General Assembly members worked at break-neck speed last week. Substantial additions were made to some bills, language was stripped out and new topics added into others, and a bill about local government reform became an elections bill. But the bill that gained the most attention was one that had been dormant for months but now […]

Local News |  Full Article

In a lengthy meeting yesterday, the Dare County Board of Commissioners heard public comment on its proposed budget for 2016, passed a resolution supporting using occupancy tax money from the beach nourishment fund for dredging Oregon Inlet, and decided not to merge two advisory panels on inlet and waterways issues. Shortly after the meeting began […]

Local News |  Full Article

It’s not been easy in the past month or so keeping up with what’s happening in Raleigh and Manteo and how various proposed bills, motions, and resolutions might affect what you pay in taxes. For instance, consider the issue of sales tax. We’ve had a lot of headlines in The Island Free Press lately with […]

Editor’s Blog |  Full Article

The weather has proven to be very much as we expect March to be – all over the place. Scattered semi-warm days followed by much cooler days, a day or so of southerly winds, followed by days of northerly wind. Yep.  It’s March. Or even better — it’s spring on the Outer Banks. While the […]

Fishing |  Full Article

It was not a pretty sight for David Mickey and Sue Dayton the fall day they came upon a large dark object on the Ocracoke beach. Walking closer, they identified what they had spotted as a dead bottlenose dolphin. Disturbed, they called the Marine Mammal Stranding coordinator for North Carolina’s central coast, Vicky Thayer. She […]

Island Features |  Full Article

These late March weeks promise to be quiet ones on the Cape Hatteras National Seashore.  Pre-nesting closures for some birds are already up, and park staff members are reportedly busy working on the seashore’s response to legislation passed by Congress in late December. The seashore’s new superintendent, Dave Hallac, has promised public meetings in mid-April […]

Editor’s Blog |  Full Article

When Republicans took control of the Dare County Board of Commissioners in last November’s election, they promised change. After they were sworn in on Dec. 1, the new chairman, Bob Woodard, talked more about the changes he hoped to see. Along the way, Woodard has made repeated references to getting much of the work of […]

Editor’s Blog |  Full Article

Anyone who was around the Outer Banks from the turn of the century through 2008 would have seen an absolute melee every winter. Anglers came from all around to join the local crowd to chase striped bass. The fishery was hot and so was the winter money that came with it. Rental companies, motels, restaurants, […]

Fishing |  Full Article

Paddling along the shoreline of Ocracoke Island a few weeks ago, I saw what looked like an armor-clad knight waving from a hummock of spartina grass. I stopped and stared in shock, then bewilderment. I looked through my binoculars and realized I was looking at a group of silvery helium balloons, tied together, caught in […]

Island Features |  Full Article

Dave Hallac, the new superintendent of the National Park Service’s Outer Banks Group, which includes the Cape Hatteras National Seashore, says he has been busy since he started his new job the first of the year. On the day of this interview, Hallac said he had been making phone calls to seashore stakeholders and users […]

Editor’s Blog |  Full Article

Today was the day that a relatively minor coastal storm hit Hatteras with a major punch. The storm that started winding up early Sunday morning was not particularly remarkable — north to northeast winds sustained at 30 to 40 mph with gusts to 50 and seas peaking at 15 to 17 feet. However, this morning, […]

Local News |  Full Article

Recent news stories about the beginning of oil and gas exploration off the North Carolina coast reminded me of an article I wrote 15 years ago for another publication. Most people are surprised to hear that almost 70 years ago, there was an attempt to find oil not only right here on Hatteras Island but […]

Editor’s Blog |  Full Article

Core samples from a decades old oil test well near the Cape Hatteras Lighthouse that was abandoned as a dry hole in 1946 will get another look as part of the state’s effort to expand oil and gas exploration, state officials say. Officials with the N.C. Department of Environment and Natural Resources said last week […]

Island Features |  Full Article

At Saturday’s high tide, about 5 p.m., traffic was down to one lane on Highway 12  south of the temporary bridge at Pea Island Inlet as ocean overwash flowed across both lanes of the road. Traffic was also slowing down at the Cape Hatteras Motel on the northern edge of Buxton, where water covered both […]

Local News |  Full Article

Hatteras Island’s watermen are known for their hardiness and their perseverance.  They go to sea to catch fish in all kinds of weather — hot or cold, windy or calm, rain or shine. And so it seemed rather appropriate that this year, after several years of fair weather, the planners of Day at the Docks, […]

Local News |  Full Article

By BRAD RICH Coastal Review Online While the debate over drilling for oil and natural gas off the North Carolina coast rages on, one thing appears certain: Next year, the first step in that process will begin, most likely, in the spring. Nine companies have applied for permits to use seismic air guns to look […]

Island Features |  Full Article

Hard to imagine that yet another summer tourist season is over and another school year has began. Unlike some places, such as Orlando, Fla., where there is a very strong tourist season year round, the Outer Banks’ really busy season lasts about three months. We slowly build into summer through the spring, but the tourist […]

Fishing |  Full Article

The last of a generation of Ocracoke Island men who were true “old salts” died recently, but Edgar Maurice Ballance will be remembered on this island with love and respect.  Known locally as Morris, Ballance was born to Elisha and Emma Gaskins Ballance in 1927.  He was one of nine children, born at home in […]

Island Features |  Full Article

Tropical Storm Bertha quickly intensified and became the second hurricane of the Atlantic season this morning. The good news for the Outer Banks is that the storm will stay well offshore, passing between Cape Hatteras and Bermuda tomorrow into early Wednesday. At 5 p.m., Bertha was a Category 1 hurricane with winds of 75 mph […]

Local News |  Full Article

Located on the harbor in Ocracoke village, the Community Square has long been the hub of this island community.  Made up of the Community Store, docks, and several other businesses, this significant portion of Ocracoke’s Historic District has recently been the focus of a project to rejuvenate the square and preserve the island’s history and […]

Island Features |  Full Article

Hatteras and Ocracoke escaped the severe damage that was predicted as Hurricane Arthur passed to the west of the islands as a 100 mile-per-hour Category 2 storm in the pre-dawn hours this morning. The winds blew at about 90 knots, as advertised, and houses shook and creaked with the gusts. The highest winds lasted a […]

Local News |  Full Article

After we read The Editor’s Blog in The Island Free Press last Friday, we felt it was necessary to express our views on the concrete plant being proposed in Waves. This column represents the sentiment of the surrounding property owners living on Laughing Gull Lane, Lance’s Landing, and Sea Isle Hills, as well as many […]

Local News |  Full Article

In my last article I wrote that April shouldn’t have long periods of bad weather without some decent breaks. I also wrote a disclaimer saying not to hold me to that. It’s a good thing I wrote the disclaimer, because between the wind and rain, the weather hasn’t been all that great. But that doesn’t […]

Fishing |  Full Article

North Carolina lawmakers will not receive a completed final report on the Coastal Resources Commission’s inlet management study by year’s end. “We are not going to know everything by final report time,” CRC Chairman Frank Gorham said last week following the last of a series of public meetings held to discuss inlet issues. “We have […]

Local News |  Full Article

Outer Banks Chamber unveils new magazine The Outer Banks Chamber of Commerce celebrated the arrival of the Outer Banks Experience Magazine today a brunch buffet for advertisers at Kelly’s Outer Banks Restaurant and Tavern in Nags Head. Thirty-five advertisers supported the publication, which will serve as the Chamber’s quality-of-life piece for 2014.  All members of […]

Real Estate |  Full Article

More than a century ago, it was part of a cart path from Buxton to Frisco. Just two decades ago, it was a quiet sand road deep in the Buxton Woods, a retreat for those seeking peace and quiet, natural beauty, and privacy. Today, Flowers Ridge Road, just off Lighthouse Road in Buxton, has become […]

Editor’s Blog |  Full Article

I swear I feel like I am living in the Twilight Zone when I think about three different snow events hitting the Outer Banks in almost as many weeks. The first two snow events definitely had an impact the north beaches more than Hatteras or Ocracoke, but this past event finally gave a fair amount […]

Fishing |  Full Article

How did I become an environmentalist who doesn’t trust environmental agencies and organizations? It took a lifetime… As a child, I spent a lot of time in my grandmother’s house in a small coal mining town in West Virginia. Marmet is a “company” town where much of the housing and employment are controlled by the […]

Local News |  Full Article

BEAUFORT – The latest skirmish in the ongoing Sand Wars is being waged on unfamiliar terrain and pits a new opponent against an unusual alliance of adversaries.   Though the first shots have already been fired, it all breaks out in the open 6 p.m. today at a public meeting at the Duke Marine Lab […]

Local News |  Full Article

For most folks, the subject of sea turtles conjures images of nest excavations on the beach and enormous, old turtles gliding along the Gulf Stream, but for many on Hatteras and Ocracoke islands, it also evokes visions of cold-stunned sea turtles stranded along the coast in the winter. Each year, National Park Service rangers and […]

Island Features |  Full Article

Derelicts, ghosts, and orphans might sound more like Charles Dickens characters than lost or abandoned crab pots, but the terminology is an apt description of marine debris clogging northeastern North Carolina waterways. A two-year pilot project to find and remove unattended, storm-tossed or sunken wire pots, netting and fishing line from areas of the region’s […]

Fishing |  Full Article

It?s now mid-August, and Cape Point is still closed to off-road vehicles.   It?s been closed since April 9. And it will apparently be closed at least another week. In fact, pedestrian access to Cape Point is also closed unless you wade in the shorebreak for a quarter mile or so around a bird closure. […]

Editor’s Blog |  Full Article

Assuming that access to Cape Point won?t reopen to off-road vehicles for at least another two weeks, this year will set a record for the amount of time that the popular fishing, shelling, and family gathering place has been closed to vehicles since 2008 ? and probably in the history of the seashore. Access to […]

Editor’s Blog |  Full Article

Fishing is one of the main reasons that visitors come to the Outer Banks, and for years now, fishing piers here on Hatteras Island, and along the entire East Coast, have figured into the culture of beach vacations for anglers and for families. The piers that extend out into the ocean make it easier for […]

Fishing |  Full Article

Before I move on to court-related beach access news, I want to take just a moment to talk about milestones and memories. This year marks two important hurricane-related milestones.  It?s the 20th anniversary of Hurricane Emily?s devastation on southern Hatteras, and it?s been 10 years since Hurricane Isabel tore up Hatteras village and cut a […]

Editor’s Blog |  Full Article

(Editor’s note:  This week, we present you with two “archived articles of the week.”  Both are about Hurricane Emily, which sent a storm surge of historical proportions over the southern end of Hatteras Island on Aug. 31, 1993.  It was my first hurricane after I moved to Hatteras Island in 1991, and I remember it […]

Local News |  Full Article

“This is where our house used to be, right here,” Debbie Hodge said, pointing to a barren stretch of sand.  She could have been standing on any beach on the island, and it would have looked the same, just empty. It was the fall of 2003, and Debbie was then 51 and her husband, Cliff […]

Local News |  Full Article

My trip to work changed dramatically after Hurricane Isabel tore through our little island on Sept. 18 and created an inlet between my home in Frisco and my office in Hatteras village.  It changed not only for me but also for many other folks who had to get back and forth across the new inlet […]

Local News |  Full Article

As Hurricane Isabel churned in the Atlantic on its journey to the Outer Banks, the conversation in the villages was totally predictable. Everywhere you went, the question was, “Are you staying or are you going?” When the storm was a formidable Category 4 or 5 on the Saffir-Simpson scale, the answer was a no-brainer.  Almost […]

Local News |  Full Article

It’s not every day you hear the phrase, “…and then we’ll release the live mermaids.” But each Tuesday night, everyone who attends The Beach Klub’s Avon Luau gets the opportunity to see — and even swim alongside — a pair of living, breathing mer-ladies.  And that’s in addition to the other entertainment offered at the […]

Island Features |  Full Article

It’s no secret that Hatteras Island is home to some incredible—and incredibly diverse—wildlife. While most of us, visitors and residents alike, love and admire these creatures, few people truly appreciate just how delicate and complex our relationship with them is, and even fewer understand how to care for them without crossing that ever so tenuous […]

Island Features |  Full Article

While an international panel is studying revisions of stock quotas of bluefin tuna, the federal agency that divvies up the U.S. share will consider new regulations that address allocation share along the East Coast, a long-standing bone of contention between New England and Southeast watermen.  A draft amendment to the Highly Migratory Species Management Plan […]

Fishing |  Full Article

It almost seems we are going from one extreme to another this year. In the spring we had a hard time with pier, surf, and inshore fishing because of what seemed like a never ending northerly wind that helped to keep the water and air temps lower than we would like or needed for hot […]

Fishing |  Full Article

Not quite six years ago, North Carolina officially opened the eastern campus of the North Carolina Center for the Advancement of Teaching at the beautifully restored Coast Guard Station on Ocracoke Island. The state Senate now wants to shutter the place up. Islanders were thrilled that the $7 million state-funded renovation maintained the station’s authentic […]

Local News |  Full Article

Without a doubt some of the best moneymakers in the Outer Banks fishing world are red drum, cobia, and mahi– and they are all currently here and biting. While the big, citation red drum have to be thrown back because of size limits, they are still highly sought after by pier, surf, and boat anglers. […]

Fishing |  Full Article

Frankly, the editor needs a break from writing this blog. And we could probably all use a break from more discussion of the challenges facing Hatteras and Ocracoke as we head into the summer season. I want to say again that Highway 12 is open, the ferries to Ocracoke are running, and businesses are ready […]

Editor’s Blog |  Full Article

After months of preparation and following an election that further consolidated legislative power in the hands of Republicans in the state House and Senate, the new North Carolina General Assembly session will be gaveled in Wednesday, Jan. 9. Meanwhile newly sworn-in Gov. Pat McCrory, who took the oath of office Saturday, Jan. 5, held his […]

Island Features |  Full Article

Back in the 1970s, no one thought twice of removing anything off of sunken World War II U-boats, from brass plaques to crew journals to torpedo hatches. To this day, a treasure trove of historic items salvaged from U-boats sunk off the Outer Banks is safely stashed away in the private homes of divers. And […]

Island Features |  Full Article

Remembering the Christmas Blizzard of 1989 December has almost been more like summer than winter in southeastern North Carolina the past two years. It wasn’t so different in 1989 – until a few days before Christmas. “It looked like just a typical December,” said Tim Armstrong, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service Forecast Office […]

Local News |  Full Article

Outer Banks Angling: Earning your stripes Outer Banks Angling: Earning your stripes December is here and most of the inshore fishing will fall off as water and air temperatures drop. The speckled trout fishing will generally pick up and puppy drum fishing can be good. However, most people have come to look at December as […]

Fishing |  Full Article