Young people who hitched their future to the North Carolina commercial fishing industry in the 1970s and 1980s followed a clear path.
With leaders along the coast and inland, North Carolina Sea Grant actively seeks opportunities to support resilient coastal communities and economies. You’ll learn of one example in “Charting the Course” (page 6), about a collaborative research project that seeks to support and strengthen social links within fishing communities to help sustain their economic successes.
“You are invited to ‘Fish Camp,’ a small, two-day, regional gathering of commercial fishermen in their 20s, 30s, and 40s who can learn peer-to-peer, and together chart a course for North Carolina’s fishing future.”
Thigpen takes equal delight in listening to people — a skill that served him well in his 20 years with North Carolina Sea Grant, most spent as the program’s extension director.
Once marine debris is identified, removing it is no small task. Waterlogged pilings and dock sections are incredibly heavy and require a plan — and help from partners — to remove. The Reserve team worked with Tow Boat U.S. - Atlantic Coast Marine Group, the N.C. Maritime Museum in Beaufort and the Town of Beaufort to collect and dispose of the debris in 2016. The team also recruited many hands from the community to help clean up the reserve.
Underwater archaeologist Greg Stratton knew he had reached the wreck site of the Agnes E. Fry, a Civil War-era blockade runner, when he scraped his hand against its iron hull during a reconnaissance dive in 2016.
North Carolina is home to more than 12,000 miles of shoreline in the transition between salt and fresh waters. These areas include large estuaries like the Albemarle and Pamlico sounds, as well as hundreds of tidal creeks. Our four southernmost coastal counties — Onslow, Pender, New Hanover and Brunswick — contain at least 73 tidal creeks.
What’s the coolest thing you’ve found on the beach lately? For me, it was a seahorse. I spied it during a scavenger hunt in Corolla. Terri Kirby Hathaway, North Carolina Sea Grant’s marine education specialist, had organized the event as part of a Sea Grant Mid-Atlantic Regional Meeting, held not long after a series of nor’easters had struck the East Coast.
