To mark the one-year anniversary of the public announcement of GenX, the Cape Fear Chapter of the Surfrider Foundation organized its first Clean Water Week from June 1-7. The week of events included free family-friendly programs that were put together by several local organizations — Cape Fear Surfrider, Plastic Ocean Project, Cape Fear River Watch,…
Two of the main goals of the North Carolina Coastal Federation are to reduce the amount of marine debris on our coast and construct more living shorelines as an alternative to bulkheads and hard structures. When building living shorelines, the federation uses plastic mesh bags filled with oyster shells to build oyster reefs that buffer…
Manteo Middle School and First Flight Middle School were able to learn a great deal about rain gardens this past week thanks to Sara Hallas, coastal education coordinator at the North Carolina Coastal Federation’s Wanchese office, Reilly Kelly, AmeriCorps member, and a grant from the Community Foundation. Six classes of seventh-grade Manteo Middle School students monitored…
All three regional offices took field trips to special coastal places in May, helping North Carolina students more fully experience the state’s beautiful coast. Many of these students had only seen the ocean and/or a salt marsh a few times, and some had never seen these environments before. Part of the North Carolina Coastal Federation’s…
Over the course of four days, staff at the federation’s Wanchese office educated approximately 600 students on living shorelines, marine debris, water quality and much more. The week full of education events kicked off at Manteo Middle School on April 24 and 25, when Sara Hallas, coastal education coordinator, and Reilly Kelly, AmeriCorps member, visited…
A total of 76 commercial watermen worked throughout the coast of North Carolina in January to collect 3,496 lost crab pots as part of a statewide marine debris removal effort to prevent hazards for people and wildlife. The Lost Fishing Gear Recovery Project is led by the North Carolina Coastal Federation with $100,000 from the…
A team of five coastal organizations, both private and public, are working on a collaborative marine debris reduction plan for the North Carolina coast. To aid in the development of this process, the five groups— the North Carolina Coastal Federation, North Carolina Sea Grant, Onslow County Solid Waste, North Carolina Marine Debris Symposium and the…
The North Carolina Coastal Federation has already hosted five cleanups this year, and two of those took place this month at Fort Macon State Park and a section of adopted highway. Nineteen volunteers joined staff from the Ocean office for the first cleanup of February at Fort Macon on Feb. 13. The volunteers picked up…
The North Carolina Coastal Federation hosted three marine debris cleanups in January to kick off its 2018 marine debris work and to celebrate the Lost Fishing Gear Recovery Project, a statewide effort to pick up lost crab pots from North Carolina sounds during the no-potting period. From 2014-2016, the federation received funding from NOAA to…
If it’s a new year, it’s time for the North Carolina Coastal Federation’s annual Lost Fishing Gear Recovery Project across the state’s coast. This unique effort employs the state’s commercial fishermen to remove lost crab pots, which improves both the crab and other state fisheries. It also creates work for commercial fishermen during the no-potting…