Reprinted from Outer Banks Voice

WANCHESE — The Coastal Studies Institute will host a temporary exhibit, “RISING,” beginning Wednesday.

The event will kick off with a 5 p.m. public reception followed at 6 p.m. with a community panel discussion as part of the “Science on the Sound” lecture series, which is held monthly to highlight research on coastal topics and issues in northeast North Carolina and features researchers, scientists, engineers, and educators from the Coastal Studies Institute and other partner institutions.

“RISING: Perspectives of Change along the North Carolina Coast” is a collaborative, multidisciplinary exhibit and research project that combines oral history and photography to address the natural, cultural, and economic consequences of change long experienced by North Carolina’s coastal communities.

The panel discussion will include members of the community as well as the exhibit’s creators, Baxter Miller and Ryan Stancil.

The exhibit and event are co-hosted by CSI and the UNC Institute for the Environment Outer Banks Field Site, or OBXFS.

OBXFS is a place-based, interdisciplinary semester program in which students are immersed in the coastal environment and community by taking a range of courses, traveling for field experiences, completing individual internships with local organizations, and working together on a Capstone research project that addresses a real-world problem.

For this year’s capstone research project, OBXFS students are working with Nags Head to examine residents’ perspectives on wastewater challenges and sea level rise, looking specifically at how these perspectives shape where and how they live.

“RISING with its amazing photographs and engaging oral histories, offers our UNC students a profoundly rooted opportunity to deepen their burgeoning connections to a place defined by change by illuminating how its inhabitants have, and continue to, perceive, experience, live with, and adapt to those changes,” Linda D’Anna, UNC faculty member with OBXFS, said.

“It is a wonderful complement to the students’ study of how changing conditions can affect individual, business, and public decisions. Getting to hear the voices of residents and see images that reflect critical changes is great for our program, but also for the larger OBX community,” she added. “We look forward to having many people come share this exceptional exhibition with us.”

The exhibit aims to confront specific aspects of changes to which local residents and communities are required to adapt—as they have for centuries—while incorporating sea level rise and the human dimension into the dialogue.

The exhibit continue through January. The RISING project is funded by the Community Collaborative Research Grant, a program of North Carolina Sea Grant, in partnership with the William R. Kenan Jr. Institute for Engineering, Technology and Science.

This panel discussion will be streamed live and the online viewing audience will be able to ask the panel questions via an online chatroom.

This story is provided courtesy of the Outer Banks Voice, a digital newspaper covering the Outer Banks. Coastal Review Online is partnering with the Voice to provide readers with more environmental and lifestyle stories of interest about our coast.

From The Outer Banks Voice:

MANTEO — Malcolm Fearing, the outgoing Division 1 representative on the North Carolina Board of Transportation, has proposed naming a Dare County bridge now under construction in honor of a local African-American pioneer, and county commissioners this week lent their support to the idea.

About four weeks ago, Fearing began to quietly float the idea of naming the bridge in honor of Capt. Richard Etheridge, the first African-American to command a life-saving station when the U.S. Life-Saving Service appointed him as keeper of the Pea Island Life-Saving Station in 1880.

The station, which closed in 1947, was located within sight of the breach.

The Pea Island bridge crosses New Inlet, which was re-created by Hurricane Irene in 2011 and is currently served by a temporary metal span referred to by locals as the “Lego bridge.”

Construction on a half-mile, concrete replacement started in December 2015, and is scheduled to be completed later this spring.

Fearing noted that the new bridge would likely be the first of the three spans to open as part of the more comprehensive Herbert C. Bonner Bridge replacement project.

Etheridge was also a Civil War veteran of the Union Army and was the first African-American to serve on the Manteo Board of Commissioners as well as the local school board.

Born in Dare County as a slave in 1842, Etheridge learned to work the water, trained by his master, who also illegally taught Etheridge to read and write.

Dare County was one of the first Confederate areas invaded by the Union Army when the Civil War started, although the region held few slaves and even fewer plantations and did not resist the Union occupation to any great extent.

The county became home to thousands of refugee slaves during the Civil War, a group collectively known as the Freedmen’s Colony.

Etheridge left the area to join the Union Army, rising to the rank of sergeant and returned to Roanoke Island after the war, where he joined the Life-Saving Service. The service became a full-fledged government agency in 1878 and was eventually merged with the Revenue Cutter Service in 1915 to form the U.S. Coast Guard.

Bob Woodard, chairman of the Dare County Board of Commissioners, recited during the board’s meeting Monday much of Etheridge’s history as noted above and also noted the appropriateness of the resolution in light of February being Black History Month.

Fearing told the board there were some hoops and procedures to jump through in the NCDOT’s bridge-naming procedures, but Woodard held up some forms and said the documents were on their way.

He then introduced a resolution, which the board approved in a unanimous vote, asking the Department of Transportation to name the Pea Island bridge in honor of Etheridge.

With the approved resolution, the naming application will move to the NCDOT chief engineer’s office with required documentation before it is placed on the Board of Transportation’s agenda for final approval.

If approved, the NCDOT and Dare County will share the cost of signs to be placed at each end of the bridge.

This story is provided courtesy of the Outer Banks Voice, a digital newspaper covering the Outer Banks. Coastal Review Online is partnering with the Voice to provide readers with more environmental and lifestyle stories of interest about our coast. You can read other stories about the Outer Banks here.

Reprinted from the Outer Banks Voice

WANCHESE — Joey Daniels knows fish and the commercial fishing industry.

He grew up in the shadow of the men and women who built Wanchese Fish Co. into a global powerhouse that introduced the nation, and the world, to North Carolina seafood.

While other family members stuck with the bread-and-butter product line — finfish — Daniels became interested in a different segment of the seafood industry.

Oysters.

More specifically, farming oysters, a relatively new industry in North Carolina that faces federal and state regulatory hurdles in addition to the usual concerns of any farming operation — upfront investment, a product that has to survive from a seedling to a market-worthy size, weather hazards and, of course, a market price that can fluctuate over time.

But even though he was a family member, Daniels had to convince the board of Wanchese Fish Co. to back his idea and fund the endeavor.

He did, and the result is a dockside facility in Wanchese where the seedling oysters get their start.

When large enough they are moved to a nine-acre farm a short boat ride from the land-based facility, where the oysters are nurtured until they are ready for market.

Daniels sees several advantages from oyster farming.

First, it will take pressure off the wild stock of oysters, which some scientists say have declined over 90 percent since the 1900s.

Another advantage is consistency of size. Daniels oysters will be sold to the half-shell market, which is primarily restaurants.

Farmed oysters can be separated and easily harvested by uniformed sizes, which appeals to restaurants that want their presentation of half-shells to look consistent.

The state is working on a long-term plan to bring back wild oyster stocks, but the task, if successful, faces many hurdles and the present stock is not nearly large enough to meet consumer demand.

Daniels found a series of roadblocks, both state and federal, which made his quest more difficult to achieve. One of the first was a North Carolina law that forced the entire oyster farming process to occur in open waters. Leases for open-water farms are granted by the state.

While nature can take its own course with the wild population, farming oysters, which is really cultivating them, requires a higher success rate than relying upon a seedling the size of a grain of sand to evolve into a mature, market-ready product.

In the past, the concern was that seedlings cultivated in non-open waters were being bred in less-than-pristine environments, prompting concerns.

Daniels says a small oyster can easily purge itself of these impurities during the initial stages.

“No, you don’t want to have a nursery where there is fecal chloroform or other dilatory factors” that would delay or threaten movement to the next stage, he said.

Daniels continues: “But in waters like our dockside facility here, the water may be less than pristine compared to the open sound, but these oysters can easily purge themselves before they reach the 1-inch size, which is when we move them to the open water farm.”

By keeping and sorting the single-seed oysters in underwater mesh cages, the seedlings are protected from most predators. Grain-sized seedlings are much cheaper to purchase than wild oysters, and if they can be protected through their entire life cycle, crop yield is higher, even if farm-raised oysters command a higher price due to the labor involved.

“Once North Carolina allowed us to have a nursery in non-open waters, our business model became easier to achieve,” Daniels noted.

He credited Rep. Paul Tine and Sen. Bill Cook with “making this happen,” noting Cook and his staff came to Wanchese to see the operation first-hand.

“They asked a lot of questions, especially regarding where the state could make this work.”

Federal concerns are a different matter, but Daniels is hopeful for the future.

He explained that about every four years, the federal government assigns rules on a national level.

In 2012, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration opened up a dialog on what became known as “National Permit 48,” which runs from March 19, 2012 to March 28, 2017.

The public hearings start at the national level but drill down to regional levels.

In 2012, the regional public hearings were held in Wilmington and hosted by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.

Daniels said at the time, “we were way behind other states, including Virginia, on oyster farming so no one was present from our industry at that meeting. There is debate about whether oyster farms harm seagrass, which is essential to fishing nurseries. With no one present from our industry at that meeting North Carolina voted for a ‘zero impact’ on existing seagrass, as well as statewide regulations that further restrict oyster farming.”

At the end of the day, Daniels said, he can only locate open-water farms in areas totally devoid of seagrass.

“Even one blade of grass can kill a proposed site. I had a 5-acre site rejected for 50-something seagrass shoots existing on the bed of the sound,” he said. “And once we put in our farms, the cages where we raise the oysters capture floating seagrass and in every farm we have, some go to seed within our farm and start new seagrass beds. If they weren’t caught in our mesh cages, they might wash ashore or go out to sea without ever laying down roots and flowering. So like it or not, our farms become new seagrass beds, creating rather than destroying submerged vegetation.

The next federal round of meetings takes place in 2017 and Cook’s office said they are working on forming stakeholder groups and directives requiring state agencies to loosen up those rules so North Carolina can expand its oyster farming significantly.

Daniels is hopeful.

“This will help a lot of fishermen,” he said. “It can become a year-round business for someone who wants to farm oysters only, or it can be used as a supplemental crop for fin and shell fishermen when other fisheries are closed off by season, regulation or even the presence of fish locally.”

This story is provided courtesy of the Outer Banks Voice, a digital newspaper covering the Outer Banks. Coastal Review Online is partnering with the Voice to provide readers with more environmental and lifestyle stories of interest about our coast. You can read other stories about the Outer Banks here.

From an Outer Banks Voice report.

NAGS HEAD — Gov. Pat McCrory declared Monday a “historic day for the people who call the Outer Banks home and the millions of visitors who travel here each year. Today, we begin building a bridge that has been more than two decades in the making.”

With that, the governor confirmed what many Outer Banks residents and visitors learned a few hours earlier:

The Southern Environmental Law Center, representing Defenders of Wildlife and the National Wildlife Refuge Association, will withdraw its legal challenges against building a parallel replacement to the Bonner Bridge.

Joined by state officials and law center and refuge association representatives, McCrory held a press conference on a steamy beach at the southern end of the Bonner Bridge.

The backdrop: An Army Corps dredge and returning charter boats gliding through Oregon Inlet.

While much work remains concerning a permanent fix for the new inlet cut by Hurricane Irene in 2011 and the paved portion of N.C. 12 through the Pea Island National Wildlife Refuge, the players in the years-long struggle now seem to be moving in the same direction.

“This has been more than two decades in the making and I’m convinced if these groups had not had viable discussions during the past many months this could have been delayed for another decade, and that is totally unacceptable,” McCrory said.

Before Monday, many wondered if a new bridge would ever be built. Legal negotiations were dragging into their ninth month in an effort to settle lawsuits filed by the environmental groups that had stopped work under a $216 million contract awarded in 2011.

The bridge is the only land connection to Hatteras Island and is well past its expected lifespan. Opened in 1963, it was built to last 30 years. Now, it is considered structurally deficient but still safe after more than $50 million in continual repairs.

What We Know

The state will replace the Bonner Bridge with a parallel span across Oregon Inlet. Chosen by the state in 2011, PCL Civil Constructors and HDR Engineering were notified June 15 to prepare to resume work. But the contract price will be higher now due to the four-year delay.

The conservation groups will dismiss state and federal lawsuits against the Bonner replacement, and the state will cease work on a permanent bridge in the current easement over the Pea Island breach created in 2011 by Hurricane Irene. A temporary span was put up after the storm, and so far $3.9 million has been spent by the state on a permanent bridge.

The groups had long advocated a 17-mile bridge over the Pamlico Sound to bypass Pea Island, where N.C. 12 continually suffers washouts. The Army Corps of Engineers has added sand to the beach to protect a chronic “hot spot” at Mirlo Beach north of Rodanthe.

At the heart of the primary lawsuit was the contention by conservationists that fixing N.C. 12 should have been included in environmental studies for the Bonner replacement. Instead, the state opted to proceed with the parallel span and deal with N.C. 12 south of it later.

DOT will implement interim measures to ensure safe motor travel over the Pea Island breach as it works with state and federal agencies to settle on a satisfactory permanent solution. They will explore building causeways in Pamlico Sound bypassing the Pea Island inlet and the area north of Mirlo Beach in Rodanthe.

The state’s preferred option for Rodanthe/Mirlo Beach is a “jug-handle bridge,” which previously was considered by DOT in earlier environmental studies.

It will take at least three years to complete the new Bonner Bridge, and it is hoped work can begin in March 2016 once the lawsuits are officially dismissed.

In essence, with the Mirlo/Rodanthe jug-handle bridge option and the approval of all parties to dismiss lawsuits against the Bonner Bridge replacement, two of the three major legal issues appear to be resolved.

It is thought that once the new Bonner Bridge is finished, some of the shoaling issues in Oregon Inlet will be mitigated by new channels and spans located in deeper water farther to the south.

The Southern Environmental Law Center, at present, is opposed to any plans that would allow N.C. 12 to continue to exist within the present easement that was agreed to by the state and federal authorities decades ago.

What We Don’t Know

Questions not answered Monday include the new cost of the Bonner Bridge, given the four-year delay, and of the “jug-handle” bridge in Mirlo Beach. The route of that bridge also wasn’t discussed or how much of Rodanthe will be bypassed.

How the N.C. General Assembly and DOT will fund all of the above as the agreement moves forward is also still a big question.

The story first appeared in the Outer Banks Voice but was updated to include this week’s developments.

Coastal residents and the rest of North Carolina are facing a tidal wave of pending insurance rate hikes.

There was some movement this week at the national level when the U.S. House of Representatives Tuesday evening passed a bill to curb some of the premium increases in the nation’s flood insurance program that have been causing “sticker shock” for property owners.

H.R. 3370, the Homeowner Flood Insurance Affordability Act, sponsored by Reps. Michael Grimm, R-N.Y., and Maxine Waters, D-Calif., passed 306-91 under a “suspension of the rules” requiring a two-thirds vote in favor. The measure reverses some of the changes to the National Flood Insurance Program introduced by the Biggert-Waters Flood Insurance Reform Act of 2012.

The Senate passed its version of flood insurance legislation, S. 1926, in January by a 67-32 vote. The Senate bill takes a broader swipe at the flood insurance program and delays most of the reforms and increases of the Biggert-Waters law for four years. Key senators, including Sen. Robert Menendez, D-N.J., the sponsor of the Senate version, said they would accept the House bill.

Premium increases are also in the offing at the state level. But coastal property owners could fare better than they will under the federal flood insurance plan if legislation introduced by state Rep. Paul Tine, D-Dare, and three others can clear the state Senate in this year’s “short session.”

Insurance rates have been skyrocketing since 2007. For instance, residents in coastal counties in 2009 saw their average property rate, which includes wind and hail coverage, increase an average of 29.8 percent along southeastern N.C. coast; 22 percent in Pamlico, Hyde and Currituck counties; and 6.5 percent in Beaufort, Washington and Dare counties. The state as a whole saw average increases of just over 4 percent.

Last year the industry sought rate hikes on homeowners insurance that ranged from a low of 1.2 percent to as much as 30 percent along the coast. Coastal residents decried those increases as excessive, unwarranted and unfair, especially since their rates already were significantly higher than the rest of the state. In the end the industry and Insurance Commissioner Wayne Goodwin compromised on a statewide rate increase of 7 percent, ranging from as little as 1 percent to as much as 19.8 percent in some beachfront areas. That increase became effective on July 1, 2013, so some homeowners have not received renewal notices reflecting it.

Then, in January, insurers came back to the state insurance board seeking a whopping 25 percent increase in premiums on a statewide average, with rates increasing by as much as 35 percent in coastal regions.

The succession of coastal rate increases has long irritated state lawmakers representing coastal communities over issues of equity and fairness.

Historically, raw dollar payouts for damage caused by hurricanes have been much higher inland than in coastal areas.

Hurricane damage can spawn landslides and river flooding as far west as North Carolina’s mountains (Hurricane Ivan), while tornados, toppled trees and wind gusts have damaged homes and businesses in Charlotte, Greensboro and especially Raleigh.

Rep. Paul Tine

Insurers claim that while dollar payouts are higher inland, the premium load can be spread among more policyholders in densely populated urban areas.

Critics of the current system say politics is behind the widely disparate premiums inland; there are more voters in the rest of the state than there are in the 18 coastal counties that pay the highest rates.

Currently, insurers approach the state’s insurance commissioner with a proposed rate increase. As the law now stands, insurance companies attach one “catastrophic loss” model as supporting evidence for their premium increase requests.

Tine’s bill would change that dynamic considerably.

In an interview, Tine explained the problems with the use of only a single model to predict future hurricane-related losses:

“Computer models attempt to predict future losses and have a bias based on which statistics they weigh more. By utilizing two models and comparing their results you get more accurate predictions,” he explained. “They would also have had to bring some other information that was recommended by a study done three years ago that was never implemented.

“Finally, for whatever rate is approved, they would have to show the hurricane load in every county. Right now, we can only see that load in the 18 (coastal) counties.”

Tine’s bill, by requiring more models and more disclosure on hurricane-loss loads across the entire state, is aimed at bringing more transparency to the rationale insurers use for premium increases.

Each filing by insurers would also require data “specific to North Carolina” and include “annual historic loss data by territory for 1987 and each subsequent year.”

North Carolina has 18 insurance territories, with the brunt of the rate increases borne by the five territories encompassing 20 counties east of I-95.

The bill would also require data to be broken out in each territory based on risk from wind and hail alone, and again by non-wind and hail losses.

Tine said the cumulative effects of the bill would provide better data to the N.C. Rate Bureau on which to base decisions while providing more transparency on whether each territory is paying its fair share.

The bill passed the state House last year 116-0. It was revised 15 times and as many as 11 interested groups were included in the process. The state Senate sent the bill to committee, where it was when the session ended.

Reprinted from the Outer Banks Voice

MANTEO — The N.C. Department of Transportation road show made its third and final stop here last week to explain what it intends to do about the battered section of N.C. 12 near Rodanthe on Hatteras Island.

The plan contemplates one of two bridge alternatives to elevate the road above a “hot spot” just north of Mirlo Beach that has been subject to severe erosion and ocean overwash, even in relatively mild storms.

DOT’s preferred method of fixing the breach at Rodanthe is a 2.3-mile-long bridge and about a quarter-mile of land-based improvements that would follow the current path of N.C. 12 from just south of the Pea Island National Wildlife Refuge southern boundary to a point where the Liberty Service Station in Rodanthe is located. Dot estimates the cost at $187.5 million and $215.5 million.

The second option includes a 2.6-mile-long bridge and three miles of improvements that would be built in the Pamlico Sound, west of the current road. Cost: $203.3 to $215.5 million.

Both would involve the relocation of a few houses and businesses, including the Liberty Service Station, an important year-round business for residents of the Rodanthe-Salvo-Waves communities.

The photo shows the two options DOT is considering to fix the breach at Rodanthe. Photo: NCDOT

In addition, both options would obstruct views, either to the ocean or the sound near the terminal point in Rodanthe.  The road in Pamlico Sound might also affect recreation, fisheries and vegetation in the sound.

Some property owners in Mirlo Beach have recently expressed opposition to both options and have endorsed retaining the current route of N.C. 12 and using beach re-nourishment to protect the troubled road.

Brad Payne, a Rodanthe property owner, said both bridge options “are going to be absolutely detrimental to our community, to a portion of our livelihoods, rental homes and I think it will have a tremendous impact on tourism.”

In addition forcing the relocation of several businesses, the preferred option uses one-way service roads and turning areas running north and south, parallel to the bridge for properties to be accessed, some residents said.

Warren Judge, chairman of the Dare County Board of Commissioners, asked the DOT representatives to take into consideration the concerns of Rodanthe residents and suggested that the agency partner with the county to nourish some of the beach and perhaps shorten the improvements to save the Liberty Service Station and avoid view issues.

The Rodanthe projects are part of the larger plans to replace the Herbert C. Bonner Bride over Oregon Inlet and a temporary bridge in the Pea Island National Wildlife Refuge that spans an inlet opened by Hurricane Irene in 2011.

A contract to build the Bonner Bridge replacement was awarded in July 2011. The contract for the Pea Island bridge was awarded in November 2013.

Earlier in January, DOT held other public hearings on the Rodanthe projects in Ocracoke Island and on Hatteras Island.

DOT will accept public comments until Jan. 24. Comments can be mailed, faxed or emailed to: Drew Joyner, NCDOT-Human Environment Section, 1598 Mail Service Rd., Raleigh 27699-1598. You can also email comments or fax them to 919-212-5785.

Reprinted for The Outer Banks Voice

Last month’s government shutdown ended just in time to allow descendants of Bodie Island Lighthouse keeper to gather at the base of the lighthouse. Photo: Russ Lay

NAGS HEAD — Some traveled across the breadth of the continent from places like Palmer, Alaska, British Columbia and the far reaches of Texas.

One family gathered four generations of descendants, including a captain in the U.S. Coast Guard, the branch of the military formed in 1915 when Congress merged the U.S. Life-Serving Service with the Revenue Cutter Service.

Later added in 1935 was the U.S. Lighthouse Service in 1935, the agency that employed the lighthouse keepers.

On Oct. 18 and 19, more than 250 direct descendants of the men who manned the Bodie Island Lighthouse from the mid-19th century until the mid-20th century came together to participate in the 2013 Bodie Island Lighthouse Keepers Descendants Homecoming.

Hundreds of other family members, lighthouse aficionados and history buffs joined the descendants for the celebration.

The reunion was made possible by the efforts of several volunteer organizations, spearheaded by the Bodie Island Lighthouse Descendants (BOLD) and the Outer Banks Lighthouse Society.

The National Park Service, its staff and employees are also essential partners in these reunions, even more so this year as the government shutdown threatened to displace the homecoming from the Bodie Island Lighthouse site.

Genealogy is obviously an important part of this event, and dozens of ceiling-to-floor “family trees” adorned the walls at the Comfort Inn South in Nags Head, where the event was headquartered.

Close to 350 documented descendants had checked into the event on Oct. 19, according to genealogist Sandy Clunies.

Clunies said the descendants came from all walks of life and many still live in Dare County and adjacent counties.

Some of those descendants, now four generations down the line, are still active duty members of the Coast Guard.

The area’s lighthouses lay claim to the title of the most recognizable icons of the Outer Banks and have become the unofficial logo for the Outer Banks tourism industry.

Visitors flock to the four structures along the Dare and Ocracoke coast.

We revel in the history of the structures operated by the Lighthouse Service as well the brave lifesaving crews who manned our beaches as part of the U.S. Life-Saving Service.

During the summer, the National Park Service and volunteers hold regular demonstrations of how the lifesaving crews worked from the beaches to save the crew members of shipwrecked vessels.

Through this event, we learned about the men and their families who lived on site and kept these important beacons in working order, uneventfully saving lives by keeping sailing vessels away from dangerous coastal shoals.

Sandy Clunies

Clunies prepared each of the numerous family trees mounted on the Comfort Inn’s walls, one for every known lighthouse keeper at Bodie Island.

The genealogist went a step further, preparing a personalized certificate for every individual registrant of the program. She made 208 individual charts by hand and took the time to go over them with each registrant who stopped by to talk with her.

Clunies said many of the descendants use these events to stay in the area all week, turning the homecoming into mini-family reunions.

For Bodie Island, her database is composed of 23,000 individuals.

She printed her wall charts based on family members who registered, so that reduced the number of names she had to print. Even so, Clunies said one lighthouse keeper, Peter Gallop, sported a list of 1,066 descendants who were related to the attendees.

The main events are reserved for descendants, so Clunies explained no one arrives and “discovers” they have a lighthouse keeper in their past.

But because of the small local population and the number of local men who became lighthouse keepers, registrants often discover they have more than one ancestor who was a lighthouse keeper.

Descendant Allie Rawl shows off her certificate. Photo: Russ Lay

Clunies said one descendant has five direct lines, or five grandfathers who were keepers.

Copies of old federal records, meticulously maintained by the keepers, who were required to be literate, reflect the changing geographic name of the lighthouse from Boddy to Body to Bodie.

Many of the records go back to the 1840s and 1850s.

Not every lighthouse keeper’s lineage can be traced to current-day descendants.

On Saturday, the main activities took place on the site of the Bodie Island Lighthouse, a National Park Service facility.

Because of the government shutdown, it appeared the Bodie Island park would still be closed, so the outside tents, chairs, and tables were moved to the Comfort Inn South on short notice.

Jamie Chisholm, the events manager at the hotel ,told us everyone from her management and owners to the members of BOLD and the Lighthouse Association pulled together to move activities to the South Nags Head oceanfront hotel.

Three days before the event, the government re-opened, and Cyndy Holda, a Parks Service spokeswoman, got on the horn to Ocean Atlantic Rental’s Chris Marik, who was out surfing, and asked if he could move everything back to Bodie Island.

Marik’s crew responded and had everything in place for the opening on Friday.

One of the most interesting events on Saturday at Bodie Island was a panel discussion of children who lived in the Currituck and Bodie Island keepers quarters, the latter one being a duplex shared by two families.

Not only were those in attendance provided a glimpse of life at the lighthouse, but much was learned about life along the Outer Banks during the 1930s and 40s.

Reprinted From the Outer Banks Voice
HATTERAS– Eric Kaplan sees the day when new technology will help predict the beginning of life for one of nature’s oldest species.

Kaplan, founder of the non-profit Hatteras Island Ocean Center, is a former technology company owner who was on the cutting edge of developing Bluetooth and other modern products.

Now, he is part of a project that could narrow the time needed for beach closures to protect sea turtle nests.

A probe is placed in a turtle nest. Photo: Outer Banks Voice

Funded primarily by IBM, the project is called “Turtle Sense,” and according to Britta Muiznieks, a wildlife biologist for the National Park Service, it is still “in its infancy.”

But Cape Hatteras National Seashore managers hope the new technology will someday signal when sea turtles eggs will hatch from nests buried in the sand.

“Previous studies have been unsuccessful in predicting these events with reliable accuracy,” Muiznieks said.

When a sea turtle nest is found on a National Park Service beach, a small enclosure is built around the site to keep pedestrians and vehicles away. After a turtle digs a nest, it takes anywhere from 55 to 80 days for the turtles to hatch. Each nest contains 75 to 150 eggs.

The Park Service expands the nest closures to the surf line 50 to 55 days after the eggs are laid. The tiny turtles, once they hatch, parade to the surf from their nest near the dune line.

During this period, the beach is effectively closed to vehicular traffic.

A number of factors affect when a nest will hatch. But one of the largest is thought to be the ambient temperatures in the nest itself.

According to Muiznieks, cool ambient temperatures prolong incubation periods while hot temperatures shorten the development time.

A crowd gathers at Cape Hatteras National Seashore to watch rangers excavate a turtle nest. Photo: NPS

Humidity and oxygen levels can also affect the incubation period.

Given the number of days in the hatching window, portions of beach can be closed for more than a month.

National Park Service and IBM together are planning on placing sensors in four nests to begin gathering data. The sensors will record nest temperatures and, hopefully, detect motion within the nest.  The information will be transmitted cell phones.

This data will be overlain with human observation to record when the nests actually hatch, or “boil,” as biologists term the event.

It is hoped that the sensors will be able to help predict, within a much narrower window, when a turtle nest is about to boil, and if successful, it could significantly reduce the amount of time Cape Hatteras will need to block off large portions of the beach.

Kaplan and Muiznieks are working with IBM’s Tom Zimmerman to improve the technology.

From previous studies, scientists know that measuring ambient nest temperature is not accurate in predicting when a nest is about to hatch.

That is why sound is being added to temperature data in this season’s study.

Officials at Cape Hatteras National Seashore hope the new technology may one day reduce the length of beach closures because of turtle nests. Photo: NPS

Kaplan and Muiznieks want people to understand the process will take some time and the outcome is uncertain.

“We are hoping that by simultaneously measuring movement and temperature fluctuations and entering this into a computer model that will analyze the data from each nest every two hours, we will be able to accurately predict hatching events” Muiznieks said.

“We need to make sure that the shifting of eggs that occurs naturally within a nest can be distinguished from the shifting of eggs as the hatchlings emerge from their eggshells. “

To be even more accurate, the method could include gas measurements to determine the embryos’ stage of development.

“At this point we are still trying to figure out exactly what we need to be measuring to give us the most accurate results,” Muiznieks said.

Kaplan suspects it will take at least three to five years of data collection before they know if the technology is “ready for prime time.”

Still, the effort shows the Park Service is working hand-in-hand with a private sector entrepreneur and one of the largest technology companies in the world in an attempt to shorten beach closure times.

And if the program is successful, the technology could be used all over the nation and the world.

Reprinted from the Outer Banks Voice

MANNS HARBOR — A one-of-a-kind project in which recreational and commercial fishermen will be working together is about to take shape at the N.C. Wildlife Resources Commission’s waterfront property in this Dare County community.

Historically, the commercial and recreational fishing industries have been at odds on a variety of issues.

But with the creation of the Manns Harbor Commission by the Dare County Board of Commissioners, commercial and recreational fishermen will be working side-by-side in helping to manage the property.

When the state bought the land, it was envisioned as a dual-use facility to include boat ramps for recreational fishermen and kayakers and slips for commercial use and educational facilities.

The new boat ramps and docks in Manns Harbor represent a rare partnership between commercial and sports fishermen.

Manns Harbor residents and others were strong advocates for state funding to preserve the site’s historical role as a working waterfront.

Locals might remember the old property as a private marina, hotel and, at times, a sometime raucous bar.

The N.C. General Assembly created the Wildlife Access and Marine Industry Fund in 2007 to enchance working waterfronts and public water access. The state provided $4.3 million to buy the Manns Harbor site and make improvements.

The fund contributed $3.9 million for the purchase, the N.C. Division of Coastal Management kicked in $335,000 and money for the improvements came from the Wildlife Resources Commission’s general fund.

Contrary to some reports, no grants from the state’s saltwater and freshwater fishing licensing fees went toward buying and improving the commercial site. The only money used from the fishing license fund was $20,000 requested by the Wildlife Resource Commission to improve handicap access facilities on the recreational side.

At that time, the marina and other structures were in disrepair, and private investors were contemplating building condominiums and a private marina.

The first phase — construction of the recreational access area — was completed in December 2012. The improvements include three boat ramps, two floating docks, new bulkhead and shoreline docks, a gravel parking lot and space for 49 vehicles and trailers and seven vehicle-only parking spaces.

The second phase will include the commercial fishing facilities.

The wildlife access fund had envisioned the site as a dual commercial/recreational facility from the start.

However, once the land was purchased, progress on the joint-use project was temporarily halted as the fund searched for a way to manage a facility that would include commercial and recreational users. What set the project apart was that all previous Wildlife Resources Commission projects were only for the benefit of recreational users.

This is where the N.C. Coastal Federation entered the picture and conceived of a plan to create a committee to help manage the commercial side. The federation’s goal was to create a commission that would include all site users and the surrounding community.

Creation of the Manns Harbor Commission based on the Coastal Federation’s plan is what is allowing the commercial side of the project to proceed.

The newly appointed commission will manage the commercial portion of the area in conjunction with the state.

According to Ladd Bayliss of the federation, this is the first time the Wildlife Resources Commission has built a facility that can be used by commercial entities. The new board, comprised of representatives from both the recreational and commercial industry, is also a first.

Residents of Manns Harbor will also serve on the commission, providing equal input and presentation for the major stakeholders and users of the facility.

The Manns Harbor Commission will manage moorage agreements, keeping the site clean and other issues.

Bayliss hopes that once the commission is up and running it can be used as an example for incorporating dual recreational and commercial uses into waterfront access all along the coast.

Construction on the second phase is expected to start this summer.

The members appointed by the county for the new commission are:

• Troy Outland, Sr., commercial fisherman
• Troy Outland, Jr., commercial fisherman
• Cyndy Holda, Manns Harbor Civic Association
• Ladd Bayliss, N.C. Coastal Federation Coastal Advocate
• Paul Mann, Mann Custom Boats
• Jonathan Oglesby, recreational charter captain
• Jeff James, recreational charter captain

Reprinted from the Outer Banks Voice

There is no denying our choice to live on barrier islands places us at odds with nature.

Like Holland’s lowlands or Venice’s island/canal world, our geological existence has been but a wink in the eye of time.

Whether man’s engineering feats, be they windmills and dikes, flood gates and canals, or replacing sand on the beach, can succeed or even be contemplated should be the true center of debate as we plan our future.

Instead, opponents of attempting hold back the forces of nature most often frame the argument in terms of class warfare.

Those who directly benefit from the beach — the “rich folks” who own the homes and businesses near the oceanfront — are pitted against everyday residents.

Proponents of manmade intervention can be just as stubborn. They ignore data indicating rising seas or climate change, while failing to realize that the present form of the northern Outer Banks is barely 500 years old.

Proponents would rather debate whether man or nature is causing climate change, an argument that sadly breaks down all too often along partisan lines.

Enter a refreshing change in the dialog about our present and future.

In 2011, Stanley Riggs and three colleagues, Dorothea V. Ames, Stephen J. Culver, and David Mallison published The Battle for North Carolina’s Coast: Evolutionary History, Present Crisis & Vision for the Future.

Riggs is a geologist and distinguished research professor, heading up a research program at East Carolina University that draws support from the U.S. Geological Survey, the National Park Service, U.S. Fish and Wildlife and UNC-Chapel Hill.

Riggs uses data from our past and present about climatic conditions without getting into the middle of whether such changes are natural or man-caused processes.

The Battle for North Carolina’s Coast is a relatively quick read. There are barely 100 pages of actual text, and those are filled with numerous graphs and pictures, reducing the amount of prose even more significantly.

To understand our present crisis and aid our future planning, Riggs et al spend considerable time on our geological and climatic past.

Here’s is N.C. 12 on Hatteras Island on Aug. 28, 2011, after Hurricane Irene. Stan Riggs thinks keeping the road intact may no longer be possible. Photo: Randy Mitchell, Army

Our past includes more than 23 periods of time over the course of one million years where glaciers have advanced and retreated, greatly altering our coastal shoreline.

Our barrier islands are in the approximate middle of where the Atlantic Ocean has waxed and waned. Our mainland has extended as much as 30 to 60 miles eastward, with barrier islands moving eastward along the continental shelf.

Other times, when glaciers retreat, can bring the oceanfront closer to the present mainland, with barrier islands moving landward as the waters advance.

Interspersed with these long-term geological changes are short-term changes involving the powerful storms that regularly visit our shores.

Riggs tracks, as much as current data allows, the cycle of hurricanes and nor’easters going back about 300 years, with more reliable data from the late 19th century forward.

It is these storm cycles, which also seem to wax and wane in frequency and power along regular cycles, that can alter the islands’ profiles radically over short periods of time.

Finally, Riggs takes us through the history of the islands since Europeans first visited about 500 years ago and demonstrates how current changes appear to be altering the islands at a more rapid pace, similar to the way our current configuration appeared 500 years ago.

He notes how inlets and the width of islands have changed significantly, coming and going, moving westward and southward in just that short period of time.

Tying the two geological and climatic cycles together, Riggs notes we are experiencing both an increase in storm frequency as well as evidence of rising sea levels that might herald the start of another global warming cycle over the (very) long term.

The book then describes the two types of barrier islands that compose our outer shoreline. Some of the islands Riggs calls “simple.” These are narrow strips of land without much underlying superstructure and therefore very susceptible to change by storm systems.

The authors, from left: Stan Riggs, Dorothea Ames, Stephen Culver and David Mallison. Photo: ECU

Other islands and parts of simple islands are classified as complex. These islands have a different substrata, are significantly wider, higher in elevation and feature westward dune lines.

Riggs proposes different future courses of action for the two systems.

South of Oregon Inlet, Riggs states the mostly simple structure of Pea Island and other parts of Hatteras are no longer worth saving. The lifeline of those villages, N.C. 12, can no longer be moved westward in many places.

New inlets will continue to open, Riggs feels, and building one new bridge, such as the span over the new inlet created by Irene, doesn’t preclude other inlets opening up just “down the road.”

Riggs acknowledges that the option to replace the Bonner Bridge with a long span from South Nags Head to Rodanthe, leaving Pea Island to Mother Nature, is one possibility, albeit very expensive.

As an alternative, Riggs proposes “A String of Pearls” with population centers focusing on the more complex substructures supporting Rodanthe/Salvo/Waves, Avon, Buxton, Frisco and Hatteras villages.

The islands could be served by high-speed ferries, private charter boats and other methods, including mainland parking lots where cars would be left and only people would be transported to these locales.

Some smaller islands might evolve into sparsely populated luxury resorts, eco-tourism sites or primitive camping areas, while the main villages would take on a character and economy similar to Ocracoke Island.

He envisions “world-class ecotourism” destinations similar to those adopted in other areas of the world.

Along our northern beaches, Riggs acknowledges that development has made these economies more similar to larger coastal resorts.

He calls these areas “Islands of Opportunity” and even states some areas might benefit from “holding the shoreline.”

Even so, Riggs sees sea-level rise and increasing storm cycles as very real threats between now and the turn of the next century.

He believes the political and economic discussions for the next generation should entail considerable planning and attention to detail regarding our underlying shoreline framework and requires detailed adaption policies in our planning.

He also advises creation of rolling buffer zones that would call for buildings on pilings to allow storm water to pass and even feed the west side of the islands.

The book offers no panacea, and Riggs and his co-authors freely admit their ideas may not be accepted as economically, politically or even technologically acceptable.

But his ideas are worth bringing into our present discussions. The year 2100 is less than two generations away. Thinking only about the short-term has been a constant human failing.

This book deserves a read by all coastal residents, including those residing along our past (and perhaps future) shoreline in Elizabeth City, New Bern and other towns.

Related Stories

• Geologist Offers New Vision of N.C. Coast
• Sea-Level Rise? Get Used to It
• Seas Rising Faster Along Northern Outer Banks

Reprinted from the Outer Banks Voice

MANTEO — Sea turtles. We feel a connection to gentle creatures, and this year has been especially tough on these endangered reptiles.

Larry Warner, curator of exhibits at the N.C. Aquarium on Roanoke Island believes the connection between humans and turtles is multi-faceted.

Larry Warner

“People love the sharks, the thrill of being scared,” he said. “They love the otters. But people view turtles as very innocent and approachable. They are portrayed by the media as gentle animals, and people feel for them because they are just trying to survive.”

Warner says that sense of connection has greatly benefitted the turtles in terms of public awareness and support for their existence.

And their existence is vital to marine ecosystems.

“They help keep the marine ecology in balance. They feed on fish and plant species, keeping those species in check so we don’t have too much of any one species in the ecology,” Warner explains.

Sea turtles, especially species such as the green sea turtles, which prefer tropical climates, are particularly vulnerable to sudden drops in temperatures. This winter has been a hard one. Reptiles are cold-blooded, and when the water temperature drops suddenly, they suffer from “cold-shock.” Cold shock literally stuns the turtles, causing them to become listless and unable to feed.

While cold-shock is part of nature’s cycle, the effect is more severe on turtle populations as their numbers decline due to loss of habitat for laying eggs and the overall deterioration of the marine environment.

Chistian Legner, husbandry curator for the aquarium, tells us this winter has been the worst since 2009-2010. In that year, over 5,000 cold-stunned turtles were recovered in Florida alone. Of those recovered in Florida, 20 percent, or 1,000 of them died.

While the numbers here are not as large, each turtle is important to the struggling species, and our small facilities make rehabilitating the turtles a challenge — financially and on resources needed to help the turtles recover and return to the wild.
Legner, who oversees the Aquarium’s rehab facility, works out of a small outbuilding at the Roanoke Island facility that is barely 1,000 square feet.

Volunteers draw a blood sample. Photo: N.E.S.T

N.E.S.T volunteers work in the rehab center at the N.C. Aquarium. Photo: Russ Lay

This year, Legner’s unit has taken in 58 cold-stunned turtles, plus other turtles suffering from viral, bacterial and other problems.

Nearly 40 cold stunned turtles were rescued off Cape Lookout National Seashore in late January. According to a Facebook post on the park’s website, there were three loggerheads and 34 green turtles rescued that day and a total of 44 sea turtles that week. The N.C. Aquarium at Pine Knoll Shores had taken in 19 of the sea turtles rescued off Cape Lookout.

According to its Facebook page, the Karen Beasley Sea Turtle Rescue and Rehabilitation Center on Topsail Island admitted 11 cold-stunned turtles on Jan. 26, bringing its total of new admissions to 40 over a two-week period.

A cold-stunned turtle costs anywhere from $300 to $500 to care for from the time it is brought to the Manteo aquarium to the point when it is released. That comes to close to $30,000 for this winter alone in upfront medical care and longer term maintenance.

Injured or sick turtles, such as one large loggerhead that had ingested a fish hook and was unable to dive for food, cost even more and take much longer to recover.

The small facility at Roanoke Island has four tanks: two large ones and two smaller containers. One large turtle can take up an entire tank by itself. The overflow population can be housed in the aquarium’s quarantine facility or transported to other centers stretching from Virginia Beach to as far south as Jekyll Island, Georgia.

However, this year’s cold-stun events have taken place along the entire eastern seaboard, overloading virtually every available facility, Legner tells us.

“In one week this winter we took in 22 sea turtles, which can put a strain in manpower and consume financial resources.” Legner said.

Typically, people who find cold-shocked turtles stranded on beaches or in the sound call the locally based Network for Endangered Sea Turtles (N.E.S.T) at their hotline number (252) 441-8622.

Local volunteers travel from the Virginia state line as far south as Ocracoke Island to retrieve the turtles and bring them back to the aquarium.

There, staff take blood samples and perform X-rays to diagnose the turtles, which accounts for significant upfront costs.
Donations are badly needed to handle this year’s influx of cold-stunned turtles. The N.E.S.T. Web site at allows donations from credit cards and PayPal and provides an address for those wishing to mail a check.

Once the turtles enter the rehabilitation phase, local volunteers from N.E.S.T. come every day to the aquarium to feed them, clean their tanks and perform other duties.

“The N.E.S.T. volunteers are a great network of people and we couldn’t save these turtles without them,” Legner says.

When it’s time for the turtles to be released, Legner also receives significant support from the U.S. Coast Guard, charter boat captains and tour boats, such as offshore bird watching excursions, to handle those tasks.

The aquarium facility is licensed by the N.C. Wildlife Resources Commission, which Legner says coordinates and tracks all recovering turtles across the state and provides significant support to the effort.

Caring for the turtles is actually not part of the aquarium employees’ full-time jobs.

Legner is in charge of the entire animal collection at the aquarium, and Warren oversees all of the exhibits, including lending a hand at the Jennette’s Pier facility. The medical staff at the facility is primarily charged with caring for the animals on exhibit.

In the near future, the aquarium will build a new 3,000-square-foot rehab facility that will triple the number of turtles that can be treated. Warner explains that the new facility will tear down the glass walls between the public and the turtle operation.

“People will briefly exit the main facility and come to a building where a ramp will provide an overlook view of all of the tanks. We hope to add cameras in each tank that users can operate as well as a large overhead monitor,” he said.

Warner tells us that “on their way out, visitors will be able to look through a glass window and actually see testing and even surgeries taking place and even talk to the people on the other side of the window.”

While all of this is technically outside of the aquarium’s main function, both Legner and Warner see it as a necessary role of the aquarium’s mission to conserve as well educate visitors and locals about our marine environment “so that they will help to take care of the environment” through their own actions.

NAGS HEAD — A recent state Supreme Court decision to dismiss an appeal by Nags Head has left the town and other coastal communities scratching their heads over regulating activity on public trust beaches.

For over two years, the town has battled property owners in South Nags Head, where erosion had placed homes in the public trust area between mean high water and the toe of the dune line.

Everyone is allowed to use the public trust area, even if it is privately owned. It is similar to a public right-of-way.

Nags Head has long contended that the houses pose a threat to public safety and if they eventually fall into the ocean, debris will endanger swimmers and other property.

A house owned by Cherry Inc. that was severely damaged by a 2009 nor’easter was at the center of the town’s court actions.

A Superior Court judge agreed that the town had the authority to declare the structure a nuisance and order it to be removed or torn down.

In February, the North Carolina Court of Appeals overturned the Superior Court decision, declaring the state, not the town, had jurisdiction over public trust beaches.

The decision by the Supreme Court leaves the Appeals Court decision intact.

“We believe the N.C. Supreme Court made a mistake in not hearing our case,” said Nags Head Mayor Bob Oakes.

“They essentially said the State of North Carolina is the only entity that can take action to protect the public’s rights in the public trust, which includes our public ocean beaches.”

The court decisions were in opposition to the manner most coastal communities viewed their powers within public trust beaches.

“The problem is in our back yard, and we feel that the local government is the right place to address the issue,” said Oakes.   

“The decision means that we have to rely on the state to keep our beaches clean and usable by the public.”

Ike McCree, Currituck County’s attorney also expressed concern.

“I do not believe that the court’s decision prevents a county or town from regulating land use, driving on the beach or other general police power ordinances specifically authorized by statute,” McCree said.

“What is concerning is that the court apparently holds that should someone, for example, place a fence or other obstruction from the toe of a dune to the water (the public trust area) the local government has no authority to seek removal of the obstruction to allow for the public’s access to the public trust area.

“In Currituck, there is a house north of Corolla that the county now has no authority to seek removal from the public trust area despite at times of high tide access around the house is blocked.”

“Now coastal towns and counties will have to look to the state for assistance with these issues.”

Tim Dodge, a staff attorney for the N.C. General Assembly’s Office of Legislative Services, expressed the opinion in a 2010 letter that a local government could order the removal of a structure within a public trust beach “under their general police power and also possibly under their emergency powers to abate nuisances.”

An article in Legal Tides magazine, a collaboration of N.C. Sea Grant, the UNC School of Law and the UNC Department of City and Regional Planning, expressed surprise at the appeals court decision.

In that article, Joseph Kelo of the UNC School of Law and co-director of the N.C. Coastal Resources Law, Planning and Policy Center said:

“For coastal municipalities, the critical issue raised in this litigation was whether a municipality had the legal right to enforce the State’s public trust doctrine. The surprising holding of the Court of Appeals was that a municipality has no such right under existing State law.

“According to the Court of Appeals, only the State, acting through the North Carolina Attorney General, can bring an action af?rmatively enforcing the State’s public trust rights. The motivating factor underlying the court’s decision seems to be that the structures ended up where they did through erosion and not through any af?rmative act of the owners.

“What the court failed to take into account, however, is that anyone who builds structures along our highly dynamic coast is taking exactly the risk that these owners took/”

“The town is trying its best to maintain a public beach that the public can use and enjoy without the hazard of homes in disrepair that block a simple walk down the beach,” Oakes said.