{"id":4779,"date":"2015-07-20T15:07:48","date_gmt":"2015-07-20T19:07:48","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/ncseagrant.ncsu.edu\/coastwatch\/?page_id=4779"},"modified":"2020-02-12T16:16:58","modified_gmt":"2020-02-12T21:16:58","slug":"to-catch-a-current","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/ncseagrant.ncsu.edu\/coastwatch\/previous-issues\/2015-2\/summer-2015\/to-catch-a-current\/","title":{"rendered":"TO CATCH A CURRENT"},"content":{"rendered":"
Rebecca Nagy is a communications intern with North Carolina Sea Grant. She recently graduated from North Carolina State University with a degree in English and a minor in environmental science.<\/em><\/p>\n Float or swim?<\/p>\n Recently, this question has been at the center of a debate about what people should be told to do if caught in a rip current.<\/p>\n Some research, including data from the West Coast, suggests that if you are caught in a rip current and simply stay calm and float, you will be brought back to shore. But how often does this actually happen in North Carolina? And what about the beachgoers caught in rip currents that do not circulate back to shore?<\/p>\n Spencer Rogers<\/a>, North Carolina Sea Grant coastal construction and erosion specialist, is answering these questions. Along with University of North Carolina Wilmington<\/a> graduate student Cobi Christiansen and a variety of partners, Rogers deployed data-logging drifters on beaches in New Hanover County and along the Outer Banks in summer 2014. The drifters recorded the velocity and frequency of rip currents, including those that circulate back to shore and those that eject drifters into deeper water.<\/p>\n