News

Sound Rivers’ Riverkeeping team was in Oriental last week as guest speakers for the Oriental History Museum’ speaker series.

Part of the museum’s summer exhibit, “Rollin’ on the River,” the speaker series focusing on the history and impact of the Neuse River in eastern North Carolina.

Pamlico-Tar Riverkeeper Katey Zimmerman, Water Quality Specialist Taylor Seijo and Volunteer Coordinator Emily Fritz (a resident of Oriental) met up at the Old Theater in Oriental to share Sound Rivers’ work, talk about pollution issues in the area and how Sound Rivers is tackling those problems.

“Even though our work is primarily out in the field and responding to issues, educational presentations like this one are always a valuable use of our time,” Taylor said. “The more people we have who are aware of us and the work we do, the better we are able to serve our community and protect our watersheds.”

Emily said they had a great turnout, with plenty of good questions in the Q&A time built into their hourlong presentation — questions about riparian buffers and whether it’s safe to eat fish you catch if there are high levels of bacteria in the water.

“People in the area love to fish, so naturally people want to know if it’s safe to eat the fish,” Emily said. “Since E. coli only lives in the intestines, even if the bacteria level was high in the water, as long as you don’t eat the intestines, you’re fine. Just make sure to thoroughly clean your fish, too!”

The Riverkeeping team they were excited to be a part of the museum’s summer series.

“Rollin’ on the River is a toast to the Neuse River, running through the lives of eastern North Carolinians, fueling the economy by providing seafood, agriculture products, lumber products and of course, recreation,” Emily said. “Before us, the previous speaker was Keith Bruno, a commercial fisherman in the area, so I appreciate that they’re getting different people and viewpoints to talk about the river!”

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