North Carolina researchers have estimated the amount of plastic pollution the size of grains of sand that are entering the Pamlico Sound from the Neuse River Basin. It’s a lot.
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Ongoing study may show overlooked algal bloom causes
A year into a 30-month public science study, preliminary data appears to show that higher than expected nutrient loads in minor tributaries may contribute to increasingly regular and persistent blue-green algal blooms in northeastern North Carolina rivers.
Red knots make Outer Banks stopover on spring migration
Red knots, which stopover on Ocracoke during their spring migration, have been a source of concern due to the rapid decline of its population linked to a drastic decrease of their food source, horseshoe crab eggs.
Analysis: Farm Act axes motive to protect shoreline trees
Water quality advocates worry that the reduced civil penalty in this year’s Farm Act for removing trees in riparian buffers may result in tree loss in protected shorelines.
Topsail Beach board wants more study before rezoning
Town commissioners said Monday they want more information, including professional architectural, engineering, environmental and other assessments, before deciding on the conditional rezoning request for The Point.
Refuge exudes natural diversity, wonders of pocosin lakes
Pocosin Lakes National Wildlife Refuge may be “the Yellowstone of the East,” according to Wendy Stanton, who manages the refuge teeming with wildlife that welcomes more than 30,000 visitors annually.
The sand waves of Hatteras: ‘on a mission of death’
After adventurous New York journalist John Randolph Spears undertook to visit Cape Hatteras in spring 1890, he wrote of miles and miles of deadly sand waves that threatened to swallow islanders and their homes.
Analysis: Farm Act strips wetland safeguards, mitigation
Special report: The governor’s veto not withstanding, this legislative session’s farm bill is now law, and with it, state offsets and water quality protections for eastern North Carolina’s wetland environments may have evaporated.
Professional know-how a fisheries biologist’s fishing secret
A quarter-century career as a state fisheries biologist may give Chris Batsavage an edge on the water, but his personal database may be his most powerful advantage.
Manager says Corolla horses look ‘marshy’ for good reason
Meg Puckett, who manages the herd for the Corolla Wild Horse Fund, knows well the challenges and the horses themselves, but she says the work never gets old.
Rules panel sets Aug. 15 deadline on plan for beach mats
The state rules process to allow coastal towns, counties and private beachfront property owners to use portable, roll-out mats as an alternative to traditional beach walkover structures continues.
Calls to act on Topsail plan yield frustration, hearing date
Topsail Beach commissioners Wednesday set a public hearing for September and agreed to hold a workshop to discuss possible conditions for approval of the rezoning request Raleigh software entrepreneur Todd Olson submitted last October and that the planning board voted down in May.
Ghost forest education focal point of public science project
A public science project at Cape Lookout National Seashore is part of a bigger communication effort to have a conversation about what ghost forests represent.
Details emerge on plans for Fort Raleigh’s interpretive trail
The seven exhibits along the Freedom Trail will interpret various aspects of the Black experience on Roanoke Island.
At the Boundary between Land and Sea: Coastal life in 1909
Historian David Cecelski examines the story behind a July 1909 image of men loading watermelons onto a freight boat from the Bogue Sound shore.
Bring fishing gear to help you see what you’re looking at
In the words of Thoreau, “It’s not what you look at that matters, it’s what you see.”
