DNA project links individual female loggerheads, nests

From CoastalReview.org During any given summer on North Carolina beaches, volunteers and National Park Service personnel comb the shores for evidence of freshly laid sea turtle nests. As the height of tourism season goes on, beachgoers are likely to see brightly colored ribbons or strings tied between stakes used to cordon off carefully buried nests. […]

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‘Catastrophic crisis’: Imported shrimp flood US market

From CoastalReview.org Foreign shrimp imports are overwhelming the country’s inventories of shrimp and driving market prices for locally sourced shrimp to record lows, prompting widespread calls from elected officials and organizations throughout southern Atlantic and Gulf Coast states for the federal government to declare a fishery resource disaster. Governors of coastal states from North Carolina […]

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Albemarle-Pamlico resilience gets $27.25 million boost

Veined with thousands of miles of streams and rivers, dotted by several national wildlife refuges, pocosin wetlands and state parks, the Albemarle-Pamlico estuarine region is one of the nation’s ecological crown jewels. The estuary was designated in 1987 as “an estuary of national significance” and is listed as one of “America’s Great Waters.” But this […]

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Groups join forces to save, release cold-stunned sea turtles

  When it comes to saving cold-stunned sea turtles, pardon the cliché, but it really does take a village. There are those at the front end of the process, like the North Carolina Wildlife Resources Commission authorities who follow water conditions to pinpoint temperature dips, the volunteers and professionals with the National Park Service who […]

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Coastal management staff to draft revised septic setbacks

State rules on where septic tanks can be located on oceanfront properties are likely to change in the coming months. The North Carolina Coastal Resources Commission Thursday gave the green light to Division of Coastal Management Director Braxton Davis to move ahead with proposed changes to existing rules, including setbacks and permit requirements. Davis indicated […]

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Tagging study yields new understanding of sheepshead

With a reputation for a spirited fight at the hook-end of a rod and reel and tasty, sweet, white meat, sheepshead are a choice catch for recreational anglers fishing North Carolina’s coastal waters. These days, as recreational saltwater fishing regulations have been tightened on some species, particularly flounder, the elusive, not-easy-to-hook sheepshead, with its ever-bizarre, […]

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UNC institute’s shark survey a trove of 50 years of data

Before “Jaws” with its depiction of a giant, vengeful, man-eating creature of the deep; before Shark Week, Discovery Channels’ eight-day ode to all things sharks; and well before the over-the-top gratuitous sci-fi series “Sharknado” films, there was, just off the coast of North Carolina, “shark survey.” Not as glamorous, perhaps, as the mindless entertainment evoked […]

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CRC Allows Larger Sandbags to Protect NC 12

The North Carolina Department of Transportation has been granted permission to use oversized sandbags to expedite construction of its temporary erosion control structure alongside a portion of N.C. 12 on Ocracoke Island. The Coastal Resources Commission on Thursday unanimously approved NCDOT’s request for a variance to its Coastal Area Management Act, or CAMA, major permit […]

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