Organizers invite anyone who has participated before in the annual Christmas Bird counts on Ocracoke or Portsmouth Island, or those who have expressed interest, or might know others who’d like to join, to sign up as soon as possible.

The count dates this year will be Dec. 30 on Ocracoke Island and Dec. 31 on Portsmouth Island.

RSVPs are needed to inform Capt. Donald Austin know how many people will be heading from Ocracoke to Portsmouth.

The Ocracoke count has run every year since it began in 1982.

The Portsmouth count started in 1988 and has missed a few years due to bad weather or scheduling problems.

“With all the dismal reports on birds declining, we did get a bounce from last year’s Ocracoke’s count,” said compiler Peter Vankevich.

Ocracoke’s 2024 Christmas Bird Count tied the record for the number of species.

To volunteer, call or text Vankevich at 202 468-2871, or email petevankevich@gmail.com.

The tally rally will begin at 6 pm, Dec. 31, at Vankevich’s house in Widgeon Woods, near the lighthouse on Ocracoke Island.

Guest column

Who among us are not looking for an off the beaten path location to end what, by all accounts, has been a tumultuous year?

To refine: Who wants to brave the end-of-year weather on the Outer Banks counting the many birds present and making a modest contribution to our knowledge of trends in bird life with implications for all of us?

I’m referring, of course, to the Christmas Bird Counts, the largest and longest-running community science projects in the world. Sponsored by the National Audubon Society. The first counts, 27 of them, began in 1900 and were organized by ornithologist, Frank Chapman, founder and publisher of “Bird-Lore,” which later became Audubon Magazine.

I am the founder and compiler of the Ocracoke and Portsmouth Island Christmas Bird Counts.

Billed as an alternative to a traditional holiday activity known as the “side hunt,” this hunt was a competition to see who could shoot as many birds and animals as possible. Instead, the Christmas Bird Counts focused on just counting birds, recording both species and the number of individuals — a means to promote conservation and improve knowledge of bird populations. It succeeded.

This activity has grown exponentially. Last year there were about 80,000 volunteers and 2,500 counts across 20 countries in the Western Hemisphere. The counts take place during a three-week period from Dec. 14 to Jan. 5 each year.

Two of these counts are held on Ocracoke and Portsmouth islands, the last two days of the year. The Ocracoke count is scheduled for Dec. 30 and Portsmouth, Dec. 31. There have been a few occasions when the dates were reversed due to weather concerns about getting to Portsmouth. They are RSVP only and many of the volunteer birders participate in both. RSVPs are needed because we need to know how many will be heading to Portsmouth Island, which is only accessible by boat and part of Cape Lookout National Seashore.

A count period covers 24 hours, but Portsmouth is much shorter as the participants board a skiff run by Capt. Donald Austin from Ocracoke Village in the early morning and return by midafternoon. Capt. Austin has a new skiff that accommodates up to 22 passengers. There is a $25 fee.

A  typical Ocracoke count can tally 80-85 species and Portsmouth, 65.

Portsmouth is a particularly enticing count. Stark, with wonderful winter light and mosquito-free, one can wander the village with binoculars in one hand and a camera in the other. Portsmouth is noted for having one of the state’s highest wintering populations for American oystercatchers. A few years ago, the counters were thankful for a bald eagle. Not only as a good bird for the count, but flying low, it spooked 29 hidden oystercatchers that flew into the air.

On Ocracoke you can walk the winter beach, scan the marshes and walk through maritime forests. Double-crested cormorants will be in the thousands and yellow-rumped warblers in the hundreds. Northern gannets, red knots and red-breasted nuthatches are usually reported.

One of the tricks to withstand winter weather, sometimes high winds and low temperatures, is to dress appropriately with more layers the better.

If spending the days counting birds is not enough, there is a social tally rally famed for its vegetarian chili and key lime pie at the compiler’s house near the Ocracoke lighthouse that takes place in early evening of the final day of the year.

The Carolina Bird Club has details about the North Carolina and South Carolina Christmas counts.

If you are interested in participating in either of these two counts, contact the compiler, me, Peter Vankevich, via Facebook or petevankevich@gmail.com.

Now uninhabited and listed on the National Register of Historic Places and part of Cape Lookout National Seashore, the 250-acre Portsmouth Village established in 1753 was the largest settlement on the Outer Banks by 1770. 

As the former port town’s bustling industry declined and the Civil War forced islanders to leave, the island’s population dwindled from 685 in 1860 to a mere 17 by 1956. After the death of Henry Pigott in 1971, Portsmouth’s last two residents, Marion Babb and Elma Dixon, moved inland.

Though the village just south of Ocracoke doesn’t see much foot traffic these days, hundreds will be showing up by boat – the only way to get there – Saturday, April 27, for the Portsmouth Homecoming. Coordinated by Friends of Portsmouth Island and Cape Lookout, the homecoming is held every two years.

Friends of Portsmouth Island Vice President Connie Mason said that this year’s homecoming will highlight the 130th anniversary of the U.S. Life-Saving Service Station, which was established here in 1894 and closed in 1937.

There will be an area for descendants to share family photos and scrapbooks, the post office will be open, as well as the school house, Annie and Theodore Salter House and Visitor Center, Methodist Church and the U.S. Life-Saving Station, which features exhibits of rescue methods.

“We have a hymn sing in the church about an hour before a program under the tent and then a covered dish lunch on the grounds after the program. Plates and utensils are provided by the Friends, so bring something yummy to share,” Mason said.

Friends member David Quinn is the grandson of the late Dot Salter Willis, one of the last people born on Portsmouth Island. He has been a history professor at Carteret Community College for the last 23 years and since 2022, has served as county commissioner representing the western part of Carteret.

His favorite part of the homecoming: “Getting to see friends and extended family members that I only get to see while they’re at the homecoming. Unfortunately, you just don’t get to see them except for that particular occasion. Getting reconnected with my family history and just being on Portsmouth Island itself is just an absolute joy.”

Quinn said he assumed the role of what he called “unofficial historian of homecoming” when his grandmother, who had recounted the history, died in September 2010.

Since 2012, Quinn has shared the history of the island from its earliest settlement during the Colonial period until it was taken over by the National Park Service in 1976.

Quinn said it seems like life was hard for the people of Portsmouth, but he doesn’t think they viewed their lives that way.

“In speaking with my grandmother, even having lived all the way until 2010 — she was born in 1922 — she yearned to return to Portsmouth,” Quinn said. He often includes her in his presentations on Portsmouth history, “and she would get very upset with anybody that referred to Portsmouth Village as a ghost town. She hated to hear people say that. She’d say, ‘No, no, Portsmouth is not a ghost town, it is still alive.”

This year, Quinn said his role is going to be slightly different.

Quinn was asked to fill the role of emcee upon the unexpected death of author and Portsmouth descendent Jim White. He also has brought in his sons to help.

He said his youngest, 16, led the Pledge of Allegiance at the 2022 program and is to deliver a portion of the history this year, and he thinks his older son will lead the Pledge of Allegiance.

About the homecoming, Friends of Portsmouth

Quinn told Coastal Review that he’s attended every homecoming since it was just a family gathering in the late 1970s, when he was very young, before it became an official event.

Mason explained that the Park Service held a homecoming in the early ’80s but the organizer was transferred to a different park, and no more where held. 

“That was one impetus for the need for a Friends of Portsmouth Island group,” Mason said.

Mason said she served as oral historian for Cape Lookout National Seashore from 1980 to 1988.

“My area of collection was Portsmouth Village,” she said. “I could not have done a good job without the friendship and respect of the former residents who trusted me with the telling of their family histories and about their lifestyles on an isolated island.”

After leaving the park service to become curator of collections at the North Carolina Maritime Museum in Beaufort, “I wanted to do more to help preserve Portsmouth” and began working with descendants, community leaders and others who love the village, Mason said. 

The nonprofit Friends group formed in 1989 under the sponsorship of the Carteret County Historical Society and with the assistance and support from Jack Goodwin and Kay Hewitt, both now deceased, Feb. 23, 1990, became its “birthday.”

In 1991, the Friends began the campaign to reach more people and to build its membership by having booths at area festivals manned by devoted members. “Since those early days membership has grown,” Mason said.

Planning for the Homecoming

Quinn recommended that those who plan to stay in Ocracoke make overnight accommodations as soon as possible.

Visitors will also need to make ferry reservations starting in early April to travel from Ocracoke to the island with Rudy Austin at 252-928-4361. Cost is $25 per person, round trip.

Attendees can take the state ferry to Ocracoke from Cedar Island, or from Hatteras the morning of, and then catch the passenger ferry to Portsmouth from the same dock.

“The easiest way to come is to catch the earliest ferry from Cedar Island as a passenger only. No reservations required. Once at Ocracoke Rudy picks you up just as you get off state ferry, so there is no need to bring your car,” she said.

Mason added that there will be golf carts to tote coolers and those with difficulty walking. 

Cape Lookout National Seashore Superintendent Jeff West encouraged dressing for the weather.

“It can be hot or cold and wet in April. The wind may be blowing. It usually does,” West explained. “Insect repellent can be important if it is not cold or windy. It may be muddy. You will have to be able to endure a 20-minute boat ride, climb out of the boat, and walk down the dock.”

West reiterated that there will be walking, even with the transportation from the dock to the event. “Comfortable shoes are important.”

From the superintendent

West said preserving areas like Portsmouth is important, and the reasons vary.

Park service professionals will likely say they’re legally bound to preserve and protect cultural and historical artifacts, and “it is the very foundation of the National Park Service mission to preserve unimpaired the natural and cultural resources and values” for the “enjoyment, education, and inspiration” for this and future generations.

“Most of us were attracted to the NPS in the first place by the mission, and most of us come to love and care personally about the areas we care for,” West said.

Historians will tell you that Portsmouth “was one of the most important ports of entry” in the state from about 1780 to 1860, and “maritime activities and development led in a major way to the success and importance of the state and in no small way to the emergence of the United States as a world power.”

Historians can point to the commerce generated to support this, from wood for shipbuilding, turpentine production, the trade in human beings, cotton, the list goes on and on. And, the fact that a marine hospital was built there, an early life saving station, a customs house was established, and so forth, West continued.

“They will also tell you it relates the story of a violent and harsh existence of people on a barrier island — the suffering and constant storms with little warning people endured, and they will tell you the history can teach us how to survive today,” West said. “They will tell you what came before us matters so that we do not repeat the mistakes of the past, and perhaps help us cope with our own struggles today — shared human experiences are a strong measure of humanity.”

From a descendant’s perspective, they will say Portsmouth is “about ‘place’ and capturing a piece of where they are from in their hearts and minds. Being able to walk the same paths, experiencing the same environment, seeing many of the same scenes provides that connection for many — a human connection that cannot be equaled by a passage in a book, or a video clip, or a family story handed down through time. We have the ability to go to Portsmouth and pretty much see it as it was … I think maybe that is why people appreciate it so much.”

West said the village is still recovering from Hurricane Dorian that hit the area in August 2019.

“Every structure in Portsmouth and four cemeteries were damaged by the storm, and several structures were destroyed,” he said. “It takes a great effort, many resources, and money to recover from a devastating storm like Dorian, especially in a remote place like Portsmouth.”

West explained that the national seashore has a dedicated historic preservation team “that has worked miracles to rehabilitate and harden the structures — hopefully making them more resilient for future storms.”

Hard decisions were made in the process, such as choosing what buildings could be saved with the limited resources at hand. They considered relative importance of the structures both historically and functionally, the condition and estimated costs of repair, the vulnerability of the buildings and what resiliency measures could be taken to help protect them from future storm impacts.

“And, then there is climate change,” West said. “Monthly flooding without storms continues to become more pronounced and frequent. All of these things figured in the equation.”

Only the Armtec House was completely destroyed by the storm, West said. The Frank Gaskill House will likely have to come down because it is too exposed and too badly damaged. The Mason-Dixon house, and the Wallace House are still awaiting repairs.

As a ranger, West said he looks forward to talking to and interacting with family and visitors.  “Nothing like folks sharing personal stories and the meaning of the island — it adds the human connection.”

HARKERS ISLAND – The Hannah, a sailing ship blown off course on its voyage from Sierra Leone in Africa to Charleston, South Carolina, arrived at Ocracoke Inlet for provisions in 1759. Its cargo was human, 301 captives, but the records provide no details on what happened to the 258 or so surviving Africans who disembarked at Portsmouth Island.

Those and at least 343 other documented captive African people were honored and remembered Saturday during a ceremony at the end of the road on Harkers Island. The event was to dedicate identical markers to be placed at Portsmouth Village and about 39 miles south at the Cape Lookout National Seashore visitor center on Harkers Island acknowledging that this North Carolina port was part of the horrific Middle Passage.

Tyisha Teel of Beaufort was one of the speakers during the ceremony on the grass overlooking Back Sound at Shell Point, just across the road from the visitor center. She described how history is painful and embarrassing at times, but those feelings should motivate people to bring positive change.

“We should be motivated to take what we know and to do more with it to bridge the divides of inequality, of racism, of ageism — any of the ‘isms’ that are out there,” Teel said. “How do we make it a lasting change? We start first with acknowledgement, which is exactly what this ceremony is doing, acknowledging the history of where we come from, of the Africans who were enslaved and brought over through the Middle Passage, and the Black history of this country. But yet, I want us to remember that our Black history is American history. It happened here, it is the Americas, it is us, it is all of us.”

Cape Lookout National Seashore Superintendent Jeff West said that from its establishment in 1753, Portsmouth was an important maritime port to the central North Carolina region. He said that throughout Portsmouth’s history until about 1861, half of the population of Portsmouth were enslaved people.

“Enslaved African Americans were brought to Portsmouth to labor. They served as stevedores. They served as lighter tenders. They served as pilots. They served as sailors,” West said. “Another large contingent of enslaved people were brought in through Portsmouth to be sold and traded inland into a life of bitter slavery.”

West said he finds the topic difficult to discuss.

“I’m a historian by training. So, as a historian, I have absolutely no problem reviewing facts, placing them in context, explaining why things happen from a strictly factual perspective. As a human being I, to this day, I cannot understand or see how people could treat other people that way. I can’t understand it. That’s the human side of me.”

West said that part of the National Park Service’s mission is to tell the story of people and places and to tell it honestly and without prejudice.

“I’ve had to do that in many different places. Sometimes it’s hard, but it is the truth. Truth is important,” he said.

Middle Passage refers to the roughly 80-day voyage that was the middle part of the journey from Europe to West Africa, to the West Indies and North America, before the ships returned to Europe – the Triangle Trade. It’s when the vessels were packed with humans bound for slavery, and it was brutal and often deadly.

Heather Walker, executive director of the Eastern Carolina Foundation for Equity and Equality, is a subject matter expert and a research historian. Walker volunteers as an independent consultant and has worked closely with the National Park Service, North Carolina African American Heritage Commission, and the James City Historical Society.

“Roughly 12.5 million African people were forced to endure the brutality of the ocean voyage known as the Middle Passage,” Walker said.

She said that much like prisoners of war, when African nations would break out in conflict, people would be held by those rivals until either the conflict was over or they could be traded for one of their captured people.

“The Europeans took advantage of this and began to purchase these prisoners of war. And when there were none left to purchase, they began staging raids with rival African nations. And then they started kidnapping and selling those that they were able to capture. And this was all done in order to supply the Americas with an enslaved labor force, lowering their overhead,” Walker said.

She cited the words of African slave trader turned abolitionist and author of the hymn “Amazing Grace,” John Newton, who described unsanitary and horrid conditions aboard the vessels and how the captive Africans were stacked beside and on top of each other “like books upon a shelf,” and with insufficient food and water.

“Those who were forced to embark on the journey of the Middle Passage endured unimaginable cruelty in the form of physical, emotional and psychological torture,” Walker said. “This is evidenced by the following excerpt from an article in the North Carolina State Gazette, dated February 12, 1789. It says, ‘A young Negro woman, with her infant at her breast, was kidnapped away from her husband and parents and offered by the dealers in human flesh to this commander for sale. He was willing, he said, to purchase the young woman but could do nothing with the brat. However, as they could not be separated, he purchased them both at the same time, dashed out the brains of the infant on the deck of the ship, and threw it overboard in the mother’s presence. As she was a woman of uncommon beauty, in less than an hour, she was dragged by the captain to his bed and was forced to endure the embraces of her child’s murderer.’”

She said that about 2 million African people perished along the journey to the Americas, through acts of resistance and acts of violence such as this. “And although it’s commonly referred to as the Black Holocaust, the United States has yet to recognize the transatlantic human trade as a crime against humanity.”

Walker said that, like elsewhere in the Colonies, people in Portsmouth Village forcefully bred enslaved people and sold their children like cattle to turn a profit.

“It was the unpaid labor of those children that created wealth in this country. Enslaved people piloted these waters and lightered the ships at Ocracoke Inlet. It was their unpaid labor that made this a once-thriving maritime trade center. Enslaved people brought with them from Sierra Leone their knowledge and technique for making and mending fishing nets, a technique, mind you, that we still use here today. It was their unpaid labor that built and sustained our area’s fishing industry. Enslaved people worked these lands and built the settlements, some of those which we still call home. It was their unpaid labor that made survival possible,” she said.

She said that, sadly, a lot of the “bad stories” have been erased from history.

“But the real injustice here is that the good stories have been erased too. Those stories are gifts left to us by the ancestors. Those stories belong to us. Those stories are our stars of hope. Being deprived of these stories also deprives us of hope,” she said.

Walker said that from the foods we eat to the color we use to paint our porch ceilings, the traditions brought by enslaved Africans have become American traditions.

“Have you ever wondered why we hang ornaments on a tree, or why we bury our dead facing east? But for the strong, resilient and intelligent people who risked death to give us hope by smuggling rice seed and grain in the braids of their hair, we wouldn’t have okra or black-eyed peas, we wouldn’t have the sweet summertime treat that we call watermelon. But most importantly, we wouldn’t have hope,” she said.

Also during the ceremony Saturday, North Carolina native Rhonda Jones delivered the invocation, reciting a poem to the rhythm of attendees tapping together stones and seashells. The poem included the following verse:

In Your Honor, we stand on the island of Harkers,

To place a permanent reminder of your arrival, 

With a marker.

It is often said that we are our ancestors’ wildest dreams.

It is your DNA that we carry,

Deep within our genes.

All Africans who came before and after the Hannah,

It is you we celebrate.

I call you to rise and take your place,

As you elevate.

There is recent evidence that trauma and abuse, even when the details are lost to history or intentionally obscured, can leave a genetic imprint on future generations. Teel said that understanding history also means acknowledging how it has affected the descendants of enslaved Africans.

“Oftentimes, we wonder why African Americans are on the bottom of all the good lists and at the top of all the bad ones. And I’m here to tell you that part of it is because of the psychological trauma that is passed down through the generations and through the genes of those who come from enslaved people,” Jones said.

She said the lasting impacts of trauma are social and health related.

“And so you may wonder, why is hypertension and why is diabetes so high in the African American community? Well, oftentimes, it’s because we are still dealing with the impacts of those psychological traumas, and that has affected how our bodies actually respond to our environment today,” she said.

Understanding leads to empathy, she said, and that can lead to change.

“But that change requires time and understanding and the willingness to fight for what is right,” Teel said. “The question, when you leave here, that you must ask yourself as individuals is, are we willing to fight, are we willing to hold to the good fight, to stand up for what is right?”

HARKERS ISLAND – Officials with the Cape Lookout National Seashore announced Friday that recent research has uncovered documents confirming that Portsmouth Village was a middle passage arrival site, meaning it was directly involved in the trans-Atlantic human trade. 

The research was conducted by Eastern Carolina Foundation for Equity and Equality Inc. The nonprofit organization has partnered with the National Park Service and the Middle Passage Ceremonies and Port Markers Project to create a permanent marker and to organize a ceremony to acknowledge this history.

At 10 a.m. Saturday, June 10, the national seashore will host a remembrance ceremony and unveil the historical marker.

The ceremony is to honor the African ancestors who survived, and those who perished, on the journey through the middle passage. The marker is to acknowledge this history and the contributions of Africans and Americans of African descent, officials said.

After the unveiling, the marker will be permanently placed in Portsmouth Village, now a historic site that is part of Cape Lookout National Seashore.

The event will take place at Shell Point, adjacent to Harkers Island Visitor Center, at 1800 Island Road, Harkers Island. In the event of inclement weather, the event will be held indoors at the neighboring Core Sound Waterfowl Museum and Heritage Center at 1785 Harkers Island Road.

The historic Portsmouth Village at Cape Lookout National Seashore is being recognized this weekend by the Middle Passage Ceremonies and Port Markers Project as a documented arrival location of Africans in the 18^th Century. 

The dedication ceremony is free for the public and will take place at Shell Point, across from the Harkers Island Visitor Center, at 11 a.m. Saturday.

From the 16^th to the 19^th centuries, merchants transported around 12 million Africans across the Atlantic as human property. The most common routes formed what is now known as the “Triangle Trade,” connecting Europe, Africa and the Americas, according to the National Park Service.

From 1560 to 1850, about 4.8 million enslaved people were transported to Brazil, 4.7 million to the Caribbean, and at least 388,000, or 4% of those who survived the Middle Passage, arrived in North America. Between 1700 and 1808, the most active years of the international slave trade, merchants transported around 40% of enslaved Africans in British and American ships.

The Middle Passage lasted roughly 80 days on ships ranging from small schooners to massive, purpose-built slave ships. Ship crews packed humans together on or below decks without space to sit up or move around. Without ventilation or sufficient water, about 15% grew sick and died. In addition to the physical violations enslaved people suffered, they were ripped away from their families, homelands, social positions, and languages.

Documentation shows at least 258 captive Africans disembarked at Ocracoke Inlet/Portsmouth Island in 1759. Records show at least 343 more captive Africans passed through the inlet and were sold into slavery at ports such as Bath, Edenton and New Bern. 

The vessel, Hannah, arrived at Portsmouth, England, on Feb. 22, 1759. It cleared that port and went to Sierra Leone. It then left Sierra Leone, headed for Charleston, South Carolina, after 301 captive Africans embarked. While at sea, the ship ran into some trouble and the voyage was delayed while the crew brought it into Ocracoke for a supply of provisions. There, the crew of the Hannah was able to secure provisions to sustain themselves and unload people. The Hannah then continued its journey to Charleston after the delay.

The nonprofit Middle Passage Ceremonies and Port Markers Project was established in 2011 to honor the 2 million captive Africans who perished during the transatlantic crossing known as the Middle Passage and the 10 million who survived to build the Americas.

For more information, visit the Middle Passage Ceremonies and Port Markers Project website or the Cape Lookout National Seashore website.

Special to Coastal Review

On a clear day, Portsmouth Island can be seen from Springer’s Point on neighboring Ocracoke Island.

From this side of Ocracoke Inlet, it appears to be nothing more than a mottled patch of marsh on the horizon, a mirage dancing across the sparkling sound.

These days getting to the island’s village is possible only by boat. The grassy Portsmouth Village Airstrip officially closed in 1996, eliminating air travel. In 2019 Hurricane Dorian cut new inlets through the long stretch of beach extending southwest from the village like a sandy comet’s tail, eliminating four-wheel-drive access from areas farther south.

Most people arrive from Ocracoke, ferried by captains Rudy and Donald Austin, who run Portsmouth Island Boat Tours. They follow in the footsteps of their late father, waterman Junius Austin.

On the 25-minute boat ride this day, the passengers, many of them descendants of the island’s families, watched the church’s steeple rise above the marsh as they crossed Ocracoke Inlet under a pristine sky. At the sight of it, they knew they were home.

Portsmouth’s last three inhabitants left the island in 1971 and it now only welcomes visitors.

But every two years, the island returns to life as hundreds gather in the historic village for the beloved Portsmouth Homecoming ceremony.

The event is jointly sponsored by the Friends of Portsmouth Island and the Cape Lookout National Seashore, has taken place every two years since the tradition formally began in 1992, informally before then.

But like many special occasions in 2020, it was canceled due to the COVID-19 pandemic, making it a painfully long four-year wait to celebrate the island’s rich heritage once again.

Given the hardships since its last occurrence in 2018, the return home was especially sentimental. The theme, “Portsmouth Rises,” was fitting for the island’s recovery after Hurricane Dorian brought devastation to the village in September 2019, flooding and damaging virtually every building and structure.

The Cape Lookout National Seashore staff, led by Superintendent Jeff West, along with the Friends of Portsmouth Island were undaunted in their efforts to restore the village. While some would have written off the village as irreparable, they devoted themselves to building repairs and groundskeeping, understanding the importance of place and that no appraisal could ever quantify the value of home.

The National Park Service, which manages the historic village, along with the many Friends of Portsmouth Island volunteers, welcomed around 400 guests April 23 for the long-awaited homecoming.

After walking down the long haulover dock, folks stepped onto the island and perhaps for a brief moment felt like they had gone back in time. They headed to the staging area, the Salter-Dixon House, which now serves as the visitor center.

At the nearby signup table, volunteers followed the tradition of handing out commemorative pins. The design features a beaming sun rising behind the church and reads “Homecoming 2020,” a reminder of how life as we know it was put on hold for the past two years.

A film crew made the trip across the water with their equipment and moved around the island throughout the day. The Tamassee Group, a nonprofit independent filmmaking group in collaboration with The Southern Documentary Fund, is producing a documentary for PBS North Carolina on the cultural and environmental history of North Carolina’s Outer Banks. They found the homecoming and the maintained village an ideal place to begin filming their project, which aims to capture the rich history of the Outer Banks before it is obscured due to rising sea levels and the rapid development of the area.

Generations of descendants with this shared history had the opportunity to meet up with old friends, to see firsthand how the village’s foliage and buildings fared over the past four years and to visit their family cemeteries nestled among the reeds. A few in attendance had lived or spent time in the village as children and were able to visit their family homes.

Frances Eubanks, descendant, author and photographer, and a founding member of The Friends of Portsmouth Island, has fond childhood memories in the village. Her grandparents were postmistress Annie Dixon and Theodore Salter. Their home, the Dixon-Salter House, is now the visitor center for Portsmouth Village.

Frances’ mother, Clara Salter Gaskins, as well as Annie and Theodore Salter, were born on Portsmouth Island. Clara was born in 1917, a year the sound froze over, causing the recording of her birth at the Carteret County Courthouse to be delayed. Clara grew up on Portsmouth, graduating from Ocracoke High School. After she was married, she returned to the island during summer vacations with her daughters to instill in them not only a love of her grandparents but also a love of Portsmouth.

Frances treasures a photo of herself around age 2, helping “Granddaddy” feed the chickens in the backyard; another, circa 1944, of her seated in a wooden, child-sized chair with a side view of the Dixon Salter house in the background;  as well as the 1949 Cape Lookout National Seashore photograph in front of the church in which Frances appears with her mother (who was pregnant with Barbara Gaskins-Eugene at the time) along with other relatives and Portsmouth residents.

“I was really glad somebody had a chance to take those pictures,” she remarked, gazing toward the house. “Not everybody had a camera back then, so it’s special. They’re priceless.”

Former village caretaker Dave Frum was in attendance as well. While not an ancestor of Portsmouth, one could say Frum is the next best thing. For 28 years he looked after the village part-time, taking his skiff over from Ocracoke. He retired in 2016 and was pleased to have a reunion with West, his former boss, and his predecessor, acting superintendent Bob Vogel.

In attendance also were Kenneth Burke, renowned scholar on the history of Portsmouth village, who traveled from his home in Washington, D.C., and Chester Lynn of Ocracoke with long ties to Portsmouth and the man responsible for organizing the hanging of wreaths at Christmastime on the doors in the village.

A favorite stop for many during homecoming is the Henry Pigott house, a storybook cottage painted a charming yellow with green shutters and a cozy front porch. Henry Pigott was one of the last three people to live on Portsmouth Island and, as historian and descendant David Quinn put it in his remarks to the gathered crowd, “Henry Pigott’s heart became the beating heart of the island.”

After Henry’s death in 1971, daily life in the village could no longer be sustained and the two remaining residents, Elma Dixon and Marian Babb, left the island.

Henry inherited his house from his grandmother, Rose Ireland Abbot, who was the only formerly enslaved islander to remain in the village. As a midwife, she was an important member of the isolated community and safely delivered its children, while raising a large family of her own.

Of the remaining 20 buildings of a once-thriving village, 11 of them were open to the public.

The Portsmouth Island post office, a tidy white building that once also housed the general store, closed its doors in 1959 after 119 years of service. But on this day, it welcomed visitors who could have their post cards and envelopes processed with the Portsmouth Island Cancellation stamp by Melissa Garrish Sharber on assignment from Ocracoke’s post office and Hatteras Post Office Postmaster Vivian Barnett.

The schoolhouse embraced the return of children, their laughter carrying across the island. In its heyday around 1860, about 100 pupils attended school, but enrollment dwindled steadily over the years, leaving only one student when it was permanently closed in 1943.

And for one day, the long-silent sanctuary of the Portsmouth Methodist Church was once again filled with a harmony of voices for the traditional hymn singing that took place after a christening performed by Pastor Ivey Belch of Ocracoke’s Life Saving Church.

The Homecoming has a tradition of an hourlong formal ceremony beginning with a Presentation of Colors by the U.S. Coast Guard. Kathy McNeilly, president of the Friends of Portsmouth Island, welcomed the attendees. Author, educator and Portsmouth Island descendant Jim White served as the Emcee.

David Quinn, grandson of Dot Salter Willis, presented a brief history of the island and said in his opening remarks that “Home is where you go to find solace.” Quoting Lakota leader Crazy Horse, he added, “My home is where my people lie buried.”

Superintendent West provided an overview on the current state of the village and the many building repairs following Hurricane Dorian. He extended a heartfelt thank you to his staff and volunteers for their dedication to upkeeping the village, especially noting longtime caretakers and volunteers Ed and Renee Burgess for over 20 years of service in the village. This year will be their last.

Just as music was a vital part of village life in years past, it plays a key role at the homecoming celebrations. Folk singer Connie Mason sang her stirring composition, “Marian’s Song,” in honor of Marian Babb. Carol Scheppard, granddaughter of Sarah Lincoln and James Archie Newton, the lighthouse keeper at Cape Lookout during World War II, sang a cappella the “Mingulay Boat Song” for the crowd before performing it on bagpipes.

The Roll Call of Families concluded the ceremony as descendants proudly rose from their seats upon hearing their family names.

The day ended the way a community bonds best — over food. The homecoming’s traditional potluck lunch left no one hungry and brought together the celebration’s organizers, attendees, old timers and newcomers alike on their beloved island at the edge of the sea.

The Portsmouth Homecoming is set for Saturday, April 23, in historic Portsmouth Village. 

Cape Lookout National Seashore and the Friends of Portsmouth Island are inviting the public to join this year’s event where the theme is “Portsmouth Rises,” recognizing Portsmouth’s recovery after Hurricane Dorian in 2019 and the cancellation of the Portsmouth Homecoming in 2020 because of the coronavirus pandemic.

The once-bustling sea village is now deserted except for National Park Service personnel and holders of park service leases. It’s a protected historic and archeological site that accessible only by boat. But the island is also treasured by countless families who trace their lineage to its former inhabitants.

Among the activities planned for the daylong celebration are a christening service and a traditional hymn singing in the Portsmouth Methodist Church. The U.S. Post Office in Portsmouth is to be open for that day only and feature a special postal cancellation stamp for mailings from Portsmouth. A special “Descendant House” is to be set up at the McWilliams house next to the church, where Portsmouth families can share their family photos, scrapbooks and family trees for others to see.  

A traditional homecoming program featuring one of the village’s descendants playing the bagpipes and a dinner-on-the-grounds are also planned. Attendees are encouraged to bring a covered dish to share at the potluck.

Reservations for the passenger ferry from Ocracoke should be made with Rudy Austin’s Portsmouth Island Boat Tours by calling 252-928-4361. Ferry reservations are required, and the cost is $25 per person for the round trip. 

For more information, visit the Friends of Portsmouth Island or the Cape Lookout National Seashore websites: www.friendsofportsmouthisland.org, or their Facebook page: www.facebook.com/friendsofportsmouthisland, or the Cape Lookout National Seashore: https://go.nps.gov/pvhomecoming

Reprinted from Ocracoke Observer

Update: Covid/Omicron variant watch. There may be restrictions on participating in these two bird counts, especially for Portsmouth Island. If you are interested in participating, contact the compiler right after Christmas when we will have a better idea of a possible new wave spread.

Following tradition, the Ocracoke and Portsmouth Island Christmas Bird Counts will be held on the last days of the year, with Portsmouth on Dec. 30 and Ocracoke on Dec. 31.

This year, the Audubon Christmas Bird Count, now in its 122nd year, is expected to have nearly 80,000 volunteers to tally birds in more than 2,600 locations across the United States, Canada, the Caribbean and Latin America.

Each individual count is performed in a count circle with a diameter of 15 miles. The data gathered from these surveys help to track bird populations and can flag declining or increasing numbers of a given species.

The two local counts will be entered into the NC Bird Atlas, in its first of a five-year project to gather information about the state’s bird populations.

Ocracoke has run a count every year since 1981 and Portsmouth since 1988, with a couple of cancellations due to adverse weather. The historical results of these counts can be found on the Audubon Christmas Bird Count website.

To participate or for more information, contact the compiler Peter Vankevich, text/cell 202-468-2871 and petevankevich@gmail.com.

This story is provided courtesy of the Ocracoke Observer, a newspaper covering Ocracoke island. Coastal Review Online is partnering with the Ocracoke Observer to provide readers with more environmental and lifestyle stories of interest along our coast. 

Reprinted from the Ocracoke Observer

It takes about a half hour by boat from Ocracoke’s Silver Lake harbor to the loading dock at Portsmouth village.

A group of birders took the ride in the early morning of the last day of 2019 to participate in the island’s annual Christmas Bird Count. This census started in 1988 and attracts between 15 to 25 participants who walk the village and beach identifying species and counting the number of individuals seen or heard.

A total of 18, though not all were hardcore birders, came over that morning. One was Allan Fairbanks, chief photojournalist for WCTI-TV 12 of New Bern. He was intrigued by both Portsmouth and the idea it would make a good story to cover the activity and provide a story on how Hurricane Dorian impacted the 20-plus structures. The news stories produced by WCTI-TV are available here and here.

Usually, Capt. Rudy Austin or his brother, Donald, of Portsmouth Island Boat Tours drops the birders off on the sound side to a long, empty dock, covered with broken shells dropped from above by herring gulls.

This year was different. Waiting to greet the group was Jeff West, Cape Lookout National Seashore’s superintendent and the park’s Lead Biological Science Technician Chelsey Stephenson and Evan Knight.

This count would be different in another way. The observers would get to see how changed the village was from the peaceful tranquility they experienced the previous December. Hurricane Dorian on Sept. 6 delivered to Portsmouth village the same 7-foot plus storm surge that devastated Ocracoke.

Portsmouth, part of Carteret County, was established in 1753 by the North Carolina Colonial Assembly and served as a point for shipping and fishing. Its heyday was the 1860s with a peak population of 860 residents who engaged in fishing and shipping and functioned as a lightering port, where cargo from oceangoing vessels could be transferred to shallow-draft vessels capable of traversing Pamlico and Core sounds to the mainland. Over its two centuries, there was never any electricity or running water.

The village went into decline as alternative means for getting goods to the mainland were used. The last residents left in 1971 and it is now administered by the National Park Service as part of the Cape Lookout National Seashore.

Over the centuries, Portsmouth has withstood many hurricanes, some a direct hit such as Isabel in 2003. The 21 structures remaining today include a post office/store, church, school and a large lifesaving station. The rest are mostly homes and a few sheds. On the edge of the village, ocean side, are the park service infrastructure buildings for a generator, maintenance and to store tractors.

West thanked everyone, saying the longtime data gathering from the bird counts gives people a good idea of what species spend the early winter there. Over the 30 years, nearly 200 species have been identified in varying numbers from year to year.

Heading into the village, which is still officially closed to visitors, the group stopped at the Salter-Dixon house, which serves as the visitor’s center, to leave some gear on the porch and get their coverage assignments. Flying overhead was a flock of white ibis, and a clapper rail could be heard clucking in the marsh. Absent this year was a Merlin which often perches on a nearby tree, serving as a sentry.

The birders divided into four teams, two headed out to the dunes and beach, the other two carved up the village. West stayed with one of the village teams while Fairbanks filmed him talking about the damage and recorded the count activities.

West is a high energy, hands-on, blue collar administrator who loves to talk Portsmouth. When Ocracoke islander Dave Frum retired several years ago as the village’s part-time caretaker, he was not replaced due to budget constraints.

To make up for it, West often spends weekends there landscaping and doing small but much-needed repairs. He knows every building in the village and their status. None of it is good news.

After Dorian, West headed to the village by boat to assess the damage and take photographs. All of the structures were damaged and some may have to be torn down, he reported. Soon after, 68 volunteers and contractors, making up the National Park Service Incident Management Team, descended on the village for about three weeks to assist in cleaning up debris and stabilizing the buildings. The Arrowhead Fire Crew from Sequoia, California, sent 23 of their members.

The George Dixon house suffered so much damage that it may have to be demolished, West wrote in a report in the Doctor’s Creek Journal, recently published by the Friends of Portsmouth Island. He chronicled damage to all the structures in the village, two cemeteries and the infrastructure of the roads and docks.

And it wasn’t only the buildings that Dorian impacted. Fifty-four new inlets were carved into the Cape Lookout National Seashore. Almost all of them have since been filled in, but four remain.

Birds in the village can vary from year to year, or for that matter week-to-week or even day-to-day. After heavy rains and there are puddles in the grass around the church, shorebirds such as greater yellowlegs, dunlin and a few species of plovers can sometimes be seen foraging. Not this year.

The only shorebirds were a flock of nine killdeer that flew overhead. The large majority of shorebirds for this count were observed on the beach and along the inlet, including 300 short-billed dowitchers and 350 dunlin. The ubiquitous myrtle warblers were present throughout in good numbers as usual.

The presence of birds in an area where they are relatively unscathed by human presence can bring surprises and this year yielded some. On the beach area of Ocracoke Inlet near Doctor’s Creek and the Methodist Church was a resting flock of American oystercatchers and 60 were visible with the use of a high-powered spotting scope. Oystercatchers, normally solitary or in pairs, can congregate in large flocks like this in winter.

Numbers like this are normally farther south and this count usually gets about 10 to 12 individuals. About an hour later, an adult bald eagle glided by that spooked them into flight which permitted a more precise count of 94 individuals. It’s nice  when a bald eagle decides to help a Christmas Bird Count.

“Ocracoke and Portsmouth provided the perfect landscape for breaking in our new Muck boots!” said Elizabeth Cisne and Janeen Vanhooke jointly when asked about the day. They traveled from Nebraska and Chicago, respectively, to participate. “This was our second time at Portsmouth, and the show put on by the American oystercatchers there was amazing. Never have we seen such a large flock of them in flight. Where’s the camera when we need it?”

The other amazing feature of the count was the high number of brown pelicans. Tom and Susse Wright of Ocracoke ventured out to the beach on foot. There they encountered a long line of brown pelicans that they estimated to be 5,000. Again, that’s a large number to be in North Carolina this time of year. To pile on, the Ocracoke count that took place the day before had nearly 2,000 pelicans. Brown pelicans have been increasing in the mid-Atlantic and expanding into the Chesapeake Bay.

Since the temperatures have been seasonally much warmer and there is an adequate number of fish in the waters, these two factors may explain why so many are still in the region and not farther south.

Another high number was 154 royal terns. There is a large nesting colony of these terns on the dredge island at Big Foot Slough off Ocracoke where the Cedar Island and Swan Quarter ferries pass. Again, most winter in the warmer waters farther south.

Another special find was a blue-headed vireo, photographed in the village by Jeff Beane, another longtime veteran of the count. This was only the fourth time this vireo has been observed in the 30 years of the count.

Spending the last day of the year on Portsmouth Island located in this “watery part of the world,” to borrow from the title of Michael Parker’s well-written veiled novel about Portsmouth, is both an adventure and a memorable experience.

Portsmouth Island Christmas Bird Count list for Dec. 31, 2019:

• Snow goose: 4
• Brant: 80
• Gadwall: 110
• American black duck: 74
• Mallard: 2
• Redhead: 7,000
• Scoter sp. (unidentified species)
• Bufflehead: 2
• Hooded merganser: 14
• Red-breasted merganser: 6
• Northern gannet: 80
• Double-crested cormorant: 2,225
• Brown pelican: 5,000
• American bittern: 3
• Great blue heron: 2
• Great egret: 5
• Snowy egret: 4
• Little blue heron: 2
• Tricolored heron: 7
• Black-crowned night heron: 7
• White ibis: 58
• Northern harrier: 10
• Sharp-shinned hawk: 1
• Cooper’s hawk: 1
• Bald eagle: 2
• Clapper rail: 17
• Virginia rail: 1
• Oystercatcher: 94
• Black-bellied plover: 61
• Killdeer: 9
• Willet: 1
• Yellowlegs sp.: 18
• Sanderling: 200
• Dunlin: 350
• Peep sp. (small sandpiper unidentified by species): 1
• Short-billed dowitcher: 300
• Ring-billed gull: 1,547
• Herring gull: 29
• Great black-backed gull: 58
• Royal tern: 154
• Black skimmer: 1
• Belted kingfisher: 5
• Northern flicker: 7
• Eastern phoebe: 6
• Blue-headed vireo: 1
• House wren: 1
• Sedge wren: 5
• Marsh wren: 2
• Carolina wren: 8
• Golden-crowned kinglet: 1
• Ruby-crowned kinglet: 1
• American robin: 64
• Gray catbird: 6
• Northern mockingbird: 10
• Cedar waxwing: 40
• Common yellowthroat: 3
• Palm warbler: 2
• Yellow-rumped warbler: 378
• Chipping sparrow: 3
• Savannah sparrow: 4
• Song sparrow: 2
• Swamp sparrow: 1
• Eastern towhee: 20
• Northern cardinal: 3
• Red-winged blackbird: 4
• Eastern meadowlark: 5

HARKERS ISLAND – Officials with the Cape Lookout National Seashore announced Friday that Portsmouth Village is now reopened to the public.

Because of the effects of Hurricane Maria which caused beach erosion from higher than usual tides and rough surf in late September, the park was evacuated for safety of visitors and staff.

Portsmouth Village was spared damage, but the grounds were flooded and it has taken time for the grounds to dry enough to allow for safe access.

Officials said visitors should use caution when visiting Portsmouth as the ground may still be moist in low-lying areas.

Learn More

• Cape Lookout National Seashore

Reprinted from Ocrocoke Observer

OCRACOKE — Dave Frum recently motored his small boat to Portsmouth Island for the last time recently. On May 23, he retired as the National Park Service’s part-time maintenance man for the last 28 years.

His solitary stewardship of the abandoned village has been a labor of love.

Like many islanders, taking care of Portsmouth was his second job in addition to his work at Ocracoke’s water plant.

Frum’s work over these many years did not go unnoticed.

At the Friends of Portsmouth Island spring meeting in May at the North Carolina Center for the Advancement of Teaching, or NCCAT, facility here, he was presented an award for his dedicated service.

Frum was the first to see the damage Hurricane Isabel did to the village in 2003 and wrote a feature of it in the Ocracoke Observer newspaper back then. The eye of that powerful storm passed over Ocracoke Inlet.

“It was devastating,” he said.  “Trees were down everywhere, the dock was torn up and there was lots of damage to several houses including those of Henry Piggott and George Dixon, and the Life-saving Station,”

The next year, Hurricane Alex hit with major flooding from the Pamlico Sound causing more destruction.

“With those two storms, I spent a lot of time clearing brush and doing repairs,” he said.

As Portsmouth is part of the National Seashore, no chemical control for mosquitoes is done on any Park Service Land and he does not use mosquito spray. So, in spite of the village’s notoriety for mosquitoes, Frum has the non-chemical solution.

“The best deterrent to handling mosquitoes is to ignore them,” he said laughing. “Unlike what many believe, they are not horrible all the time.”

Frum takes exception to Portsmouth’s description as a ghost town.

“Ghost town implies that the village is dead, which it is not,” he said. “It’s vibrant. I feel the spirit of the village’s past like no other place.”

On Portsmouth and often the only person present, he hears the distant roar of the Atlantic Ocean at times as well as the silence while communing with nature.

“I’ve loved every bit of it,” he said. “Every day I witnessed the wildlife, like Great Horned Owls raising their young in a tree in the village, otters playing in the creeks and the Indigo Buntings passing through in the spring.”

This story is provided courtesy of the Ocracoke Observer, a newspaper covering Ocracoke island. Coastal Review Online is partnering with the Ocracoke Observer to provide readers with more environmental and lifestyle stories of interest along our coast. You can read more Ocracoke news here.

PORTSMOUTH ISLAND — It’s not every day you see a big red squid alive on a beach in Carteret County. If it were, folks might be a bit alarmed. They are, uh, different-looking when they’re big. Maybe not the “Creature from the Black Lagoon” different. Weird enough, though.

But Winterville resident Carey Walker, who was driving down Portsmouth Island in late March, wasn’t alarmed, just curious, when he saw the unusual specimen. He picked it up, and like any good visitor to Core Banks, cared enough about marine life to put it back in the water, after getting a photo or two, of course.

He never saw the squid come back. But he has wondered what it was. And so have many others who’ve seen the photos.

“It was low tide, and we were coming back to the cabins at about 5:30 p.m., and I just saw this thing out of the corner of my eye down at the edge of the water,” Walker recalled. “I actually went past it. But I wanted to see what it was, so I backed the truck up and got out and saw that it was still alive. So I picked up and we got a couple of pictures, and then I put it back in the water.”

Walker and his companions were there for a few more days, and never saw the squid on the beach again. Nor did anyone else they talked to.

“We saw some seals and some other things, but we never saw the squid again,” he said. “It was really just a five-minute encounter, but it was pretty cool. It’s not something you see every day, that’s for sure.”

Walker, who works for Barnhill Construction Co., estimated the squid weighed 35 to 40 pounds and was about 3 1/2 feet long, maybe 4 feet including its tentacles.

“I’ve caught some little squid before, but I’d never seen anything this size, and it was really red,” he said.

Walker thought that was the end of it. Eventually, though, through mutual friends, Carey’s photos wound their way to Todd Miller, executive director of the North Carolina Coastal Federation.

Miller emailed the photos to Charles H. “Pete” Peterson, a longtime and renowned marine biologist at the University of North Carolina Institute of Marine Sciences in Morehead City. Peterson has been around the watery block a few times, and he’s also a frequent beachgoer.

But he had no clue.

“Todd thought I might know, because he knows I’ve seen some weird stuff on the beach, but I didn’t,” Peterson said. “I’ve heard reports of giant squid around here, but I’ve never seen one.”

Although Carteret County is home to a wide variety of marine biologists and oceanographers – at Peterson’s lab as well as the North Carolina State University’s Center for Marine Science and Technology, or CMAST, also in Morehead City, and the National Marine Fisheries Service on Pivers Island near Beaufort, Peterson didn’t know of any “big squid” experts in the area.

But Miller did some research on the internet, and turned up the name of Steve O’Shea, who, indeed, is a marine biologist and environmentalist known for his expertise on giant squid.

He began working with the creatures with the National Institute of Water and Atmospheric Research, or NIWA, in New Zealand in 1996, and became director of the Earth and Oceanic Sciences Research Institute at the Auckland University of Technology, or AUT, in 2005. He was a Discovery Channel Quest Scholar until 2009, when he resigned to focus on research on coastal conservation, environmental matters and postgraduate supervision and teaching; but has remained involved in squid research and their preservation.

He’s even got a squid named for him: AUT science student Heather Braid, according to the university’s website, discovered a new species in the Mastigoteuthidae family a few years back and named it “Magnoteuthis osheai” for the man who had inspired her, years earlier, to get into squid research. It’s got to be a bit unusual for someone to inspire you to get into squid research.

But O’Shea would be the one to do that. He’s published more than 40 papers on squid, octopus, whales, fisheries and conservation, and has been involved in many documentaries.

So, you think that O’Shea might know the identity of the squid Carey Walker found on the Portsmouth Island Beach, just by looking at an emailed photo or two? Indeed, he did. After a couple of days of back-and-forth emails – it can be difficult to connect consistently with a world-famous man who lives now in Australia – he reported that, while unusual to be seen on beaches in our parts, this was not a particularly unusual squid: It was a diamondback squid, known in scientific nomenclature as Thysanoteuthis rhombus.

T. rhombus, also known as the diamond squid or diamondback squid, is a large species that grows to about 100 centimeters in length, which translates to about 39 inches, and ranges in weight from 20 to 30 kilograms, which translates to 44 to 50 pounds. Which means that, if nothing else, Carey Walker is pretty good at estimating the weight and length of big red squids he picks up on remote beaches.

O’Shea said the species occurs worldwide, throughout tropical and subtropical waters. Its arms have two sets of suckers, while the tentacles have four sets. Its named for its fins, which run in equal length along its mantle, making it look sort of like a rhombus, everyone’s favorite middle school geometrical shape, unless of course one favors parallelograms.

In his email, O’Shea said “There’s a significant commercial fishery for this species in more tropical waters,” and internet sources specifically mention the waters around Okinawa and Japan.

“Every now and then you get a stray, and that may well be the case with this one,” O’Shea wrote. “I’ve had them from (about) 127 metres (466 feet) depth at almost 55 degrees South, subAntarctic waters, south of New Zealand.

“Whether this has anything to do with changes in oceanography, currents, eddies or climate in general I don’t know, but of course anything is possible.”

There could, he said, have been a warm-water eddy, or a general warming of the surface layers of the water in the area, “bearing in mind this squid may have been living at depth. Whatever way you look at it, it is an important museum specimen and I hope it has been saved.”

Alas, it might have been saved, thanks to Carey Walker, but not for a museum, just for a longer life. Surely a squid expert would prefer that …

For his part, Walker conceded the thought of “calamari” crossed his mind when he saw the squid, but those thoughts didn’t prevail.

Nor would it have been worth a whole lot to take the thing to a fish house, because squid just aren’t worth a lot ‘round here. According to North Carolina Division of Marine Fisheries statistics, the top year for commercial squid landings was in 2004, when watermen brought in 2,465,394 pounds, worth $522,115. That’s about 21 cents a pound. Landings by 2015 had decreased to 25,516 pounds, worth $22,212. That’s 87 cents a pound. It wouldn’t have been a big payday.