A PBS docuseries exploring how to feed a growing population while protecting oceans, marine ecosystems and coastal communities will be featured as the Coastal Studies Institute’s Science on the Sound Lecture Series installment for this month, and in celebration of Earth Week.

The third episode of the series, “Hope in the Water,” titled “Changing the Menu,” will be shown at the historic Pioneer Theater in Manteo the evening of Monday, April 20. There is no charge to attend but registration is required at https://bit.ly/HopeInTheWater.

“Hope in the Water,” produced by Andrew Zimmern and David E. Kelley, “blends science, food, and storytelling to spotlight innovative solutions in what’s often called the ‘blue food’ system—food sourced from oceans, rivers, and aquaculture. Rather than focusing solely on the problems surrounding fisheries, the series highlights practical, real-world solutions, from regenerative aquaculture to rethinking the species we eat,” organizers said.

The event starts with a prescreening reception at 5:30 p.m. in the Pioneer Theater courtyard, featuring local seafood available for purchase from Basnight’s Lone Cedar Café food truck, beverages, and educational displays from community partners.

The film screening will begin at 6:30 p.m., followed by a cookbook giveaway and discussion with the following panelists:

• Dr. Sara Mirabilio, fisheries extension specialist with N.C. Sea Grant.
• Chef Mac Buben, owner of Sea Chef Dockside Kitchen.
• Evan Ferguson, food blogger and media coordinator at Cape Hatteras Secondary School.
• Jake Griffin, a local commercial fisherman.

The panel will discuss local efforts to diversify seafood consumption and offer perspectives on the future of seafood in North Carolina and beyond.

“This event is an opportunity to connect our community with the people and ideas shaping the future of seafood,” CSI Executive Director Reide Corbett said in a statement. “By bringing together scientists, fishers, chefs, and educators, we hope to inspire more sustainable choices that support both coastal livelihoods and healthy marine ecosystems.”

The Coastal Studies Institute, located in Wanchese on the East Carolina University Outer Banks Campus, has partnered with Fed by Blue, North Carolina Sea Grant, and the Outer Banks Visitors Bureau to host the viewing. Science on the Sound is CSI’s monthly, in-person lecture series brings perspectives from all over the state and highlights coastal topics in northeastern North Carolina.

Archaeologists and historians are going to share their evidence of mixed Elizabethan-Algonquian material culture at sites on Hatteras Island during the March installment of the “Science on the Sound” series.

“The Smoking Gun?: New Radiocarbon Dates and Hunting Practices Linking Hatteras Island to Fort Raleigh in the Sixteenth Century” is scheduled for 6 p.m. Thursday, March 26, at the Coastal Studies Institute on the East Carolina University Outer Banks Campus.

The public is encouraged to attend the program being offered at no charge or view the presentation via YouTube. “Science on the Sound” is a monthly, in-person lecture series highlighting coastal topics.

The nonprofit Croatoan Archaeological Society and the University of Bristol have uncovered evidence that “strongly suggests Hatteras was the location where at least some of the ‘lost’ colonists re-settled when they went missing between 1587 and 1590,” organizers said.

“These objects have been cautiously interpreted, however, since European objects may have been traded long after those who originally brought them to the Carolina coast had passed away,” they continued. “Here we summarize past findings and describe the clearest evidence to date that the 1587 colonists were present on Hatteras Island: biogeochemical, radiocarbon, osteological, and metalwork evidence that demonstrate the presence of late sixteenth century firearms and hunting practices on Croatoan land.”

Beth Scaffidi, Mark Horton and Scott Dawson are presenting.

Scaffidi is an assistant professor of Anthropology and Heritage Studies, director of the Skeletal & Environmental Isotope Laboratory, or SEIL, and co-director of various archaeological field research programs in Peru. She uses bioarchaeological isotopes, palaeopathology and spatial analysis to investigate how interactions between ritual, landscapes and resources co-constitute human and environmental health.

Horton is the pro vice-chancellor of Research and Enterprise and professor of historical archeology at the Royal Agricultural University of England. He specializes in landscape archeology and archaeological science methods as applied to maritime and Colonial contexts around the globe and emphasizes public outreach and conservation of material culture.

Dawson is an area historian, director of the Croatoan Archaeological Society, and owner of the Lost Colony Museum in Buxton. He has been co-directing archaeological excavation of Cape Hatteras sites with Horton and society volunteers for over a decade.

Young learners with an interest in science, technology, engineering, art, and math can get hands-on experience at the Coastal Studies Institute at the East Carolina University Outer Banks Campus in Wanchese this summer.

Online registration opens March 2 for the camps that explore the Outer Banks. The fee is $425 a week for each camper.

Camps are 9 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. Monday through Friday, and held every week from June 6 to Aug. 7. No camp is scheduled for the week of Fourth of July.

Themes for campers ages 10 to 13 include the following:

• “Coastal Kingdoms: Coastal Marine Biology + Ecology Camp” June 8-12 and June 15-19.
• “Shapes in Science: Art + Science Camp” June 22-26 and July 6-10.
• “Blue Horizons: Coastal Engineering Camp” July 13-17 and July 20-24.
• “Legends of the Atlantic: Maritime Archeology + Ocean Exploration Camp” July 27-31 and Aug. 3-7.

Organizers have planed a one-week camp for ages 13-17 themed “Coastal Explorers: Marine Science Technology & Remote Sensing Camp” for Aug. 10-14.

Contact Parker Murphy at 252-475-5452 for general camp questions. Contact ECU Continuing and Professional Education at 252-328-9198 about the registration process.

Led by East Carolina University, Coastal Studies Institute is a multi-institutional research and educational partnership of the UNC System, in partnership with North Carolina State University, UNC Chapel Hill, UNC Wilmington and Elizabeth City State University.

Get a peek of the underwater world of maritime archaeology at 4 p.m. Wednesday with the Coastal Studies Institute on the East Carolina University on its Outer Banks Campus.

The program, “Maritime Mysteries,” at the facility in Wanchese is an opportunity to learn about North Carolina’s maritime history and how its studied.

The interactive lesson is for families with children 7 and older.

The session is open to the public with limited availability, on a first-come, first-serve basis, at $10 per person.

Contact Lauren Kerlin at kerlinl22@ecu.edu or 252-475-5451 with questions or for more information.

Budding birders and seasoned ornithologists alike are invited to join Coastal Studies Institute educators for a guided winter birding experience at Lake Mattamuskeet.

Participants are to meet at the institute at 7 a.m. Monday. Transportation to and from Lake Mattamuskeet will be provided. The group is expected to return to the institute around noon. Registration for the program is required and can be done online. Cost to attend is $25 per person.

“This field-based program will introduce participants to the remarkable diversity of ducks, swans, geese, and other wetland birds that gather here each winter,” organizers said about Lake Mattamuskeet, calling the geographical feature “one of North Carolina’s premier waterfowl habitats and a critical stopover along the Atlantic Flyway.”

Participants are welcome and encouraged to bring personal cameras, binoculars, spotting scopes, and guidebooks. Appropriate attire for extended time outdoors is also encouraged.

“Expect plenty of time in the field with scopes and binoculars, great photo opportunities, and an engaging, place-based learning experience in one of the state’s most iconic wildlife refuges,” organizers added.

The Coastal Studies Institute on East Carolina University’s Outer Banks Campus in Wanchese is a multi-institutional research and educational partnership of the state’s university system and also includes N.C. State University, the University of North Carolina Chapel Hill, UNC Wilmington, and Elizabeth City State University.

Contact John McCord at mccordr@ecu.edu or 252-475-5450 with questions.

Why do sheepshead have a mouthful of human-like teeth? Fisheries ecologist Dr. Jim Morley will explain that and more during this month’s “Science on the Sound” Lecture Series.

Morley, an assistant professor in the biology department at East Carolina University, will present, “Investigating the Life History of Sheepshead, North Carolina’s Toothiest Fish,” starting at 6 p.m. Thursday, Jan. 15, at the Coastal Studies Institute on the ECU Outer Banks Campus in Wanchese.

The public is encouraged to attend the program being offered at no charge. The talk will be livestreamed on the CSI YouTube Channel and archived for later viewing.

Though sheepshead are a popular species among anglers throughout the state, their life history is one of the most poorly understood, according to the university. “Recently, researchers have uncovered important aspects of sheepshead biology relating to reproduction, movement patterns, and habitat use. However, as with all good science, new questions emerge.”

Morley has been investigating the life history of marine and estuarine species in North Carolina for more than 20 years. He is interested in how human-caused disturbances and climate change interact with the life cycles of aquatic species.

Science on the Sound is a monthly, in-person lecture series with the Coastal Studies Institute that brings perspectives from all over the state and highlights coastal topics in northeastern North Carolina.

Coastal oceanographer Dr. Reide Corbett will speak later this week on how the Outer Banks are changing during the first OBX Green Drinks of the year.

He is to give his talk, “Science, Shorelines, and Tradeoffs: Understanding What’s Happening Along the Outer Banks Coast,” at 6 p.m. Thursday at Waverider’s in Nags Head. The program is offered at no charge, food and drinks are available for purchase.

Corbett is the executive director of the Coastal Studies Institute and dean of Integrated Coastal Programs, both at East Carolina University Outer Banks campus in Wanchese, and professor in the Department of Coastal Studies at East Carolina University.

Corbett will explain what the science is showing about shoreline change, coastal dynamics, and the tradeoffs that come with decisions about managing and protecting the coast.

OBX Green Drinks is a monthly speaker series held October through March at Waverider’s in Nags Head. Organized by the North Carolina Coastal Federation, which publishes Coastal Review, the program brings together the Outer Banks community for an evening of networking, presentations on local environmental topics, and enjoying good food and drink.

Student researchers will present their findings on Nags Head Woods during the next installment of the “Science on the Sound” lecture series presented by the Coastal Studies Institute on the East Carolina University Outer Banks Campus.

The lecture, “Patterns of protection: Natural and Social Values of the Nags Head Woods Maritime Forest,” is set for 3 p.m. Thursday, Dec. 11, at the Coastal Studies Institute, 850 N.C. Highway 345, Wanchese.

The program is free and the public is encouraged to attend. The program will also be livestreamed on YouTube.

The monthly, in-person, lecture series at the Coastal Studies Institute brings perspectives from all over the state and highlights coastal topics in northeastern North Carolina.

During this month’s program, students of the Outer Banks Field Site will present the findings of their capstone research project.

The University of North Carolina Chapel Hill Institute for the Environment’s Outer Banks Field Site is a semester-long, interdisciplinary residential learning experience for undergraduate students hosted by the Coastal Studies Institute. Each fall since 2001, these students have spent the semester taking classes, engaging in internships with local organizations, and completing a capstone research project as a group.

This year’s research examines the maritime forest within the Nags Head Woods Preserve. The students interviewed stakeholders about the values that they ascribe to the woods and collected data about the salt spray, vegetation, and wildlife within the woods. The program will last about 90 minutes, including presentation, questions and discussion.

East Carolina University associate professor of coastal studies Dr. David Lagomasino will be the featured lecturer Thursday for the Coastal Studies Institute’s Science on the Sound Lecture Series.

Lagomasino will present, “Watching the Tides Roll: How Satellites Inform the Future of Coastal Communities” starting at 6 p.m. as part of the monthly, in-person lecture series at the ECU Outer Banks Campus.

Organizers say the series brings perspectives from all over the state and highlights coastal topics in northeastern North Carolina. The public is encouraged to attend and there’s no admission charge. The program will also be livestreamed on YouTube.

“From space, satellites capture the shifting shorelines, retreating beaches, and changing wetlands that define our coasts,” according to organizers. “In this talk, Dr. David Lagomasino will share stories of coastal change from around the world, from tropical mangroves to marshes and barrier islands, and connect those lessons to the challenges and opportunities facing communities on the Outer Banks. By connecting global perspectives with local insights, the seminar will explore how science can guide resilience planning and help coastal communities prepare for the future.”

Lagomasino’s passion for beaches and mangrove forests began in South Florida and has taken him around the world. He earned his Master of Science in geology from ECU and his doctorate in geological sciences from Florida International University, where he used satellite imagery and water chemistry to study coastal water flow.

Before returning to CSI and ECU’s Department of Coastal Studies, Lagomasino conducted research at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center, developing models to understand global shoreline change.

Lagomasino combines satellite, drone, and field data to assess coastal resilience and vulnerability, linking his findings directly with stakeholders to guide coastal management and ecosystem valuation, organizers said. “His work, supported by NASA and USDA programs, focuses on coastal blue carbon and has taken him to shorelines worldwide. Dedicated to mentoring students, he emphasizes hands-on research and community engagement to promote informed coastal stewardship.”

Outer Banks Visitors Bureau Executive Director Lee Nettles and Community Engagement Officer Jeff Shwartzenberg are scheduled to speak about long-range tourism plans during the next “Science on the Sound” Lecture Series.

The two are to present “Finding Balance: The Outer Banks Long-Range Tourism Management Plan” beginning at 6 p.m. Thursday, June 19, at the Coastal Studies Institute on the East Carolina University Outer Banks Campus in Wanchese.

Recently, Dare County’s Outer Banks tourism spending “has reached record levels, surpassing more than $2 billion in visitor spending in 2023, an all-time high and ranking fourth among North Carolina counties behind only Mecklenburg, Wake, and Buncombe. However, with that economic success also comes impacts that can negatively affect a community,” officials said in a statement.

Nettles and Schwartzenberg are expected to highlight recommendations on how the power of tourism can help improve the quality of life for residents, while protecting the delicate natural environment and preserving the unique history and culture of the area.

The public is welcome and encouraged to attend the program. The program will also be livestreamed on the institute’s YouTube channel for those who cannot make it in person.

This monthly, in-person lecture series brings perspectives from all over the state and highlights coastal topics in northeastern North Carolina.

The public will have a chance to see what happens at the Coastal Studies Institute and East Carolina University Integrated Coastal Programs during an open house later this month.

The event is offered at no charge from 12:30 p.m. to 4 p.m. Saturday, May 17, on the ECU Outer Banks Campus. The campus is about a mile from the intersection of U.S. Highway 64 and N.C. Highway 345 in Wanchese.

Research and education initiatives on the campus span a range of coastal topics, from nearshore estuaries to the offshore waters along the continental shelf.

ECU’s Integrated Coastal Programs focuses on coastal and marine research, education, and engagement using an interdisciplinary approach and scientific advancements to provide effective solutions to complex problems.

The Coastal Studies Institute is a multi-institutional research partnership led by East Carolina University, in collaboration with North Carolina State University, University of North Carolina Chapel Hill, University of North Carolina Wilmington and Elizabeth City State University.

Attendees will have the opportunity to tour the campus, learn about current research and educational programs, take part in family-friendly activities, and interact with faculty and staff from East Carolina University, Coastal Studies Institute and partner organizations.

Organizers said that visitors will have the opportunity to meet the following:

• Coastal geoscientists researching the processes that drive coastal change, their impact on communities, and ways to build resilience in the face of increasing coastal hazards.
• Ecologists studying estuarine systems and fisheries, their inputs, and how to ensure healthy coastal ecosystems for the future.
• Oceanographers and coastal engineers exploring ways to harness renewable ocean energy, such as the Gulf Stream and wave power, through new technologies that expand North Carolina’s energy portfolio.
• Social scientists working with coastal residents, visitors, and social data to understand the impacts of coastal change on communities while developing new, sustainable economies.
• Maritime archaeologists discovering and researching shipwrecks using advanced technologies, while celebrating the maritime heritage of eastern North Carolina.
• Faculty and staff engaging the local community and inspiring the next generation of scientists and decisionmakers through educational programming focused on technology, engineering, art, math and science, or STEAM.

What is the link between greentail shrimp and green energy? Dr. Lela Schlenker is set to explain why both are critical to North Carolina’s future.

Schlenker will be the speaker for this month’s “Science on the Sound” lecture at the Coastal Studies Institute on the ECU Outer Banks Campus in Wanchese.

The fisheries liaison for Kitty Hawk Wind, Schlenker’s presentation “What do greentails have to do with green energy? An update on the Kitty Hawk offshore wind project served with a side of shrimp” is set for 6 p.m. Thursday, March 20, at the campus. Offered at no charge, the program will also be livestreamed on the CSI YouTube channel.

Schlenker plans to discuss her research on shrimp populations in the Pamlico Sound that she completed while a postdoctoral researcher at the Coastal Studies Institute, as well as give a project update on Kitty Hawk Wind, an offshore wind project being planned by Avangrid Renewables more than 32 miles off of the Outer Banks.

Schlenker holds a master’s in fisheries science from the Virginia Institute of Marine Science and a doctorate in marine ecology from the University of Miami.

As the fisheries liaison for Kitty Hawk Wind since 2023, Schlenker leads outreach for the project to fishermen, state, regional, and federal fisheries managers, and the North Carolina research community. She has worked with stakeholders to develop a fisheries monitoring plan for the project and she works in developing policy and advising on fisheries issues across Avangrid’s global portfolio.

The monthly, in-person lecture series at the Coastal Studies Institute “brings perspectives from all over the state and highlights coastal topics in northeastern North Carolina,” organizers said.

Update 10 a.m. Feb. 20: The Science on the Sound Lecture, originally set for Thursday, Feb. 20, has been rescheduled to Feb. 27 because of weather concerns.

Original post:

The senior scientist monitoring a carbon-removal pilot project off the coast of Duck is scheduled to speak at the next “Science on the Sound” program.

Dr. Jaclyn Cetiner is to present “Preliminary Results from a Carbon Removal Field Trial in Duck, NC” at 6 p.m. Thursday at the Coastal Studies Institute on the ECU Outer Banks Campus in Wanchese.

Cetiner is a chemical oceanographer with a research background in marine mineral dissolution relating to long-term climate regulation for Hourglass Climate. The nonprofit research organization is carrying out the field monitoring program in Duck.

Cetiner will present an overview of the pilot project and preliminary results from the first six months of monitoring.

Organized by the Coastal Studies Institute, Science on the Sound is a monthly lecture series that brings “perspectives from all over the state and highlights coastal topics in northeastern North Carolina.” There is no charge to attend the program that also will be streamed on the CSI YouTube channel.

Undergraduate students who spent their fall semester studying Currituck Sound may have broken new ground in understanding the effects of controlled burns on a marsh island.

For the project, students compared vegetative changes to the marsh islands with the Audubon Pine Island Sanctuary and Center in Currituck County that have no history of recent fire, islands that are occasionally burned, and islands that have had frequent controlled burns.

The students presented their findings “The Sound of Change: Responses to Controlled Burning and Other Changes in the Currituck Sound,” Dec. 12 as part of the monthly Science on the Sound lecture series at the Coastal Studies Institute, or CSI, on East Carolina University’s Outer Banks Campus.

The students conducted the research project as part of the Outer Banks Field Site, or OBXFS, a semester-long, University of North Carolina Chapel Hill undergraduate program hosted each fall by CSI.

Controlled burns are part of a fall tradition that existed well before the first European set foot upon the North American continent and “has deep historical roots in the South, where the practice was quickly adopted from the Indians by early European settlers,” according to U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service research.

While there have been a number of studies examining how a controlled burn effects a marsh, delving into a fire’s impact on invasive species, soil accretion, plant diversity and potential of endangering some animal species, this research takes a different approach.

The study “was one of the few that worked in brackish marshes, and the students talking to stakeholders and users of the marsh about the changes they perceived is also something that’s, I think, unique to the study,” Outer Banks Field Site Director Lindsay Dubbs said during the presentation.

The students included a human dimension and interviewed people who use the Currituck Sound frequently about the environmental changes they feel have taken place.

For their field work, the students traveled to marsh islands within the boundaries of the Pine Island site and compared the effects of controlled burning on marsh vegetation.

The islands were divided into three groups. The control islands had “no historical data of any burns happening,” explained sophomore Lily Bertlshofer. “Our occasional sites were last burned in 2021 and our frequent sites have data being burned every year.”

The study was designed “to look at how controlled burns impact the allocation resources within marsh plants and soils, the impacts of controlled burning on the vegetation community of marsh and what the implications for marsh resilience are,” Berlshofer said.

The study confirmed that the long-established practice of prescribed burns benefit vegetative diversity in marsh inlands.

At first glance there does not appear to be a significant difference in plant diversity among the three areas.

“We found that there was no statistically significant relationship between species richness and burn frequency,” said Veronica Cheaz, a sophomore.

That finding was expected. Because the number of plants that can live in a salt-to-brackish environment is limited, diversity is relatively low.

“Generally, we found low species richness at all of our plots, which is not very surprising,” Cheaz said. “We have a brackish marsh in the Currituck Sound, and there’s not going to be very many species.”

What the study did identify, though, was how effective controlled burning of a brackish marsh could be in maintaining the habitat.

“We also looked at salinity tolerance,” Chaez said, which “is going to be influential in determining how effective these sites are at adapting to environmental stressors like sea level rise and a rise in salinity. We found that occasionally burned sites had the highest scores compared to our control sites, and we hypothesized that this is because occasionally burned sites have a balance of the disturbance periods and restoration periods that allows salt water species to move in.”

There was at least one surprising finding. When the living root systems, or the biomass, of the three sites were compared, the frequently burned areas have statistically greater biomass than either the control or occasional burn areas.

Pointing to a graph showing more than double the biomass of an occasional site, senior Katelin Harmon, majoring in environmental studies and political science, described the finding that “frequently burn sites were much higher,” as “one of our most interesting findings…There’s much stronger root systems in our frequently sites.”

Verdant and complex, the Currituck Sound marsh is somewhat unique. The nearest saltwater source is Oregon Inlet some 55 miles to the south of the study area at the Pine Island Audubon site. The salinity there is typically under 3 parts per thousand, or ppt, and at times lower.

“The low salinity makes these places special, and we refer to that as an oligohaline environment,” junior Thomas Ferguson said during the presentation.

Currituck Sound has not always been an oligohaline, or a low-salinity, environment. Throughout the colonial period and into the early 19th century, there were two inlets on the north end of the sound. Currituck Inlet across from Knotts Island was open until the 1730s. New Currituck Inlet just to the south, opened soon after that, closing in 1828. Until New Currituck Inlet closed, the north end of the sound was a high-saline brackish marsh.

With the closing of the inlets, Currituck Sound transitioned to an oligohaline marsh and migratory waterfowl began arriving by the hundreds of thousands, creating a hunter’s paradise.

“In 1828 the Currituck Inlet, at that time composed of salt water, was closed by a storm and the vicinity gradually became fresh water. This change allowed vegetation such as wild celery and eel grass to grow on the marsh bottom and this new vegetation attracted wintering fowl in greater quantities than before,” The National Register of Historic Places noted in its assessment of the Currituck Shooting Club.

The Currituck Shooting Club, founded in 1857 “by a group of business men in New York City,” the assessment wrote, was the first of numerous hunting clubs that lined the shores of Currituck Sound. The building was completely destroyed by fire in 2003.

The Pine Island Club was formed in 1910. In 1979 the last private owner of the club, Earl Slick, a Winston-Salem developer, donated 2600 acres of marsh and uplands to the National Audubon Society. In 2009 Audubon North Carolina assumed full-time responsibility for the managing the club.

Hunting is still allowed on the property, but according to at least one of the hunters the student researchers interviewed, it falls well short of what it had once been like.

“It really doesn’t have any ducks compared to when I was young, when I was your age, this place had ducks. This place doesn’t have anything anymore,” the researchers were told.

In a question-and-answer session following the presentation, Pine Island Site Manager Robbie Fearn noted that the statistical biomass findings at the frequently burned areas was inconsistent with what was visually happening.

“I’m at the Pine Island Sanctuary,” he said. “The areas that are frequently burned from my lived experiences are falling apart, and yet the data says that for longer term management, frequent burning may be better… Is it a question of the plants are responding to the frequent burn by trying to survive and creating more below-ground biomass.”

For Fearn, who was very complimentary of the work the students did, the inconsistency between what he has observed and what the statistics say is a jumping off point for much needed further research.

“The work that these students have done have really set us up to dig in and figure out how best to manage these marshes in the sound and I’m very thankful for their work,” he said.

Coastal Review will not publish Jan. 1 in observance of New Year’s Day.

NAGS HEAD — Imagine that a hurricane skirted the coast, causing the power to go out. You wait for the green light to blink on your backup power. Getting the all-clear, you flip on the switch connected to the community’s wave-powered alternate generator, and your refrigerator is humming again.

That creative concept is still a distant fantasy in 2024, but it’s the kind of need-inspired brainstorming that a new $3.6 million National Science Foundation community-oriented wave energy project encourages. Launched on Sept. 27, scientists at the Coastal Studies Institute on the East Carolina University Outer Banks Campus in Wanchese will be seeking input from folks around Nags Head to use toward developing and deploying practical wave-energy technology on the Outer Banks before the end of the five-year project.

“The goal is to present two or three potential technologies and get (community) inputs to really see whether or not this meets their need,” Eric Wade, assistant professor in the Department of Coastal Studies at East Carolina University, which includes the CSI campus, told Coastal Review recently.

Researchers from ECU will partner with the University of Michigan, University of North Carolina Chapel Hill and Virginia Tech on the project, with focal communities chosen in Michigan at Beaver Island and in North Carolina at Nags Head.

While Wade said it’s not yet likely that alternate sources of energy could be produced in Nags Head, other marine energy could be more conceivable for the Outer Banks at this stage. Some examples he cited were use in desalination, powering autonomous underwater vehicles and marine aquaculture.

“The introduction of this technology will not lower the electricity bill,” he said. “It will not have this massive transformation. It may be at a very small scale.”

In a substantive way, the new National Science Foundation project builds on two ongoing research projects that CSI is part of: the NC Renewable Ocean Energy Program and the Atlantic Marine Energy Center. The important difference, Wade explained, is that the main objective of the new project is to converge different components of the community — engineering, sociological and environmental — so they can “speak” with each other.

“The local context will drive the extent, and in my opinion, will drive the feasibility of convergence, because we need to be able to design technologies that meet the needs of communities,” he said.

“And so, what this project is trying to do is see how can we get them to be on the same page, to be able to move marine energy, and specifically wave energy, forward,” Wade said.

Each of the components communicate in different “languages” and have different requirements for their disciplines, he added. “The difficulty and what is unique for this project is that bringing those together requires a lot of work and a lot of intentional talk.”

Wade said the goal in the next two years is to have community sessions that will bring together representatives from different sectors of the communities to share their perspectives and priorities.

“We’ll then take all of that information, go back to the community, consolidate, do some analysis,” he said.

The building and deployment work on the selected technology will be done for remaining three years. The big picture, ultimately, is all part of the what marine energy scientists call “powering the blue economy.”

The blue economy is broadly defined as economic activity driven by or based on the world’s oceans. And as Wade noted, the U.S. is hustling to catch up with the more advanced blue technology of Europe.

Lindsay Dubbs, a UNC research associate professor based at the institute, is collaborating with Wade on the project. She is focused on environmental and ecological assessments. That work, she said, involves devising frameworks for analyzing environmental impacts of potential marine energy developments, as well as best practices for reducing negative impacts.

Dubbs, who also serves as associate director of the NC Renewable Ocean Energy Program and the Atlantic Marine Energy Center, said their project team includes student researchers, as well as colleagues from Virginia and Michigan.

“We’re also communicating a good deal with communities in Alaska who are already implementing wave energy technologies in their communities,” she said. “We have this community advisory group that is comprised of people from all of those different communities, and the two study sites that we’re focusing this convergent research on are Beaver Island and Nags Head.”

Waves on the Outer Banks are powerful, but they’re not as big as waves on the West Coast, Dubbs said. That’s mainly because of differences in the water depths approaching the coasts. “The power density of the wave resource — how much energy can be harnessed — within an area on the West Coast is much greater.”

But, she countered, a large area of the North Carolina coast has untapped wave energy resources that could at least provide energy for niche markets. And that could include backup power. But on the East Coast and the Outer Banks, generation would be more likely occur at a community scale, not at utility scale like on the West Coast.

The project team is just starting conversations with the community groups to understand their perspectives, wants and needs for a wave-energy source, Dubbs said. But rather than advocate for a particular technology, the team’s intent is to help the community decide on the type of technology that meets their needs. Part of that process has to consider trade-offs, she said, and whether it’s worth harnessing the available energy, and if it can be done “in a manner that our community supports” that poses the least environmental risk.

“It’s so abstract and theoretical that it’s sometimes hard to really imagine what’s possible,” she said. “The exciting thing about wave energy right now, is just about everything is being imagined. But as far as coming to convergence on something that will make it more economically viable and less abstract — that’s difficult.”

The last “Science on the Sound” for 2024 will give the public an opportunity to learn more about an undergraduate research project on elements of the Currituck Sound.

University of North Carolina Chapel Hill Institute for the Environment’s Outer Banks Field Site students are scheduled to present their findings at 4 p.m. Thursday, Dec. 12, in the Coastal Studies Institute on the East Carolina University Outer Banks Campus.

Science on the Sound is an in-person lecture series that brings perspectives from all over the state and highlights coastal topics in northeastern North Carolina. The public is welcome to attend the about 90-minute program at no charge. It will also be live-streamed on the CSI YouTube channel.

Outer Banks Field Site program is a semester-long, interdisciplinary residential learning experience for undergraduate students hosted by the Coastal Studies Institute. Each fall since 2001, the students have spent the semester taking classes, engaging in internships with local organizations, and completing a Capstone research project as a group.

This year, the students addressed for their Capstone research project the elements of the Currituck Sound, including how prescribed fire is used as a management tool in marshes and how different stakeholders think about Currituck Sound and their place in it, including the changes they have observed and experienced.

WANCHESE — The National Park Service’s historic architect overseeing structural rehabilitation at the Ocracoke Light Station is the featured speaker this week for the “Science on the Sound” lecture series at the Coastal Studies Institute on the ECU Outer Banks Campus.

Historical Architect George Jaramillo of the park service’s Outer Banks Group will present “Elevating Stations: Preserving the Ocracoke Light Station Double Keepers Quarters.” The free lecture is set for 6 p.m. Thursday.

With more than 20 years of architecture, heritage and design experience within the private and public sectors, Jaramillo explores the history, architectural significance and key adaptation strategies for preservation.

The monthly, in-person lecture series brings perspectives from all over the state and highlights coastal topics in northeastern North Carolina.

“For two centuries the Ocracoke Light Station has maintained watch over the waters of Silver Lake,” organizers said in a statement. “Today, its continued threat from stronger storms has brought the need for climate-forward adaptation preservation strategies. We explore the entanglement of history and adaptation within the site and the current strategies implemented at the Ocracoke Light Station Double Keepers Quarters. Old and new techniques are promoted for the rehabilitation of the structure providing ‘tangible interventions’ (Anderson et al, 2018) to adapt our unique maritime legacy for our changing futures.”

The program will also be livestreamed on the CSI YouTube channel for those unable to attend.

National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration meteorologists David Glenn and Ryan Ellis are to give a glimpse of how forecasts are made now and looking ahead at this month’s “Science on the Sound.”

“The National Weather Service: Where We Are and Where We Are Going. A Look into the Current and Future State of Weather Forecasting” is scheduled for 6 p.m. Thursday at the Coastal Studies Institute on the East Carolina University Outer Banks Campus in Wanchese.

Both based at the National Weather Service forecast office in Newport, Glenn is the meteorologist-in-charge and Ellis is the science and operations officer. The talk will focus on how weather projections are made and delivered to decision-makers, and how forecasting could evolve as new technology is incorporated.

Glenn began his career with NOAA’s National Weather Service in 2008 at the Portland, Maine, Weather Forecast Office. He was promoted in 2010 as forecaster at the Newport office and became the science and operations officer in June 2016. Glenn became the meteorologist-in-charge of the Newport office in October 2018.

Ellis has been with the Newport office since 2019. He was a meteorologist for 10 years with the Raleigh office and a student intern at the office in Honolulu, Hawaii. Ellis received his bachelor’s from the University of Miami and his master’s in meteorology from the University of Hawaii at Manoa. Ellis is an adjunct professor at East Carolina University in the Department of Geography.

The Coastal Studies Institute offers the monthly, in-person lecture series that highlights coastal topics and the public is encouraged to attend. The talk will be live-streamed on the CSI YouTube channel at https://www.youtube.com/live/MzxTqhyC1pg.

There is a grippingly real sense of dread that some people feel about the state of the environment.

That’s what Dr. Paul Taillie, assistant professor of geography and the environment at the University of North Carolina Chapel Hill, told an audience last week during the most recent “Science on the Sound” monthly lecture series hosted by Coastal Studies Institute at the East Carolina University Outer Banks Campus.

“This is a documented term called ‘climate anxiety,’ where this state of the Earth these days is causing people to be anxious,” he said. “It’s hard to avoid these dramatic, very worrisome headlines about super hurricanes and death and destruction, historic flooding. This feeling of anxiety is valid (and) I think it’s very justified.”

He delivered his talk, “Coastal Ecosystems and Rising Seas: Impending Collapse or Conservation Opportunity?” Thursday evening, one day before Hurricane Helene brought unheard of rainfall and destruction to Western North Carolina.

Taillie acknowledged that while there is reason for concern about the environment, he does not share the full-on anxiety others may experience. “I tend to be very optimistic about things.”

There were reasons for his optimism, he explained, adding he hoped attendees left the evening’s discussion with “more of a sense of optimism about climate change and biodiversity than when you came in the room.”

Taillie pointed out that all systems evolve and change over time and that the plants and animals living in those systems adjust to the changes and have been “for a really long time, hundreds of thousands of years.”

Questions remain about the impact of environmental change on certain species, especially those that are threatened by the changes that are taking place.

Taillie said that when he began his graduate studies, he wanted to look at how species, in general, reacted to environmental changes. One of the difficulties he found in wanting to study the possible benefits of those changes was the reluctance to focus on possible benefits.

“It’s easier to publish a paper about a species going extinct because of climate change than it is to publish a paper about a species benefiting from climate change,” he said. “But that’s been kind of a driving force behind my research.”

Taillie’s first graduate work was to investigate the effects of wildfire on plants and animals, and what he found was that wildfire is, in fact, an important part of the ecosystem.

“I started to notice that there’s all these plants and animals that are uniquely adapted to the conditions created by fire, and that these disturbances that we think of as being really bad can often be really good for biodiversity,” he said.

When he started his doctoral work, he had the chance to study the 2016 Pains Bay Fire in Dare County that burned 15,000 acres in Alligator River National Wildlife Refuge.

“I was super interested to see what happened to this area. As soon as I was allowed to, I went in there,” Taillie continued, showing the audience a picture of burned trees and shrubbery. Just a week later, grass had begun growing among the charred trees.

“These grasses (are) palladium or sawgrass. This is exploding,” he said. “It’s growing superfast and responding to fire very rapidly.”

A year later, he found what was once a forest was completely covered in grasses and fast-growing vegetation.

“This is almost unrecognizable as forest,” Taillie continued. “That fire is catalyzing this transition from forest to marsh.”

Taillie made the point that the grasses that have grown where there was once dense forest are essential for the survival of a number of species.

“These marshes support a lot of really unique animals that hide in these dense grasses,” he explained. “Many birds and small mammals are running around in there. They’re super vulnerable to predation, and so they need this dense grass in order to hide from predators.”

Fire is a relatively spectacular environmental change. The changes that occur in a marsh are more subtle but every bit as dynamic.

“Marshes,” he said, “have these built-in mechanisms of resilience to changes in sea level.”

As sea levels rise, the marsh will often migrate landward, replacing terrestrial systems, especially forest. That movement is apparent in ghost forests, where stands of dead trees immediately adjacent to a live forest.

State and federal agencies, including the North Carolina Wildlife Resources Commission and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, are concerned about these ghost forests. “These were proliferating all over Dare and Hyde counties.”

Taillie continued that he realized while he studied what was happening that “the ghost forest represented a transition from one stage of this transition from forest to marsh. This is not something to stop.”

Bird surveys that were taken of the living forest and ghost forest showed that the ghost forests are an important part of species survival and adaptation.

“We started to notice that there were lots of interesting birds hanging out in the ghost forests, much different than in the live forest. One of those is a prothonotary warbler,” he said.

A highly migratory species, the prothonotary warbler is described by the Cornell University All About Birds website as “a species of high conservation concern.”

The birds prefer nesting sites in standing dead trees over shallow water, a condition that Taillie described as “the exact sort of conditions that you find in those forests.”

He said his work has taken him from the marsh and barrier islands of coastal North Carolina to the Florida Keys, where he has been studying the ability of a subspecies of marsh rice rats to adapt and survive in their environment.

“Everyone always wants to know, well, if all the Keys were underwater, where did they go? I don’t know,” he said and pointed out that, “They have dealt with hurricanes for a very long time.”

There are, he pointed out, a number of similarities between North Carolina’s barrier islands and the Florida Keys. Both are subject, as an example, to periodic flooding, and it was the flooding that brought the silver rice rat to Taillie’s attention in 2017.

At the time, he was working with the Fish and Wildlife Service following Hurricane Irma. The agency was concerned that because of storm surge, “this entire endangered species could be no longer in existence.”

It quickly became apparent that the silver rice rat population was holding its own, even though the storm surge of 2 to 3 feet should have inundated the Keys where the rats lived.

How they survived is a mystery, Taillie said.

See what happens at the Coastal Studies Institute and East Carolina University Integrated Coastal Programs during the annual open house at the ECU Outer Banks Campus on Roanoke Island.

Scheduled for 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. Saturday, April 20, the public can tour the campus, grounds and facilities, learn about current research and education programs, take part in family-friendly activities and interact with faculty and staff.

The Coastal Studies Institute is a multi-institutional research partnership led by ECU, in association with North Carolina State University, the universities of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and Wilmington, and Elizabeth City State University.

ECU’s Integrated Coastal Programs is an interdisciplinary unit that focuses on coastal research and education.

The research and education initiatives of the two programs span a variety of coastal topics from nearshore coastal estuaries to the offshore waters along the continental shelf.

During the open house, visitors can meet a range of faculty and staff including coastal geoscientists, ecologists who study estuarine systems, maritime archaeologists researching and discovering new shipwrecks, oceanographers and coastal engineers, and social scientists who work with coastal residents, visitors and relevant social statistics.

The unseen life in the root zone of marsh grass and the microcosm below that is teeming with microbes producing marsh gas will be the focus of the next Coastal Studies Institute’s “Science on the Sound.”

Biochemistry and Molecular Biology Professor Emeritus Dr. James Ferry of Pennsylvania State University will present “Life in the Salt Marsh Underground” next week at the institute on the East Carolina University Outer Banks Campus in Wanchese.

The presentation begins at 6 p.m. Thursday, Feb. 15.

The public is welcome to attend at no charge the in-person lecture series held each month. The talk is to be live-streamed on the CSI YouTube channel, as well.

Ferry will highlight his research and explain the microbiological principles that also apply to other obscure gas-producing environments such as submerged coastal marine sediments, the hindgut of termites, domestic sewage, the stomachs of cows, and our own intestinal tract, organizers said.

Ferry earned his doctorate in microbiology and biochemistry from the University of Illinois in 1974. He then began his career as a microbiology professor at Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, and in 1995, moved to Penn State to accept an endowed chair in the Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology. Ferry is currently The Stanley R. Person Professor of Molecular Biology Emeritus.

A fellow of the American Academy of Microbiology, Ferry has authored more than 200 scientific publications and is past editor of the Journal of Bacteriology. He has served on numerous national and international committees and currently is a member of the National Academies of Science, Engineering and Medicine Intelligence Science and Technology Experts Group.

Explore the fundamental concepts of climate science, look under the hood of the computer models used in climate prediction, and consider how climate change might affect extreme weather events, particularly hurricanes on the coast, during this month’s “Science on the Sound.”

Atmospheric scientist Dr. Rosana Ferreira is to present “Navigating Climate Change: Science, Prediction and Extremes” at 6 p.m. Thursday, Jan. 18, during the monthly, in-person lecture series at the Coastal Studies Institute on the East Carolina University Outer Banks Campus, 850 N.C. Highway 345, Wanchese.

The series brings perspectives from all over the state and highlights coastal topics is hosted by the Coastal Studies Institute.

Ferreira is professor of atmospheric science in the Department of Geography, Planning, and Environment and doctorate director of the Integrated Coastal Sciences Program at ECU. Her research integrates observations and numerical model simulations of the atmosphere to study the variability and dynamics of regional climate.

Recently through funding from the National Science Foundation, her research lead to the discovery of a monsoon-like signal in the precipitation in the southeast United States. She is currently working on a modeling study of how this monsoon-like precipitation signal may change in a future warmer climate.

There is no charge to attend. The program will be livestreamed on the CSI YouTube channel.

Disclosure: Coastal Review correspondent Kip Tabb also serves on an informal citizens advisory board for the Outer Banks Field Site.

WANCHESE — Artificial light at night did not adversely affect sea turtle nesting north of Oregon Inlet from 2014 to 2022, undergraduate students found this fall during a four-month study.

A University of North Carolina Chapel Hill Institute for the Environment program, the semester-long Outer Banks Field Site combines environmental research and community engagement into the collaborative capstone research project. Coastal Studies Institute, a multi-institutional research partnership, and the East Carolina University Outer Banks Campus, host the program.

In addition to measuring the affect of artificial light, which they call ALAN, on sea turtle nesting, the students examined what the public thinks about artificial light at night.

The students presented their findings Dec. 12 during the monthly “Science on the Sound” program on campus.

Senior Drew Huffman, in introducing the study, noted that artificial light at night studies are often focused on inland areas, rather than shorelines.

“There’s a scarcity of existing literature on artificial light at night and coastal systems, as opposed to what we know about more terrestrial systems,” he said. Adding that’s another aim of their research, “to try to expand that knowledge so that we have of a grasp of what things are like for coastal systems and artificial light at night.”

Numerous studies show a repeated pattern of sea turtle hatchlings crawling toward artificial light, such as a street light, rather than toward the ocean.

The students wanted to gauge the effects of artificial light on nesting.

“Is there a relationship between sea turtle nesting and artificial light at night across the Outer Banks over the last nine years? And if so, what is it?” Those were the questions senior Laura Montague posed in describing the study.

The study area extended north from the north side of Oregon Inlet to the north end of Corolla, but did not include Carova, because, as one student explained, no one had a four-wheel-drive vehicle able to navigate the oceanfront area with no paved roads.

Reported sea turtle nesting data from 2014 to 2022 shows a trend of increasing nesting activity, although overall activity, including false crawls and nests laid, fluctuated during that period, the students found.

During that period, activity hit a low point in 2017 where only about 35 active sites were reported, comparted to 100 active sites in 2022.

“False crawls refer to instances when a female sea turtle comes ashore on a beach but instead of nesting, turns back around to re-enter the ocean,” according to the paper.

Although there was no clear reason for the trend toward more activity, junior Kenza Hessini-Arandel told the audience that she and the other students felt conservation efforts could account for the increase in activity.

“(The) Endangered Species Act that protected a lot of these species and also management efforts that organizations like (the Network for Endangered Sea Turtles) and the National Park Service perhaps helped increase the number of turtles that we’re seeing along the coast,” she said.

There was at least one anomaly in sea turtle activity that the students could not explain.

The Outer Banks is at the north end of the range where sea turtles nest, and Corolla, at the north end of the study area, saw significantly less nesting activity than sites at the south end near Oregon Inlet, which is considered to be a more compatible nesting area for turtles.

Though the number of Corolla nesting sites was significantly less than those on the south end of the study area, the number of false crawls was the same there as areas where activity was greater, representing a much higher percentage of false crawls compared to nests.

“However, we do not see the same pattern when looking at false crawls; there seem to be more false crawls in the northernmost and southernmost areas compared with areas in between,” the paper noted.

“There are a lot of variables that come into play with false crawls and we don’t know exactly why we are seeing this trend,” Hessini-Arandel said.

The students included environmental research in the study, as well. They explored the social science of artificial light, whether people attach significance to artificial light, and their perception of how it affects the environment.

The public perception survey included about 500 responses, with respondents divided into residents, seasonal residents and visitors.

The students found a strong indication that the public perception is that artificial light has a significant impact on the environment, and regardless of age or sex, or even where people lived, they were concerned about the effect.

Although there were small variations in the degree of concern among the groups, the overall response showed a clear level of unease with the amount of artificial light on the Outer Banks.

Junior Julie Yakaboski noted that a significant majority of people said they were either concerned or very concerned.

“Taking these two together, that’s about 70% of our responses,” she said.

Significantly, almost no one – fewer than 5% — said they were “not concerned about it at all.”

That attitude appears to correlate closely with whether respondents felt artificial light should be reduced. Asked whether they felt artificial light on the Outer Banks should be reduced, 90% of respondents said they either agreed or agreed strongly. More than 60% said they “agreed strongly.”

Because of the timing of the recent survey, answers were somewhat skewed by the number of full-time and seasonal residents, students said. However, the results would seem to indicate there is support for local governments to implement regulations or ordinances controlling artificial light.

“Public perceptions of ALAN have the power to affect the development of policies that regulate it,” according to the paper.

Undergraduate students at the Coastal Studies Institute on the East Carolina University Outer Banks Campus are set to share their findings on how artificial light affects sea turtles and the community.

Their presentation, “Artificial Light at Night: Public Perception, Sea Turtle Nesting, and Spatio-temporal Change in North Carolina’s Outer Banks,” is set for 6 p.m. Tuesday, Dec. 12, at the campus and should take about 90 minutes, including time for questions and discussions.

The presentation is the culmination of a semester-long, interdisciplinary residential learning experience at University of North Carolina Chapel Hill Institute for the Environment’s Outer Banks Field Site, hosted by the Coastal Studies Institute on the ECU Outer Banks Campus. Each fall since 2001, students spend the semester taking classes, engaging in internships with area organizations, and completing a capstone research project as a group.

This year’s capstone research addresses artificial light at night on the Outer Banks, including changes over the past nine years, what Outer Banks residents and visitors think about artificial light at night, and how changes relate to sea turtle nesting patterns.

Attendees will also have the opportunity to view posters about the students’ internship projects before the presentation and to talk with the students about their experiences during a reception afterward. Light refreshments will be provided.

“Science on the Sound” is a monthly, in-person lecture series that brings perspectives from all over the state and highlights coastal topics in northeastern North Carolina.

There is no charge for the public to attend. The program is to be livestreamed on the CSI YouTube channel.

This month’s “Science on the Sound” will explore shipwreck trends off Hatteras Island with Allyson Ropp, a doctoral candidate in the Integrated Coastal Sciences program at East Carolina University.

She will present “Wrecked on Chicamacomico: An Examination of the Shipwrecks along Wimble Shoals, Rodanthe, North Carolina” at 6 p.m. Thursday at the Coastal Studies Institute on the ECU Outer Banks campus. The public can attend the program at no charge. It will be livestreamed on the institute’s YouTube channel as well.

“Science on the Sound,” is a monthly, in-person lecture series that brings perspectives from all over the state and highlights coastal topics.

“Like many places on the North Carolina coast, along the northern portion of Hatteras Island, lies a set of submerged shoals, Wimble Shoals. These shoals have been agents of destruction in the area for centuries, playing a role in the wrecking of ships sailing the Atlantic shipping lanes. Many wrecking events led to harrowing rescues by passing ships or the U.S. Life Saving Service units stationed along the island,” according to the university.

During the program, Ropp will explain the histories of some of the vessels lost along Wimble Shoals and northern Hatteras Island, and she will highlight the area’s overall near-shore and offshore wrecking trends to understand various dynamics of the loss of vessels.
 
Ropp earned her master’s degree from the Program in Maritime Studies at ECU, and is now a doctoral candidate in the ECU Integrated Coastal Sciences program. She was recently named to National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s Dr. Nancy Foster Scholars Class of 2023. Her dissertation research aims to characterize and evaluate the degradation of wooden shipwrecks through the integration of archaeological, microbial ecology, hydrological, and geospatial methods.

The Red Wolf Recovery Program, a U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service effort to preserve the endangered species, is the topic of this month’s “Science on the Sound,” a monthly lecture series at the Coastal Studies Institute on the East Carolina University Outer Banks Campus in Wanchese.

Joe Madison, U.S. Fish and Wildlife North Carolina program manager, will present “Red Wolf Revitalization: Current Status of the Red Wolf,” at 6 p.m. Wednesday, June 14.

There is no charge to attend the program in-person at the institute or view the livestream on the CSI YouTube channel.

During the program, Madison is to discuss red wolves, their complex history, current population status, the Red Wolf Recovery Program, and the actions being taken to recover the species.

Madison has been a wildlife biologist for the federal government for more than 26 years, including the last six years with the Fish and Wildlife Service’s Red Wolf Recovery Program.

Madison spent most of his career as a federal wildlife biologist working on various aspects of endangered and at-risk species management, including direct species management, habitat management, National Environmental Policy Act compliance, Endangered Species Act consultation, and other collaborative partnerships on species such as red wolves, Cuban boa, California condor, gray wolves, sea turtle, black bear, grizzly bear and Canada lynx.

WANCHESE—Location.

That was a driving force behind the establishment of the Coastal Studies Institute, or CSI, a decade ago as a research partnership between five public North Carolina universities. Being on the Outer Banks provides direct access to the nation’s second-largest estuary, the Albemarle-Pamlico, as well as to a unique part of the Atlantic Ocean.

And CSI’s location continues to make it valuable in the eyes of those involved today, from the executive director to professors and researchers to undergraduate students.

“CSI is a place-based steward of the best available data and science,” Executive Director Dr. Reide Corbett told Coastal Review in an email. Such place-based facilities “transform the lives of students of all ages” and allow collaboration with the local community “to integrate science into decision-making.”

To celebrate 10 years on the Outer Banks, CSI held a free open house Saturday on its campus in Wanchese. The public was invited to tour the building, participate in a variety of hands-on learning experiences and talk to professors, researchers and students from East Carolina University, Elizabeth City State University and the College of The Albemarle.

Various organizations in the Coastal Environmental Educators Network also had informational and activity booths on-site for the 2023 Earth Fair OBX that took place in conjunction with the open house.

The parking lot was full by midday and groups of people meandered through and around the LEED Gold-certified building. LEED is a green building rating system.

A family viewed local shipwreck video footage through 3D glasses in the scientific diving lab room. Groups of attendees perused rooms full of the latest research on marsh cores and sediments, Gulf Stream ecology, renewable ocean energy and more. Attendees also had the chance to see drones, autonomous vehicles, a wave energy converter, CSI’s research boat and other science technology firsthand.

Dr. Jim Morley, an assistant professor in ECU’s biology department, welcomed members of the public into the Fisheries Ecology Lab he oversees on CSI’s third floor. He had a computer screen set up to display the view through a microscope of tiny crabs and transparent shore shrimp swimming in a water sample.

Morley said he’s been stationed here for almost 3½ years. “The best part? Definitely the location,” he stated. “Just being close to the places where you’re conducting field research is very handy.”

The Albemarle-Pamlico estuary, located directly behind CSI, is one of the country’s most important estuaries “in terms of fish productivity,” Morley said.

The six people he oversees in the lab are interested in how marine ecosystems change over time.

“We’re doing research on climate change impacts and other forms of human interference with habitats,” he said. They’re also currently studying a shrimp parasite. And they’ll start a project this summer on invasive species of catfish to see “what their predatory impact is on the native species.”

Next to him, Lela Schlenker, a postdoctoral ECU student, invited people to catch and hold shore shrimp swimming with small fish and crabs in tanks on a lab counter.

“I’m a fisheries biologist, and this project is a broad fisheries assessment,” Schlenker said of a nearby set of charts displaying her research. “We’re basically trying to understand the state of fisheries and ecosystem in North Carolina.”

Verena Wang, another ECU postdoctoral scholar, invited people to hold an otolith. Otoliths are ear bones unique to fish, which help them both hear and orient themselves as they swim, she explained.

Juvenile fish develop daily otolith rings, while older fish have yearly rings, like a tree. Scientists can tell how old a fish was and what species it was just by studying its otolith, since each species’ otolith has a unique shape and size, Wang explained.

In a second-floor classroom, undergraduate ECU students asked attendees if they wanted to look through microscopes at various forms of plankton. Laminated sets of photographs of plankton and their corresponding names were next to each telescope.

Julia Callender, a junior ECU biology major and coastal studies minor, helped a child get situated at a microscope. Callender is studying in the semester-long program ECU offers at CSI, which she said is “like a study abroad program, but it’s local.”

The undergraduate housing in Manteo costs the same as a semester in a campus dormitory, but doesn’t include the meal plan, she said.

Prior to coming to CSI, “I didn’t think I was interested in working with the public,” Callender said, but she found she has enjoyed working with the K-12 science outreach program. She has also enjoyed the hands-on learning — even learning how to tie boat knots — and the small undergraduate class sizes, generally between four to 10 students, which “are beneficial” for developing relationships with professors. She plans to host an outreach table when she returns to Greenville to recruit more students to the program: “Why wouldn’t you want to come here?”

Outside on the dock by CSI, Andrew McMains, an ECU doctoral biology student, manned the Adaptive Resolution Imaging Sonar, or ARIS, which provides a way to count fish. A screen was set up so if a fish swam by, people could see it in real time. ARIS sends out sound, and fish bodies reflect it back, so it can still effectively be used when waters are not clear, he explained.

Starting this fall, he and his colleagues plan to study fish movement through Oregon Inlet. McMains said questions they hope to answer include whether predatory species or prey leave the sounds for the ocean first, and what exactly prompts fish to leave and to return — is it temperature or wind or multiple days at the same temperature?

Meanwhile, Patterson “Trip” Taylor, a research assistant at CSI for almost 10 years, stood on the deck of the Miss Caroline, which was docked nearby in the canal.

“This is our research vessel,” Taylor said, gesturing around the 42-foot Duffy & Duffy boat. “The majority of boats with the same instrumentation are significantly larger.” But its compact size helps when navigating the shallow waters of the local sounds, he noted.

Instruments onboard measure water temperature, salinity and speed, and special cameras can map up to 600 meters below the boat. From the salinity and other characteristics, he said he can map the “boundaries” of waters, determining where Chesapeake Bay outflow, Gulf Stream and other distinct water bodies are in the ocean.

Hanging off the back of the boat in the air for people to see was a “rosette with gray canisters,” through which water can freely flow until researchers decide to close the tops. After taking water samples at specific depths, they bring the filled canisters back to CSI, “so chemists and biologists can do their own research,” Taylor said.

The Outer Banks is situated at the confluence of the Mid-Atlantic Bight and the South Atlantic Bight, in an area that is also heavily influenced by wind and by the Gulf Stream.

“It’s an extremely dynamic environment out here, which is why it’s interesting for oceanography,” Taylor said.

CSI is a multi-institutional research partnership between ECU, Elizabeth City State, University of North Carolina Chapel Hill, North Carolina State University and University of North Carolina Wilmington.

ECU took administrative lead over CSI in 2015, establishing the Outer Banks Campus, according to Corbett. That led to the development of a new college called Integrated Coastal Programs at ECU in 2018, as well as the new Department of Coastal Studies and the redesign of a doctoral program. Prior to 2015, CSI reported directly to the University of North Carolina Systems Office, he said.

CSI has grown from three to 10 full-time faculty since its establishment and currently has more than 50 undergraduate students spending at least a full semester on campus, Corbett said in an email. Faculty have backgrounds in fields of study that include anthropology, remote sensing, human geography, coastal engineering, physical oceanography, fisheries, hydrology and marine geochemistry — bringing together “an interdisciplinary team unlike any other marine center.”

“This breadth of experience allows CSI to focus on the cutting edge of coastal science, providing solutions to coastal communities through cutting edge research and engagement,” Corbett said.

“We are proud of our ability to expand the amount of long-term ocean observations, including waves and currents, off our coast from Ocracoke to the Virginia line,” Corbett said. “We maintain this suite of instrumentation off our coast to better understand the energy resource, address questions related to the complex physical and biochemical interactions in our coastal waters, and provide the data publicly as an important scientific and public resource.”

CSI scientists have also been working with Dare County, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and the National Park Service collecting long-term data “that has been instrumental in creating a monitoring program to assess possible biological impacts along the beach following a (beach) nourishment project.”

Over its first decade, CSI’s external grant revenue has multiplied by more than tenfold, to $4 million currently, “with research being conducted in our backyard and around the globe,” Corbett said.

He pointed to North Carolina Renewable Ocean Energy Program as “an important part of our strategic growth.” The leadership team has expanded its partnerships with the U.S. Department of Energy, or DOE, and CSI hosted the DOE Waves to Water prize program in conjunction with Jennette’s Pier in April 2022, where four devices competed for $1 million in total prize awards to use wave energy to convert ocean water into drinking water.

Also in 2022, Corbett said the DOE awarded ECU/CSI and three partner institutions competitive grants to create the Atlantic Marine Energy Center,or AMEC, a new national center “to address the ongoing needs for research, development and testing” of wave, tidal and ocean current energy. The University of New Hampshire is the lead organization for AMEC, which is the fourth national renewable energy center.

The U.S. is “certainly about a decade behind Europe” and is “playing catch-up” in harnessing offshore wind and other forms of renewable energy, like waves and currents, he said in a phone call. Only in the last several years has development really been pushed, such as by DOE putting significant resources toward driving innovation in that area.

CSI also works with the DOE Energy Transitions Initiative Partnership Program, which annually encourages remote and island communities in the Southeast to apply. The town of Nags Head and Ocracoke Island applied and were competitively selected for the program in 2021, according to the DOE website.

CSI is working with both local governments to help them include renewables in their future energy portfolios, such as by potentially electrifying some Ocracoke ferries, Corbett said.

Outside of that, scientists also collaborate locally to address challenges or specific project concerns. They have provided data for the town of Nags Head’s estuarine shoreline management plan, and students are currently working with the town to evaluate shallow groundwater changes.

“We have worked with Nags Head on helping the community understand the science behind sea level change and possible implications of future rise,” Corbett noted. “We are here to serve our community to the best of our ability.” 

As scientists, they recognize they don’t have all the answers, but “we are constantly searching, studying and looking for solutions,” he added.

CSI also plays a part in instructing the next generation of scientists. K-12 programs in ocean energy, marine biology and more are available both at CSI and off campus at schools. CSI educators collaborate with local teachers with Dare County Schools, but also serve groups across the state and in Virginia, according to Corbett. He expects CSI to serve 2,000 students on campus and another 2,000 off campus by the end of the year.

Additionally, CSI offers 10 summer day camps. All camp slots sold out within two days of opening registration this year, Corbett said. In the past, CSI offered as many as 17 summer camps, but scaled back because of staffing and the need to “create a balance” between the camps and ongoing research.

Echoing the top concern of many Outer Banks employers, Corbett acknowledged: “The biggest challenge for our growth is housing.” While actively trying to address that, he said he expects it to “continue to limit growth of our programming and capacity.”

He explained, “When you really want to drive research, build on research, a lot of that is done with your grad students, Ph.D. students (and) post-docs.”

But several graduate students have chosen to return to ECU’s main campus in Greenville “due to a lack of housing” on the Outer Banks. The campus set up a weekly shuttle to bring students to CSI, “but that doesn’t provide the contact time or research experience often needed for their research,” Corbett said. Whereas three to four years ago, CSI had about six full-time doctoral and graduate students living and working on the Outer Banks, it currently only has two.

While CSI leases dormitory-style housing in Manteo that works well for undergraduates, the higher-level students and technical staff “typically need something more than dorm-type housing,” Corbett said.

In the future, CSI plans to continue to grow its capacity to harness the many forms of renewable energy available off the coast, including using the Gulf Stream as a source of energy, he said.

CSI staff members look forward to the Pioneer Array being stationed off the Outer Banks coast in 2024 and learning how that ocean observation system “can be integrated into our current research,” he said.

The Pioneer Array just finished a seven-year stint of continuous data-gathering off the Massachusetts coast.

CSI also plans to continue to study coastal change in order to supply solutions to coastal communities’ challenges.

“CSI is truly blossoming as a marine center,” Corbett said, noting the importance of its many local partnerships. “We want to work across these partners to create a more resilient coastal community.”

For more information, the public can attend CSI’s free, monthly “Science on the Sound” events, visit the campus or visit www.coastalstudiesinstitute.org.

Discover more coastal celebrations and programs at Earth Day 2023.

The Coastal Studies Institute is set to celebrate Earth Day and its 10-year anniversary on the East Carolina University Outer Banks Campus.

The institute and co-host ECU’s Integrated Coastal Programs have organized an open house and worked with the Coastal Environmental Educators Network to hold this year’s Earth Fair OBX on the campus from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. April 22.

Open house attendees will be able to tour the campus, grounds and facilities and take part in hands-on activities. There will be a chance to learn about current research and education programs and interact with faculty and staff.

During Earth Fair OBX, there will be informational booths from a variety of environmental organizations and family-friendly activities to engage participants of all ages. In past years, the fair was held at Dowdy Park in Nags Head.

The Coastal Studies Institute is a multi-institutional research partnership led by East Carolina University, in association with N.C. State University, University of North Carolina Chapel Hill, UNC-Wilmington and Elizabeth City State University.

CSI focuses on integrated coastal research and education programming centered on responding to the needs, issues and topics of concern of the residents of eastern North Carolina.

The ongoing research into wetland damage and innovative restoration projects both in Currituck Sound and in the Florida everglades is the topic of this month’s “Science on the Sound” lecture series.

Set for 6 p.m. Thursday, postdoctoral researcher Dr. Sean Charles and Pine Island Audubon Sanctuary Director Robbie Fearn will lead the program, “Coastal Wetlands in a Changing World: Life, Loss and Restoration in Pine Island Audubon Sanctuary in Corolla and the Florida Everglades,” at the Coastal Studies Institute on the East Carolina University Outer Banks Campus in Wanchese.

“Coastal wetlands provide vital habitat for economically and environmentally important species, enhance water quality, and play a crucial role in reducing the impacts of climate change,” according to a statement from the university. “Wetland plants and soils sequester carbon from the atmosphere more efficiently than any other ecosystem, fighting global and protecting coastal communities from rising seas and intensifying storms. However, storms, rising seas, and saltwater intrusion in combination with local human impacts also leads to wetland damage and loss.”

Charles is a postdoctoral researcher in the Coasts and Ocean Observing Laboratory at Coastal Studies Institute. His research has focused on plant-soil interactions in coastal ecosystems, restoration and disturbance ecology.

Fearn oversees conservation planning impacting the greater Currituck Sound region, construction and renovation of the 2,600-acre property for programming and research activities and engages the community in protecting the property.

The institute, often called by its acronym CSI, hosts the monthly, in-person, lecture series that highlights coastal topics in northeastern North Carolina. The presentations are free of charge, and all are welcome to attend. The program will also be live streamed and a recorded version will be available on the YouTube channel.

Registration for summer camps at the Coastal Studies Institute in Wanchese begins at 9 a.m. Wednesday.

The institute has scheduled eight weeks of camp between June 12 and Aug. 11 with four alternating themes that focus on science, technology, engineering, art and math, or STEAM, concepts, hands-on experiences and exploration of the great outdoor spaces of the Outer Banks.

The cost for one week of camp is $325 and up to 13 campers between 10 and 15 years of age will be accepted for each session. Each day of camp is from 9 a.m. to 3:30 p.m.

The following camps will be offered:

• Coastal Kingdoms coastal marine biology and ecology camp June 12-16 and July 17-21. During this program, campers will learn about coastal habitats and the animals that call them home through hands-on labs and field trips as well as fun sessions with local marine biologists and ecologists.
• Legends Of The Atlantic maritime archeology and ocean exploration camp June 19-23 and July 24-28. Campers will learn about maritime archeology and the processes scientists use to understand and document the history of the Atlantic. Campers explore how shipwrecks contain clues to the past, try on dive gear, talk to maritime experts, and even see a few wrecks up close.
• Shapes In Science art and science camp June 26-30 and July 31- Aug. 4. Campers will use different mediums such as ceramics, watercolors, and photography, to convey some of the research themes currently present at CSI. At the end of the week, the campers and staff will host a gallery that features the students’ work.
• Sustainable Seas oceanography and coastal engineering camp July 10-14 and Aug. 7-11. Campers will learn about oceanographic and coastal processes through the lens of technology and interact with scientists who use the tools daily. Each day will begin with the exploration of a basic research technique followed by the introduction of an advanced technology that makes the job both easier and often more fascinating.

Contact Parker Kellam at kellama19@ecu.edu or call 252-475-5452 for general camp questions. For questions regarding the summer camp registration process, contact ECU Continuing & Professional Education or call 252-328-9198.

Led by East Carolina University, The Coastal Studies Institute is a multi-institutional research and educational partnership of the University of North Carolina System including North Carolina State University, UNC Chapel Hill, UNC Wilmington, and Elizabeth City State University.

East Carolina University’s Integrated Coastal Programs and the Coastal Studies Institute are hosting an open house Feb. 29 at the ECU Outer Banks Campus location in Wanchese.

The 1-4 p.m. event at 850 N.C. 345 is free of charge. Attendees will be able to tour the campus, grounds and facilities, learn about current research and education programs, take part in family friendly activities and interact with faculty and staff from ECU, CSI and partners including North Carolina Sea Grant, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s Monitor National Marine Sanctuary and the Outer Banks Center for Dolphin Research.

The Coastal Studies Institute is a multi-institutional research partnership led by East Carolina University, in association with North Carolina State University, the University of North Carolina Chapel Hill, UNC Wilmington and Elizabeth City State University. CSI focuses on integrated coastal research and education programming centered on responding to the needs, issues and topics of concern of the residents of eastern North Carolina.

Research and education initiatives span a variety of coastal topics from nearshore coastal estuaries to the offshore waters along the continental shelf, including the following:

• Coastal geoscientists are researching the processes that drive coastal change, their effect on communities and ways to become more resilient in the face of increasing hazards that threaten the coast.
• Ecologists are studying estuarine systems, their inputs and how to ensure healthy coastal ecosystems.
• Oceanographers and coastal engineers are exploring ways to harness the power of the Gulf Stream, waves and other renewable ocean energy sources, using new technologies to broaden North Carolina’s energy portfolio.
• Social scientists are working with coastal residents, visitors and relevant social statistics to better understand the impacts coastal change has on communities, while working to develop new and prosperous economies.
• Maritime archaeologists are researching and discovering new shipwrecks using advanced technologies while celebrating the maritime heritage of eastern North Carolina.
• Faculty and staff are engaging the local community and the next generation of scientists and decision makers in education programming that fosters student interest in the fields of technology, engineering, art, math and science.

WANCHESE – More than two decades after a cheeky bumper sticker slogan “UNC-Dare … Why Not?” led to a push for a Dare County-based marine education and research center, the 7-year-old Coastal Studies Institute has taken a big step toward its original goal of becoming a world-class marine science facility.

East Carolina University’s Outer Banks campus at CSI has hired six new faculty who will conduct research and teach as part of new or expanded programs in integrated coastal science, ocean energy and coastal ecology. The first of the team of interdisciplinary coastal scientists started in August, and the last two will arrive on the Outer Banks in January 2020.

“It’s an overarching program that’s focused on building coastal research and education across all of ECU campuses,” said Reide Corbett, ECU’s dean of Integrated Coastal Programs and executive director of CSI.

“What I’m trying to do now is build the program,” he added. “Whether it’s research or curriculum, it’s done on the shoulders of faculty.”

As part of ECU’s new Integrated Coastal Programs unit, which includes CSI and the Department of Coastal Studies, four of the faculty were hired after a major investment by the university in teaching programs focused on ocean margins and research on coastal North Carolina.

Each tenure-tracked scientist possesses distinct expertise: David Lagomasino, landscape geomorphology, ecohydrology, remote sensing; Kimberly Rogers, coupled human-natural systems and coastal processes; Nadine Heck, human-environment geographer; and Siddharth Narayan, coastal engineer.

Corbett, a coastal oceanographer/geochemist who has worked at CSI since it opened in 2012 and at ECU since 2000, sees the big picture on northeastern North Carolina’s environment. Not only is coastal science here changing rapidly, it is made extraordinarily complex by virtue of its enormous estuarine system, a long ocean shoreline subject to powerful currents and storm-driven waves, and its proximity to the mighty Gulf Stream.

“My own interest is that land-water interaction,” Corbett said. That alone covers beach erosion, sand transport, nutrient pollution, saltwater intrusion, beach nourishment and wastewater treatment.

Extrapolating the interests of the other scientists at CSI, it’s easy to understand why Corbett says he is excited to have the new team of researchers at there. The focus on integration and collaboration, he said, will foster growth and link the Greenville campus to the Outer Banks campus, with an emphasis on the challenges faced on the coastal plain out to the deep ocean.

Of all the challenges related to climate change, he said, two that loom largest, sea level rise and increased flooding, are particularly significant on the coast.

“The coast – period,” Corbett said. “Not just North Carolina. We have faculty in West Africa.”

For that reason, resilience on a regional and global level is also a focus at CSI, which is the state’s first marine study institution on the northeast coast. CSI historically has focused on coastal processes: estuarine ecology, coastal policy and sustainability, maritime heritage and coastal engineering. With the new faculty, the opportunities will broaden. They will also participate in the redesigned PhD program on Integrated Coastal Sciences and development of “place-based” courses.

“We’re bringing together different disciplines to these fairly complicated challenges we are facing on the coast,” Corbett said.

Three marine institutions, albeit much larger, are located on the Crystal Coast: UNC Chapel Hill Institute of Marine Sciences in Morehead City, Duke University Marine Lab in Beaufort and N.C. State University’s Center for Marine Sciences and Technology in Morehead City.

“You might think you’re duplicating efforts,” Corbett said. “But everybody has their own expertise. One of the things we’re doing differently than many is linking social science to natural science.”

“One of the things we’re doing differently than many is linking social science to natural science.”

Reide Corbett, ECU’s dean of Integrated Coastal Programs, CSI executive director

Policy, people’s perception of risk and physical factors are all part of the equation, he explained. “All of those things are going on at the same time,” he said. “Sea level rise, I think, is an example where a lot of those things are playing out right now.”

Beach nourishment, once a volatile public issue, has been credited recently for effectively forestalling the effects of erosion from rising seas.

“Yes, it’s working, but we need to be thinking a bit further down the road,” Corbett said. “We need to be a little more proactive in going forward.”

But in the wake of increased rains, deluges and different storm patterns, he said, it seems as if people are starting to change their attitude about the reality of climate change.

“I do think we’re moving in the right direction,” he said.

When CSI was founded in 2003, it was run by director Nancy White out of a small office in Manteo. White retired in 2017.

In 2005, the institution added a research laboratory in Nags Head. Meanwhile, plans were made to construct a LEED-, or Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design-certified building on a landlocked site donated by Dare County near its regional airport on Roanoke Island.

When an opportunity came up to buy more than 200 acres along the Croatan Sound on the other side of the island, the state agreed. But in the process, a planned auditorium and student housing had to be cut from the site plan.

Until 2015, CSI answered to the chancellor of the University of North Carolina system. Now, that link is to the ECU system. But from the beginning, CSI has been partnered with UNC-Chapel Hill, N.C. State, UNC-Wilmington, ECU and Elizabeth City State University.

The $36 million campus, a 65,000-square-foot research and education building and a 15,000-square-foot marine services building, officially opened in Dec. 2012.

Surrounded by undeveloped marsh and wetlands and natural landscaping, the award-winning main building is an example of sustainable modern architecture designed to fit the environment.

Even before the recent expansion of the programming and staffing at the Outer Banks campus, there was impressive science being done at CSI, including studies at the continental shelf, research on stormwater management, shipwreck explorations and ways to harness energy in Gulf Stream.

George Bonner, a recently retired Coast Guard civil engineer, took the helm in August of the North Carolina Renewable Ocean Energy Program at CSI, a collaboration with UNC Charlotte, N.C. State and N.C. A&T, among other stakeholders. His new post is a good fit with his prior work on sustainability and resiliency in building and rebuilding, he said.

Along with Bonner, Jim Morley, coastal ecologist with the ECU Department of Biology, has joined the staff at the CSI campus.

Bonner, also with N.C. State’s Department of Civil, Construction and Environmental Engineering, was a participant in Old Dominion University’s three-year Intergovernmental Pilot Convener project, a Hampton Roads-based planning organization that addressed sea level rise preparedness and resilience planning for government, public and private sector concerns.

The experience showed him the value of collaboration, he said, especially with controversial issues such as sea level rise.

“I think it helped move it a long way by helping bring people together to talk about things,” Bonner said about the joint effort. “I think the same principles apply here. You’ve got to engage everybody on things that affect the whole community. “

Renewable ocean energy is no longer a lofty goal, it is being actively pursued in multiple ways by multiple players.

As emphasized in the April 2019 U.S. Department of Energy report, Powering the Blue Economy: Exploring Opportunities for Marine Renewable Energy in Maritime Markets, there are more markets with potential for ocean power than anticipated, including underwater vehicle charging, marine algae and aquaculture, ocean observation and navigation and seawater mining.

Opportunities were also found to support community resilience, the report said, such as desalination and community-scale isolated power systems.

Currently, researchers are working on building ocean observing devices with long lasting power and technology that uses wave energy to provide potable water.

But CSI has been conducting cutting edge science in the deep ocean for years, measuring current power and force at the Gulf Stream and testing energy production. And UNC Charlotte has developed a magnetic gear to use in wind turbines instead of more rust-prone moving parts.

Bonner said that he has heard during energy meetings that research done in North Carolina “is really respected.”

As the new director of the renewable energy program, Bonner, who grew up in Manteo, intends to continue to advance interdisciplinary research and collaboration, including testing wave energy devices and other ocean technology at nearby Jennette’s Pier in Nags Head. The program will incorporate ways to kindle scientific innovation in students from kindergarten to university, he said, and emphasize holistic environmental stewardship, meaning that noise and other factors are considered in ocean projects.

“It’s really inspiring to come to work here every day,” Bonner said.

The N.C. Renewable Energy Challenge for middle school through university students will be hosted by CSI on March 21, 2020, and the ninth annual N.C. Renewable Ocean Energy Symposium, when university students report on their research, will be held at CSI on March 30-31.

As the new faculty settles in and the programming is geared up, Corbett said he will work with the community to find a long-term solution for student housing. But ultimately, his goal is building the campus – ideally with about 14 faculty and 50 full-time undergraduates – that was envisioned more than 20 years ago. That way, more students with ECU’s Integrated Coastal Programs can spend time at the beach.

“We want to move that center of gravity out to the coast,” Corbett said. “We certainly want all our students in that program to understand a coastal community.”

George Bonner will take over leadership of the North Carolina Renewable Ocean Energy Program starting Aug. 1, East Carolina University’s Integrated Coastal Programs and the Coastal Studies Institute, or CSI, announced Wednesday.

As director of the program, Bonner will be responsible for integrated research, education, training and outreach efforts in the area of ocean renewable energy, working in conjunction with the CSI executive director and the program’s technical advisory board to revisit and implement the programs strategic plan and vision.

“We are excited to have Mr. Bonner lead the North Carolina Renewable Ocean Energy Program as we enter this next stage of growth in our research on renewable ocean energy for the State of North Carolina. Bonner’s proven leadership and experience working across many coastal systems will be a valuable asset to the program, NC State, ECU and CSI,”  Reide Corbett, CSI and Dean of ECU’s Integrated Coastal Programs executive director, said in a statement.

Bonner, a Roanoke Island native, has 30 years experience as an officer and civil engineer in the U.S. Coast Guard. Most recently, he served as the Coast Guard deputy director of operational logistics, supervising the mission support headquarters in Norfolk, Virginia, and was responsible for the Coast Guard’s overall mission support and logistics.

“Throughout my 30 year Coast Guard career, I have strived to support our motto of Semper Paratus. I am thrilled to return home to Roanoke Island and the opportunity to work with the NC State, ECU, and the Coastal Studies Institute team in the emerging renewable ocean energy sector to help our state and nation remain Always Ready!” Bonner said in a statement.

The program, supported by state legislature since it began in 2010, is led by CSI with the colleges of engineering at North Carolina State University, North Carolina A&T, University of North Carolina Charlotte and East Carolina University, and includes a range of scientists, students and industry professionals whose work focuses on various aspects of marine hydrokinetic power generation. The position is filled in partnership with the Department of Civil, Construction, and Environmental Engineering at North Carolina State University and is at CSI on ECU’s Outer Banks Campus in Wanchese.

“With rapidly expanding application of renewable ocean solutions to meet energy demands across the world, I’m excited with this role in advancing industry-leading research across the UNC System and promoting sustainable solutions to best serve our economy, national security, and environment,” Bonner said.

WANCHESE — Those curious about what goes on inside the East Carolina University Outer Banks Campus, which houses ECU’s Integrated Coastal Programs, or ECU ICP, and the Coastal Studies Institute, or CSI, can visit the facility from 1-4 p.m. Saturday, April 13, during the 2019 open house.

CSI is a multi-institutional research partnership led by ECU, with North Carolina State University, University of North Carolina Chapel Hill, University of North Carolina Wilmington and Elizabeth City State University. CSI focuses on integrated coastal research and education programming centered on responding to the needs, issues and topics of concern of the residents of eastern North Carolina.

During the open house, visitors can learn about research initiatives from faculty and staff, tour the campus, grounds and facilities, learn about ongoing research and education programs and engage in family-friendly activities.

Visitors will also have the opportunity to interact with faculty and staff from hosts ECU and CSI, which focuses on a range of coastal topics from nearshore coastal estuaries to the offshore waters along the continental shelf, as well as meet partners from North Carolina Sea Grant, NOAA’s Monitor National Marine Sanctuary and the Outer Banks Center for Dolphin Research.

The ECU Outer Banks Campus is at 850 N.C. 345 , about a mile from where U.S. 64 and N.C. 345 intersect.

Learn More

• ECU Outer Banks Campus
• Coastal Studies Institute

WANCHESE — Missing U-boats from World War II are being discovered right off the coast of North Carolina.

Joe Hoyt, acting national maritime heritage coordinator and maritime archaeologist at NOAA’s Monitor National Marine Sanctuary, will give a talk about World War II battles of the coast at 6 p.m. Thursday, Feb. 21, as part of the Science on the Sound lecture series.

Hosted by East Carolina University’s Integrated Coastal Programs and the Coastal Studies Institute at the ECU Outer Banks Campus, 850 N.C. 345 in Wanchese, the monthly programs highlight coastal topics and issues in northeast North Carolina.

Hoyt’s presentation, “War Offshore! Honoring and Protecting a WWII Battlefield off the Carolina Coast” will focus on the Battle of the Atlantic as well the archaeological research projects undertaken by NOAA’s Monitor National Marine Sanctuary.

The presentation is free and the public is encouraged to attend.

“When many people think of WWII they conjure images of faraway places like Normandy, Dunkirk, or Iwo Jima. Few realize that there was a WWII battlefield just a few miles off the coast of North Carolina where NOAA has been exploring for more than a decade,” according to the news release.

This program will be streamed live and the online viewing audience will be able to ask the presenter questions via an online chat room.

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.