Acklins is an island and district of the Bahamas .
25-450: It is one of a group of islands arranged along a large, shallow lagoon called the Bight of Acklins , of which the largest are Crooked Island (200 km or 76 sq mi) in the north and Acklins (310 km or 120 sq mi) in the southeast, and the smaller are Long Cay (once known as Fortune Island, (21 km or 8 sq mi)) in the northwest, and Castle Island in
50-539: A lake is hu ( 湖 ), and a lagoon is xihu ( 潟湖 ). In the French Mediterranean several lagoons are called étang ("lake"). Contrariwise, several other languages have specific words for such bodies of water. In Spanish, coastal lagoons generically are laguna costera , but those on the Mediterranean coast are specifically called albufera . In Russian and Ukrainian, those on
75-422: A regular flow of fresh water an "estuary". Davis does state that the terms "lagoon" and "estuary" are "often loosely applied, even in scientific literature". Timothy M. Kusky characterizes lagoons as normally being elongated parallel to the coast, while estuaries are usually drowned river valleys, elongated perpendicular to the coast. Coastal lagoons are classified as inland bodies of water. When used within
100-458: Is actually the third-largest lake by area in the country. The brackish water lagoon may be thus explicitly identified as a "coastal lagoon" ( laguna costera ). In Portuguese, a similar usage is found: lagoa may be a body of shallow seawater, or a small freshwater lake not linked to the sea. Lagoon is derived from the Italian laguna , which refers to the waters around Venice ,
125-502: Is also noted for its duck and goose hunting. 36°17′01″N 75°52′14″W / 36.28361°N 75.87056°W / 36.28361; -75.87056 This article about a location in Currituck County , North Carolina is a stub . You can help Misplaced Pages by expanding it . This City of Virginia Beach, Virginia state location article is a stub . You can help Misplaced Pages by expanding it . This article about
150-754: Is an overlap between bodies of water classified as coastal lagoons and bodies of water classified as estuaries . Lagoons are common coastal features around many parts of the world. Lagoons are shallow, often elongated bodies of water separated from a larger body of water by a shallow or exposed shoal , coral reef , or similar feature. Some authorities include fresh water bodies in the definition of "lagoon", while others explicitly restrict "lagoon" to bodies of water with some degree of salinity . The distinction between "lagoon" and "estuary" also varies between authorities. Richard A. Davis Jr. restricts "lagoon" to bodies of water with little or no fresh water inflow, and little or no tidal flow, and calls any bay that receives
175-523: Is northeast of Spring Point in Acklins. Plana Cays , also northeast of Spring Point, is a protected reserve for endangered great iguanas and the very rare Bahamian hutia (a guinea pig-like rodent), the only native mammal of The Bahamas. The population of Acklins was 565 at the 2010 census, with the largest populations at Lovely Bay in the northwestern tip of the island and in Salina Point in
200-892: Is separated from the Atlantic Ocean by the Currituck Banks Peninsula (formerly Bodie Island ), part of the Outer Banks . On the northeast, it extends to Back Bay in northeast Virginia Beach, Virginia . A fork on the northwest leads to the Albemarle and Chesapeake Canal , which is a part of the Atlantic Intracoastal Waterway that connects the sound to Hampton Roads and the Chesapeake Bay . It ranges from 1 to 3 feet deep. Although several inlets connected it directly to
225-547: Is the major force that moves water. Currituck County 's Mackay Island and Currituck National Wildlife Refuge as well as Back Bay National Wildlife Refuge and False Cape State Park in Virginia Beach border the sound and are winter habitats on the Atlantic Flyway . Many watersports activities occur in the sound, including parasailing , sea kayaking , and jet skiing . An area of barrier beaches , it
250-626: The Black Sea are liman ( лиман ), while the generic word is laguna ( Лагуна ). Similarly, in the Baltic , Danish has the specific Nor [ da ] , and German the specifics Bodden and Haff , as well as generic terms derived from laguna . In Poland these lagoons are called zalew ("bay"), in Lithuania marios ("lagoon, reservoir"). In Jutland several lagoons are known as fjord . In New Zealand
275-523: The Māori word hapua refers to a coastal lagoon formed at the mouth of a braided river where there are mixed sand and gravel beaches, while waituna , an ephemeral coastal waterbody, is neither a true lagoon, lake nor estuary. Some languages differentiate between coastal and atoll lagoons. In French, lagon [ fr ] refers specifically to an atoll lagoon, while coastal lagoons are described as étang [ fr ] ,
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#1732797153279300-610: The Venetian Lagoon . Laguna is attested in English by at least 1612, and had been Anglicized to "lagune" by 1673. In 1697 William Dampier referred to a "Lagune or Lake of Salt water" on the coast of Mexico. Captain James Cook described an island "of Oval form with a Lagoon in the middle" in 1769. Atoll lagoons form as coral reefs grow upwards while the islands that the reefs surround subside, until eventually only
325-458: The Wadden Sea , have strong tidal currents and mixing. Coastal lagoons tend to accumulate sediments from inflowing rivers, from runoff from the shores of the lagoon, and from sediment carried into the lagoon through inlets by the tide. Large quantities of sediment may be occasionally be deposited in a lagoon when storm waves overwash barrier islands. Mangroves and marsh plants can facilitate
350-752: The Atlantic at one time or another, they have all since closed and there is now no direct access to the Ocean from the Sound. Thus contemporary salinity levels are very low, usually around 2-3 ‰ at the north end and 4-5‰ at the sound. Currently, the only access to the ocean is through the Albemarle Sound , which joins the Currituck to the South, meaning that the sound has no lunar or solar tides. Instead, wind
375-402: The accumulation of sediment in a lagoon. Benthic organisms may stabilize or destabilize sediments. Currituck Sound Currituck Sound ( / ˈ k ʊr ɪ t ʌ k / ) is a lagoon located in northeastern part of North Carolina and extreme southeastern Virginia . 36 miles (58 km) long north-south and 8 miles (13 km) at its widest, this shallow, island-filled sound
400-626: The context of a distinctive portion of coral reef ecosystems, the term "lagoon" is synonymous with the term "back reef" or "backreef", which is more commonly used by coral reef scientists to refer to the same area. Many lagoons do not include "lagoon" in their common names. Currituck , Albemarle and Pamlico Sounds in North Carolina , Great South Bay between Long Island and the barrier beaches of Fire Island in New York , Isle of Wight Bay , which separates Ocean City, Maryland from
425-597: The generic word for a still lake or pond. In Vietnamese, Đầm san hô refers to an atoll lagoon, whilst Đầm phá is coastal. In Latin America, the term laguna in Spanish, which lagoon translates to, may be used for a small fresh water lake in a similar way a creek is considered a small river. However, sometimes it is popularly used to describe a full-sized lake , such as Laguna Catemaco in Mexico, which
450-630: The lagoon. Lagoons with little or no interchange with the open ocean, little or no inflow of fresh water, and high evaporation rates, such as Lake St. Lucia , in South Africa , may become highly saline. Lagoons with no connection to the open ocean and significant inflow of fresh water, such as the Lake Worth Lagoon in Florida in the middle of the 19th century, may be entirely fresh. On the other hand, lagoons with many wide inlets, such as
475-556: The land along the coast). Coastal lagoons do not form along steep or rocky coasts, or if the range of tides is more than 4 metres (13 ft). Due to the gentle slope of the coast, coastal lagoons are shallow. A relative drop in sea level may leave a lagoon largely dry, while a rise in sea level may let the sea breach or destroy barrier islands, and leave reefs too deep underwater to protect the lagoon. Coastal lagoons are young and dynamic, and may be short-lived in geological terms. Coastal lagoons are common, occurring along nearly 15 percent of
500-407: The reefs remain above sea level. Unlike the lagoons that form shoreward of fringing reefs, atoll lagoons often contain some deep (>20 m (66 ft)) portions. Coastal lagoons form along gently sloping coasts where barrier islands or reefs can develop offshore, and the sea-level is rising relative to the land along the shore (either because of an intrinsic rise in sea-level, or subsidence of
525-627: The rest of Worcester County, Maryland , Banana River in Florida , US, Lake Illawarra in New South Wales , Australia, Montrose Basin in Scotland , and Broad Water in Wales have all been classified as lagoons, despite their names. In England, The Fleet at Chesil Beach has also been described as a lagoon. In some languages the word for a lagoon is simply a type of lake: In Chinese
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#1732797153279550-614: The rest of the natural sponge industry after the advent of synthetics. The inhabitants now live by fishing and small-scale farming. Although Acklins Island has relatively few historical landmarks, there are some noteworthy places. Acklins is home to numerous Lucayan people sites. An ancient site, thought to be one of the largest Lucayan settlements in The Bahamas, sits along Pompey Bay Beach , just south of Spring Point . Ten ancient Lucayan sites have been unearthed by National Geographic Society archeologists on Samana Cay alone, which
575-478: The south. The indigenous Lucayan people called the Acklins as Yabaque , meaning "large western land". The islands were settled by American Loyalists in the late 1780s who set up cotton plantations maintained by over 1,000 slaves . After the abolition of slavery in the British Empire the plantations became uneconomical, and the replacement income from sponge diving has now dwindled as well with
600-729: The southernmost area of the island. The island is served by Spring Point Airport . The island is part of the MICAL constituency for elections to the House of Assembly of the Bahamas . Lagoon A lagoon is a shallow body of water separated from a larger body of water by a narrow landform , such as reefs , barrier islands , barrier peninsulas, or isthmuses . Lagoons are commonly divided into coastal lagoons (or barrier lagoons ) and atoll lagoons . They have also been identified as occurring on mixed-sand and gravel coastlines. There
625-522: The world's shorelines. In the United States, lagoons are found along more than 75 percent of the Eastern and Gulf Coasts . Coastal lagoons can be classified as leaky, restricted, or choked. Coastal lagoons are usually connected to the open ocean by inlets between barrier islands. The number and size of the inlets, precipitation, evaporation, and inflow of fresh water all affect the nature of
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