Project is located in the southern end of the Reserve in an area that has undergone extreme landscape and waterscape changes over the past 150 years.  This area of South Slough NERR has also received national recognition for efforts in tideland restoration work.  Throughout our segment, we will explore these changes and the impacts that they have caused to the waters and habitat of the estuary. 

  Topics in the segment will include:

• Historic and current land use activities that degrade estuarine habitat

• Estuaries as nurseries

• Functional and biological value of eelgrass beds

• Restoration of saltmarsh and tidal channel habitat

• Importance of good water quality to a diversity of estuary life