Skip to main content
Spring 2011

Spring 2011

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.

Read More

More From Spring 2011

The pair of tile racks catches passing oyster spat and other organisms.

Citizen Science Bolsters Oyster Restoration Efforts

But here's the rub. Overharvesting, habitat destruction and disease, along with sediment and pollution from runoff, have taken a serious toll on native oyster populations.

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.
Beresoff displays a blacktip shark.

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.
Boaters in No Discharge Zone waters will be on the lookout for pump-outstations such as this one at Joyner Marina on the Intracoastal Waterway at Carolina Beach.

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.
Seaside little bluestem planting at Rachel Carson Reserve.

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.
The new pier, with its electricity-generating wind turbines, from a gull's perspective.

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.