“I wished to see that seashore where man’s works are wrecks…where the ocean is land-lord as well as sea-lord, and comes ashore without a wharf for the landing; where the crumbling land is the only invalid, or at best is dry land, and that is all you can say of it..” –Henry David Thoreau On […]
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Walking Ocracoke’s beach with Henry David Thoreau: Part 4
Island Cooking: Enjoy your tuna catch all year by canning it
By LYNNE FOSTER By LYNNE FOSTER By LYNNE FOSTER There is something to catch on a charter out of Hatteras all year round, but April marks the unofficial opening of the “season” for the charter fleet. Warmer weather and the usual abundance of yellowfin tuna in the Gulf Stream beckon anglers who have been penned […]
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Walking Ocracoke’s beach with Henry David Thoreau: Part 3
‘The ocean is a wilderness reaching round the globe, wilder than a Bengal jungle.” –Henry David Thoreau I decided to complete the third part of my “Walking with Thoreau” expedition in mid-March, after the gasoline prices had sky-rocketed a few days before, so I did not feel right about asking anyone to drive me to […]
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Odds and Ends: Stupid stories, useless brochures, and losing legislation
Today?s blog is a roundup of short items that have been on my list to tell you about. They are: An article from a national website that a news colleague has nominated for stupidest story of the year. It names Dare County as one of the Top 10 American Ghost Towns of the 21st century. […]
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Walking Ocracoke’s beach with Henry David Thoreau: Part 2
“…It was a very inspiriting sound to walk by, filling the whole air, that of the sea dashing against the land…” –Henry David Thoreau Having wandered for more than an hour with my friend Rita along the salt flats at Ocracoke Island’s north end, I set out to walk in earnest. Thoreau’s account of his […]
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Focus on Oregon Inlet: Fix for continual shoaling eludes even the governor
The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers has agreed to move the dredge Currituck to Oregon Inlet to provide faster, more effective dredging capabilities for that crucial navigation channel. The Currituck will begin work Saturday, April 16, and will immediately begin dredging around the clock. The current vessel stationed in the inlet, the dredge Merritt, will […]
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Walking Ocracoke’s beach with Henry David Thoreau: Part 1
“The breakers looked like droves of a thousand white horses of Neptune, rushing to the shore, with their white manes streaming far behind; and when, at length, the sun shone for a moment, their manes were rainbow-tinted.” — Henry David Thoreau Sitting on a dune near the north end of Ocracoke Island, I study Thoreau’s […]
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A whale of a tale
By IRENE NOLAN By IRENE NOLAN It’s not unusual to see whales off the coast of the Outer Banks in the winter. But this winter, there seem to be more reports than usual, including sightings of an unusual whale in these waters. The most dramatic is a blog and video by Mike Campitelli, who was […]
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The bartender at Capt. Rolo’s Raw Bar and Grill in Frisco served up the first mixed drink to a customer at a Hatteras Island restaurant just after 5 p.m. on Wednesday evening, Feb. 23, when the establishment re-opened after a winter hiatus. It was a rum and coke for Gaston Foster Jr. of Hatteras village. […]
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Cold-stunned sea turtles are already keeping Park Service and volunteers busy
Like business closures and unemployment, cold-stunned sea turtles are an unfortunate indication that winter has arrived on the islands. And this year, winter arrived early, bringing with it a cold-stunning event that has kept local wildlife officials and volunteers on the move and contributed to the loss of many young sea turtles. Because sea turtles […]
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The hunting traditions of Hatteras and Ocracoke islands
Daybreak on Ocracoke Island, many winter mornings, finds Ronnie O’Neal heading out to one of his stake blinds in the Pamlico Sound, pursuing a tradition that his grandfather practiced years before. Earl Gaskins, Beaver Tillett, and several other Ocracokers are doing the same thing, carrying visitors from North Carolina, South Carolina, Virginia — some […]
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Exciting? No, but land-use plans are worth reading
(Editor’s note: The Dare County Board of Commissioners will conduct a public hearing on the county’s 2009 draft update of its land-use plan on Monday, Nov. 15, at 5:30 p.m. in the Commissioners Meeting Room in the Dare County Administrative Building in Manteo.) During one of my nine lives as an editor, I was responsible […]
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20 years ago a runaway dredge tore a hole in the Bonner Bridge, and islanders and visitors relied on temporary ferries for months…WITH SLIDE SHOW
BY CATHERINE KOZAK A hard nor’easter was pounding the Outer Banks as Mickey Baker and Carmie Prete hustled home to Ocracoke Island that October night 20 years ago, intent on beating the heavy weather before Highway 12 flooded. As they crossed the Herbert C. Bonner Bridge, they spied something odd looming in the darkness, just […]
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Outer Banks Angling: Fishing Report for Oct. 7
Well, fishing folks, it seems like an eternity since I’ve had anything to really report. That is a hard admission for a guy whose entire life revolves around fishing. I love to fish, I love to see others fish, and, most importantly, I love to catch fish. However, the swell and weather from offshore hurricanes […]
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Odd Mob Bikes to the Light for Great Fun and a Great Cause ……WITH SLIDE SHOW
On Saturday morning, Oct. 2, a strange assembly descended on the grounds of Cape Hatteras Secondary School. It included a gang of cavemen, ferry worker zombies, a cheerleader with a goatee, several vegetables, a whoopee cushion and at least one member of the Village People. This odd mob, quite visible from N.C. Highway 12, caused […]
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Remembering Mr. Bob, an Ocracoke pony
By Pat Garber “If such a place there be, an island in the sun, where horses free as spindrift run.” –Jeanetta Hennings, from her 1985 book “Conquistadore’s Legacy: The Horses of Ocracoke.” Thirty-three years ago, on the island of Ocracoke, a Banker pony mare retreated into the marsh grasses along the Pamlico Sound to deliver […]
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Wicked waves hammered annual windsurfing wave contest…WITH SLIDE SHOW
By ANNE BOWERS Hurricane Igor created huge wave action all five days of the Hatteras Wave Jam 2010 last week. True, the waves were a major score, but the wind didn’t cooperate. This was the third annual Hatteras Wave Jam. Event organizer, Bill Bell of Nags Head, spent five months organizing this wave competition, and […]
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Hurricane watch posted for North Carolina coast
By ANNE BOWERS and IRENE NOLAN By ANNE BOWERS and IRENE NOLAN By ANNE BOWERS and IRENE NOLAN Hurricane Earl worked its way north along the Outer Banks overnight, and heavy rains and increasing wind speeds made for a stressful night for those who tried to sleep through the storm. However, the good news is […]
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Seashore sees record nesting success, but all because of the consent decree?
The expected media release from the environmental groups that sued the National Park Service over its management of the Cape Hatteras National Seashore arrived today. The headline is as expected also: ?Nesting birds and turtles break records at Cape Hatteras National Seashore.? And it?s all true. As of today, there were 147 turtle nests on […]
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One year later, Ocracoke remembers the horrific fireworks explosion that killed four people
It was a clear morning in Ocracoke. Breezes were light, and it was already near 80 degrees as workers bustled in and out of a white Ryder truck filled with fireworks near the south ferry docks in the village. Firefighters preparing for the July Fourth show planned for that evening were in good humor as […]
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Strange sea creatures show up in the Ocracoke surf
“Yuck. There is slimy stuff all over the beach!” During the last weeks of May, beachgoers and sport fishermen at Ocracoke’s ocean beaches came across an oddity that few recognized. “A strange kind of slimy grass” was how one fisherman described it. “Gooey strings resembling frog eggs” was someone else’s comment. The organisms floated in […]
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Building oyster reefs promotes jobs and the environment….WITH SLIDE SHOW
Oyster reef restoration, new green jobs, and a blue sky were all part of an Earth Day get-together on Spurgeon Stowe’s headboat, the Miss Hatteras, on Monday, April 19. More than 40 people gathered at Oden’s Dock in Hatteras village and prepared to climb aboard the boat and head out into Pamlico Sound. Their destination […]
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Federal agencies propose to move North Carolina’s loggerheads to endangered list
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s Fisheries Service and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service announced last month their intent to seek a change in status for the loggerhead sea turtles that are found in the waters off North Carolina and nest on coastal beaches. The services proposed to change the turtle’s status from threatened […]
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Report on Judge Boyle’s status conference on the consent decree
By JAMES LEA By JAMES LEA Federal district court Judge Terrence Boyle convened a status conference on Friday, March 19, on the consent decree that settled a lawsuit against the National Park Service over its lack of an off-road vehicle management plan at the Cape Hatteras National Seashore. The suit was filed in October, 2007, […]
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Park Service releases annual reports for protected species on the seashore
By IRENE NOLAN By IRENE NOLAN The Cape Hatteras National Seashore 2009 annual reports for protected species and a report on the status of off-road vehicle management plan and negotiated rulemaking were released last week and are available to the public on the Park Planning (PEPC) Web site under the Interim Protected Species Management Strategy […]
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U.S. Geological Survey coastal erosion study is coming to Cape Point
A white metal monster rolls across the broad expanse of Cape Point, following a sandy road along southern Hatteras Island. Its giant wheels sink into the wet sand as it approaches the ocean, but it does not slow down. It heads straight into the surf, wheels churning the water, and soon it is in deep […]
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….WITH SLIDE SHOW ….WITH SLIDE SHOW Jim Matyiko moved Serendipity off the Atlantic Ocean on Friday, Jan. 15, but not as far as he wanted to, and not as far as project general manager Mike Price kept telling onlookers the house would go. Through a long day of what appeared to be challenges for the […]
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Playing favorites – Why I love the boat parade and blessing of the fleet
It?s really hard to choose a favorite event among all of those occasions that are so special on Hatteras Island. It?s like choosing a favorite child or grandchild. However, after the weekend, I am ready to go on the record. My favorite event on Hatteras Island is the annual boat parade and blessing of […]
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Surfers are hoping Bill will be swell
Outer Banks surfers are eagerly awaiting the southeast swell from Hurricane Bill, which is forecast to pass several hundred miles east of the area tomorrow, perhaps bringing some of the best surf of the summer on Hatteras and Ocracoke. However, the big waves that the surfers are hoping for will cause some inconveniences for other […]
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A Fishing Trip to Remember
By JIM BREWER A stormy night and a dash over the Bonner Bridge – before it was finished (Editor’s note: Ann Brewer Ianuario has been recording the memories of her parents for some time. This story involves a rather unusual and exciting trip that her father made to Hatteras Island in 1962 when the […]
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