Dave Shaw

Oct 14, 2024

The Catastrophic Power of Hurricane Helene

Only six years separate Florence and Helene, but these “once-in-a-thousand-year” hurricanes have much in common. Along with other storms that have hit our state, Helene offers lessons — and a warning.

Oct 1, 2024

The Guide to Coastal Living

Here's what to do -- and what not to do -- before and after a major storm.

Sep 18, 2024

The Undersea Vision of Fabien Cousteau

PROTEUS™ — the undersea equivalent of the International Space Station — will speed scientific discovery and spur medical breakthroughs. 

Sep 17, 2024

Hurricane Hazel 

Author Bland Simpson offers a boyhood recollection of Hurricane Hazel 70 years after the storm struck North Carolina.

Aug 21, 2024

Mariner’s Menu

Recipes for Butter Shrimp, Southern Crab Cakes, Grilled Tuna with Lime Butter, and Sautéed Flounder Amandine.

Jul 22, 2024

Hurricane Season Is Here

New guidance from NOAA advises people not to focus on a specific storm category. A storm’s “scale” only reflects the strongest winds near the center of the storm — not potentially life-threatening flooding from storm…

Jul 2, 2024

The NC Coastal Conference Returns to the Coast

The North Carolina Coastal Conference returns to the coast on November 13 and 14 at the Riverfront Convention Center in New Bern.

Jul 1, 2024

Ancient Oyster Fisheries

Globally, oyster populations have been declining. Oyster management strategies often rely on knowledge and data from the past two centuries — a period during which many oyster fisheries collapsed due to overharvest, habitat loss, and other causes. 

Jun 30, 2024

Soul of the Soil

As the waters of the Cape Fear River Basin weave through the North Carolina Piedmont down into the Coastal Plains, they pass power plants, hog and poultry farms, paper mills, landfills, textile mills, agricultural farms, and more. These facilities mark the Cape Fear River, which provides drinking water for 500,000 residents and is the most industrialized in the state.

Jun 29, 2024

NC’s True Ghost Story

North Carolina hosts a variety of ghost stories, from Blackbeard’s spirit searching for his severed head along the Outer Banks to UNC-Chapel Hill’s Horace Williams returning to campus from beyond the grave to haunt Caldwell Hall. Although the veracity of these accounts is dubious, there is more than enough evidence to support one particular North Carolina ghost story: the eerie remains of once-flourishing forests along the Atlantic Coast.