North Carolina Sea Grant Publishes the Spring 2025 Issue of Coastwatch

Coastwatch magazine, the flagship publication from North Carolina Sea Grant, has just released the Spring 2025 issue. Stories cover a wide range of topics, including projects designed to protect drinking water, transform the clean-up of ocean plastic pollution, and much more.

Inside the new issue:

As warmer weather brings beachgoers to the coast, the Rip Currents Safety poster shows how to escape potentially deadly waters. Share it and save a life..

Off the North Carolina Coast takes readers on an imaginary submersible ride, exploring the unique creatures and geological features along the ocean floor.

Safeguarding Water: Legislative Gaps and Innovative Solutions covers a new approach to watershed health that protects the Falls Lake drinking water supply for 500,000 North Carolina residents. 

Chemical and biomolecular engineer Nathan Crook and student Tianyu Li at NC State University are developing a microorganism that can break down and absorb plastic waste, and PET Predators explains how it could transform ocean clean-up.

Gearing Up looks at new research on how to keep terrapins out of blue crab pots.

Networks of Recovery tells how the North Carolina Inclusive Disaster Recovery Network has connected organizations and vulnerable communities.

Vital Signs summarizes NOAA’s Global Climate Report on severe weather events and unprecedented high temperatures, and Climate Change in the Napa Valley of Oysters outlines the impacts of global warming on North Carolina’s most important shellfish.

Hook, Line & Science has the latest research on red snapper hideaways, lunar luck, and spotted seatrout.

The Guide to Coastal Living provides tips for avoiding harmful algal blooms.

Across the Atlantic investigates illegal, unreported, and unregulated fishing in Ghana’s off-shore waters.

The Spring 2025 issue also includes more new Mariner’s Menu seafood recipes, as well as the latest news and updates, including a new Sea Grant project designed to reduce risks to farmland and crops.

The new issue also includes a letter from North Carolina Sea Grant’s executive director, Susan White, who remembers Sea Grant giant Ron Hodson. He served Sea Grant for 25 years, the last eight as director, and although he passed away earlier this year, he continues to inspire the Sea Grant program and many more people whose lives he touched.

The next issue of Coastwatch is available online only in July. Coastwatch will return in print with the Fall 2025 issue in October.

All issues are available at ncCoastwatch.org.

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Much of the content in Coastwatch is available to republish at no cost. Email dmshaw@ncsu.edu. 

lead photo: Diamondback Terrapin (Malaclemys terrapin)/adobestock.