North Carolina Department of Environmental Quality staff are to present outlines for the new issue papers for the 2026 update to the Coastal Habitat Protection Plan, the state’s long-term strategy to protect coastal habitat, a necessity for a sustainable seafood industry.
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State announces commercial flounder season opening dates
Internal coastal and joint fishing waters will open for the 2026 commercial flounder season beginning in mid- to late-September.
‘Critical step’ in Wrightsville Beach bridges project to begin
N.C. Department of Transportation contractor crews are set begin relocating utilities starting Monday for the project to replace three Wrightsville Beach bridges.
Indigenous environmental justice: Author links culture, water
Duke University professor and member of the Lumbee Tribe Dr. Ryan Emanuel is Coastal Carolina Riverwatch’s guest speaker next week in Morehead City to discuss links between historic Indigenous oppression and present-day efforts to promote environmental justice and Indigenous rights.
Coastal Review wins five 2026 NC Press Association awards
Coastal Review photographer Dylan Ray is the North Carolina Press Association’s 2026 Hugh Morton Photographer of the Year — one of five awards for Coastal Review announced Thursday.
NCSU, Carteret college OK aquaculture transfer agreement
North Carolina State University and Carteret Community College have signed an agreement designed to create a streamlined transfer pathway for students seeking to earn bachelor’s degrees in fisheries, wildlife and conservation biology.
Sunny surveillance
A lynx spider covertly watches as a pollinator bee forages on a sunflower blossom in a garden near Russell Creek in Beaufort. Photo: Dylan Ray
State wildlife officials launch coastal animal watch survey
Wildlife viewers visiting North Carolina’s southern coast are asked to take a five-minute online survey to help officials better understand the correlation between animal watching’s economic contributions to coastal communities and the state.
Residents urge mining firm to find other expansion options
New Hanover County residents and environmentalists spoke out Tuesday against Martin Marietta’s planned Castle Hayne quarry mine expansion, urging other alternatives that would lessen threats to water quality, wetlands and aquifer levels.
Budget, donors, grants total $31 million for wildlife crossings
Wildlife advocates are hailing the recently approved state budget for including $10 million of a $31 million project to build 11 protected road crossings for wildlife with corresponding fencing along 2.5 miles of U.S. 64 from the east end of East Lake on the Dare County mainland to west of Robertson Landing Road by 2031.
DOT to shift traffic patterns on Brunswick County route
Weather permitting, traffic patterns will change Thursday onto the new section of N.C. Highway 211. in Brunswick County.
Officials: lightning strike cause of Brunswick wildfire
A 283-acre wildfire that sparked Friday near Shallotte in Brunswick County has been determined to have been ignited by a lightning strike.
Fibonacci plus his golden ratio equal sunflower mathematics
If you have ever marveled at a sunflower’s complex beauty, then you’ve seen one example of the ubiquitous sequence introduced to Westerners by an Italian mathematician named Leonardo Fibonacci.
Audit reveals hundreds of potentially contaminated landfills
A state audit released Monday found that more than three-quarters of almost 700 identified landfill sites where municipal solid waste disposal occurred without regulatory oversight have never been investigated by state environmental regulators.
Reide Corbett to pause move to ECU main campus to give talk
Oceanographer Dr. Reide Corbett, who is transitioning to a new leadership role within ECU, will lead a talk this week on Harkers Island about how the North Carolina coast is changing and why those changes matter for places like Down East Carteret County.
Nightly bridge lane closures begin in Wrightsville Beach
Both eastbound lanes on the Causeway Drive bridge over Banks Channel will be closed nightly beginning Monday as part of a project to replace all three of the New Hanover County town’s bridges.
