Winter 2008

Finding Fish in Lots of Water

REAL STORY — not a fish tail tale. A casual shellseeker on Atlantic Beach ignores the buffsurfers off the Fort Macon jetty and instead catches the eye of a glum surf fisherman in green waders slicing bait on top of a cooler. She interrupts his concentration (and cigarette), saving, "I have to write a magazine article on how fishermen catch fish. What can you tell me?" Without raising his head, he growls, "When you write that article, I'll be sure and buy that magazine, 'cause I don' know!"

Rediscovering Learning: Ocracoke Offers Teachers Renewal Experience

In the waters of the Pamlico Sound near Ocracoke, an N.C. Division of Marine Fisheries trawler drags the bottom with nets. As several teachers gather around a culling table, Louis Daniel sorts through the seaweed and catch from the last haul.

Oyster Metrics: Reef Research Identifies Habitat

On the edge of Masonboro Sound near Wilmington, researcher Martin Posey stands in ankle-deep mud near an oyster reef. He bends over the created reef and marvels at the new oyster larvae, also called spat.

Simply Shellfish: Growers Tout Shellfish Aquaculture Sustainability

It's a sustainable form of agriculture that puts tasty dishes on the tables of restaurants and homes across the country. It's an industry that stimulates the economy. And it promotes a lifestyle of coastal tradition in North Carolina.

NATURALIST’S NOTEBOOK: Secrets of the Shallows: Nuisance Moss Animal Invades North Carolina Coast

Last fall, something strange started appearing in the waters surrounding Ocracoke Island. "It looked like a bunch of little clear tree branches," Gene Ballance,a fisherman and Ocracoke native, says of the mysterious substance. "It seemed to have zero gravity — it didn't want to sink or float — it just hung there in the water," he describes. "It's like trying to explain an alien or a UFO or something — an unidentified floating object."

image: aerial view of marsh and seashore.

PEOPLE & PLACES: Oak Island Lighthouse: Welcome Sight for Mariners and Landlubbers

Four, one-second flashes of light every 10 seconds at Latitude: 33.8939 North, Longitude: 78.0351 West. By sea, that's the visual and global "address" of the Oak Island Lighthouse.