Skip to main content

Summer Coastwatch Looks at Coastal NC Through a Shrimper’s Eyes

For Immediate Release

Contact: Dave Shaw, dmshaw@ncsu.edu, or Katie Mosher, kmosher@ncsu.edu

The summer issue of North Carolina Sea Grant’s award-winning Coastwatch magazine features an in-depth interview with longtime shrimper Harry Bryant, a new study showing links between climate change and the spread of antibiotic-resistant bacteria, and much more.

In 1972, Harry Bryant used scrap metal to build his shrimp boat. He went on to escape waterspouts and a lightning strike and earn a living on the open water for 32 years. Melody Hunter-Pillion, a Global Change Fellow with the Southeast Climate Adaptation Science Center, interviewed Bryant on his 84th birthday for the Southern Oral History Program, and Coastwatch includes much of their talk in “From Hurricane Hazel to the Morning Light: Coastal Carolina Through a Shrimper’s Eyes.”

Coastwatch also interviewed North Carolina Sea Grant’s Jane Harrison, who heads a new project that looks at the special challenges climate change brings to wastewater management. Harrison says pioneering communities along the coast are taking steps to ensure homeowners have functioning septic systems and other types of onsite wastewater treatment — as groundwater rises and storms intensify.

Maya Hoon, a 2021-2022 joint research fellow with North Carolina Sea Grant and NC Space Grant, has been investigating factors that affect the spread of antibiotic-resistant bacteria in surface waters. She says the significant associations of high temperature and salinity with antibiotic resistance are troubling, because climate change continues to exacerbate both factors.

Avid anglers know all about sharks swiping the catch. For this issue’s “Hook, Line & Science,” North Carolina Sea Grant fisheries specialist Sara Mirabilio explains how opportunistic sharks could affect conservation efforts.

In “Climate Change and the Northern Migration,” Mirabilio also covers a new study that suggests warming waters mean that more animals — including sea turtles, manatees, and sharks — will be on the move.

Scott Baker, also a fisheries specialist for North Carolina Sea Grant, has catalogued The Top Ten Most Common Kinds of Trash on the North Carolina Coast — and he explains how to get involved in an international coastal cleanup.

Lauren D. Pharr, science communicator with North Carolina Sea Grant and a Southeast Climate Adaptation Science Center Global Change Fellow, explains former Sea Grant fellow Austin Gray’s new study on the effects on antibiotics on urban streams.

And, as usual, Coastwatch also offers new recipes in Mariner’s Menu, including summertime treats like Crab Imperial, Grilled Striped Bass, and More.

 

###

Coastwatch onlinencCoastwatch.org

In print: go.ncsu.edu/Subscribe-Now. New subscriptions will start with the Fall 2022 issue.

Permissions: Some content that appears in Coastwatch is available to republishEmail dmshaw@ncsu.edu

Recent Awards