Tar Heel Blue Crabs: Still the State’s Most Valuable Seafood

What happens to blue crabs when they are landed by North Carolina crabbers? Where are they processed? Where do they go? Jerry Allegood traces the flow of this crustacean — hard, soft and picked.

Trying to Reason with Hurricane Season

Several months after Hurricane Irene washed out roads and left homes, cars and other property — as well as livelihoods and dreams — moldering in the sand, North Carolina's coastal communities are mending.

Branching Out: Sustainability Series Broadens

A landscape of trees and other plants not only provides a "sense of place," but it also offers so much more, according to North Carolina Sea Grant's Gloria Putnam.

Estuarine Research on the Half Shell

  As the boat slips from the dock one early spring morning, there is a purposeful seriousness to the mission at hand, mixed with a hint of joy. It’s the…

Inner Banks Take a Beating: Storm Surge Surprised Many

The oceanfront areas were not the only ones affected by Irene. Jerry Allegood visits the Inner Banks, along the sounds and the rivers, and chronicles the destruction Irene left behind.

Masonboro Island: Measuring Shifting Sands

It's not far-fetched to say that Kristen Lauren Hall knows the dynamic recent history of nearly every meter of Masonboro Island, a barrier island along the coastline in southeast New Hanover County.

Advancing Environmental Literacy: Informal Educators Add New Technology to Teaching Toolboxes

Two groups of North Carolina informal educators experienced that excitement firsthand through 10 days of training — one group in 2010, one in 2011 — with the Marine Mammal Institute, participating in face-to-face encounters with belugas and other marine mammals at Atlantic seaboard museums and aquariums.

Artificial Reefs Make Real Habitat: North Carolina Focusing on Estuarine Ecosystems

Building artificial fishing reefs in North Carolina's coastal waters used to be a matter of sinking old ships offshore or dumping overboard an array of junk — abandoned airplanes, railroad cars, concrete chunks and thousands of automobile tires.

Counting Kings: Text Reporting Catches On

  Text messaging, a once cryptic communication mode that only teens could decipher, has gone mainstream. The rest of the world not only has cracked the code, but also has…

Mapping the Way to Higher Fish Yields

Despite the 20-knot northeast wind whipping up the Spanish moss and gusting across the sandy pine-and-scrub flats outside the bunkhouse window at the isolated marine research lab, the lunchers at the communal table inside are in fine fettle.

N.C. 12: Back in Business

Irene breached Hatteras Island in several spots, leaving islanders with no land route to the mainland. The N.C. Department of Transportation worked day and night to open N.C. 12 again, refilling breaches to the south and building a temporary bridge on Pea Island.

And the Rain Came Down

Days before Hurricane Irene hit the state, Spencer Rogers, North Carolina Sea Grant coastal erosion specialist, raced up and down the coast to install wave gauges. He had to keep pace with changing forecast paths. "We put three on Topsail because we were running out of time," he recalls.

Fins to the Left, Fins to the Right: Netting Sharks To Snare Data for Fisheries Management

Such sea creatures have enthralled Teresa Thorpe — a shark researcher who works closely with North Carolina Sea Grant — since her childhood on England's southwest coast. Her fascination with aquatic life later led her to the University of London, where she earned her doctorate in marine biology, specializing in shark bycatch and mitigation. Eventually, it led her to the University of North Carolina Wilmington's Center for Marine Science, where today she is a research biologist.

Hatteras Students Use Social Media to Communicate Island’s Story

Islander Susan West, an author, journalist and blogger, coordinates Hatteras Connection, a pioneering community-based, sustainable economic development and environmental stewardship project that includes the youth team's efforts.

NATURALIST’S NOTEBOOK: Albermarle Invader: Hydrilla Identified in Sound

A fast-growing Asian perennial aquatic plant, hydrilla has spread across North Carolina — costing millions of dollars in control efforts. Because the state recognizes Hydrilla verticillata as a noxious aquatic…

PEOPLE & PLACES: Discovery Key to Early Learning

  A toddler reaches into the touch pool tank at the North Carolina Aquarium at Fort Fisher and encounters a starfish for the first time. A young boy takes a…

A Really Big Sweep

Operating statewide as the nonprofit North Carolina Big Sweep since 1989, the effort has tallied more than 300,000 volunteers and collected over 10.3 million pounds of trash.

CURRENTS: Homework Before Buying Coastal Property

The new edition of Questions and Answers on: Purchasing Coastal Real Estate in North Carolina can help individuals navigate the complicated process of buying an existing building or an undeveloped…

LOCAL CATCH: And the Survey Says: Local Seafood Reigns

Local seafood interest — including recognition of local branding logos — continues to gain focus among consumers. A visual cue is the standing-room only crowds at the Cooking with the…

SEA SCIENCE: No Discharge Zone: Southeastern Waters Designated

The No Discharge Zone (NDZ) includes all tidal salt waters extending three nautical miles into the Atlantic Ocean along the entire length of Brunswick, Pender and New Hanover counties. The ruling encompasses the Intracoastal Waterway, as well as tributaries, tidal creeks and all "saline waters" of the Cape Fear River in Brunswick and New Hanover counties.

Winds of Change: Shrimpers Plan for the Future

This Sneads Ferry shrimper understands that knowing how to read shifting tides and winds of change is key to survival. It's the way of the watermen — using natural instincts to keep them safely afloat in an unpredictable and often risky environment.

Coastal Wild Edibles: Stalking the Wild Sea Lettuce

Most everyone over a certain age remembers Euell Gibbons. An internationally known expert on wild foods, he wrote classic books such as Stalking the Wild Asparagus and Stalking the Blue-eyed Scallop, and had numerous followers and disciples.

LOCAL CATCH: Start Your Appetites: Fall for Food, Fun and Festivities

From Sept. 30 to Oct. 2, the North Carolina Seafood Festival will continue its tradition started in 1987, of feeding and entertaining crowds along Morehead City's waterfront.

NATURALIST’S NOTEBOOK: Plants May Lure Crystal Skipper

Coastwatch readers will remember the Crystal Coast's crystal skipper, known scientifically as atrytonopsis new species 1. This rare butterfly is found on a 30-mile stretch of barrier islands, from Bear Island in Hammocks Beach State Park in Onslow County to Fort Macon State Park at the eastern end of Bogue Banks in Carteret County — and it may soon find an additional home.

Naturalist’s Notebook: Sand: Hold a Mountain in Your Hand

Sand...we play in it, we stroll on it, we make castles out of it, we spread our beach towels on it. But what do we really know about it?

PEOPLE & PLACES: Winter Wonderland: Coastal Snows Send Cameras Snapping

Folks at the Core Sound Waterfowl Museum and Heritage Center decided that the snowfall in Carteret County in February 2010 was so unusual that it warranted a special exhibit of photos from the community.

Break the Grip of the Rip

Print this mini poster, pack it in your beach bag and use the tips to stay safe while swimming this summer. To learn more about rip currents, go online to:…

Mariner’s Menu: Enjoy Autumn’s Bounty

The following recipes from Mariner's Menu: 30 Years of Fresh Seafood Ideas by Joyce Taylor use finfish and shellfish that are available from North Carolina's waters in September through November. Talk to your local seafood vendors about their freshest offerings.

Mariner’s Menu: Serve Up Seasonal Offerings

Share a taste of seasonal seafood with your friends and family this winter. Include these dishes in your next holiday dinner. Whether you have something traditional and filling like oyster stew in mind, or something more zesty and exciting like orange-nutmeg flounder, these recipes from Mariner's Menu: 30 Years of Fresh Seafood Ideas by Joyce Taylor are sure to impress.

PEOPLE & PLACES: Drop a Line: State Aquariums to Christen Jennette’s Pier at Nags Head

Jennette's Pier at Nags Head is due to open to the public on May 21, the state aquariums' director says.

In Irene’s Wake

You spun yourself From thick strands of salt water And a fever in the tropics, wove Your fabric coarse Around the edges, your eye Opening like a net Cast over Cape Lookout.

Seashells of North Carolina

When packing your bags for your next beach trip, consider including Seashells of North Carolina, $12. Written by Hugh J. Porter and Lynn Houser, this popular reference guide is for anyone who wants to identify shells found on the North Carolina coast. It includes color and black-and-white photographs, along with descriptions of 261 shells.