If you happen to visit the western end of Emerald Isle or Bear Island (part of Hammocks Beach State Park) in North Carolina in the next few months, you will be able to see lots of dredging equipment working in Bogue Inlet. The photo above is of a booster pump to help push the material that is dredged (note the two dregdes in the background) from the inlet along a pipe to a outlet several hundred meters east, on the beach in Emerald Isle. It is all part of the Bogue Inlet Channel Relocation Project and Phase III of the Bogue Banks Renourishment Project.

Here is a picture of the pipe (the dark strip near the waterline) along the beach, taken from the end of the public access boardwalk near the eastern end of Emerald Isle:

This project has only just begun, so it will be interesting to see how it progresses. Stay tuned for updates.

Posted by Matthew Godfrey at 05:11 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

There have been several cases when I have responded to sea turtle stranding observation that turned out to not be a sea turtle. Just recently, I was called about a non-marine turtle stranding, but I couldn't resist responding because there was a tag involved. I know how valuable tag return data can be. I headed over to the road leading to Piver's Island, but I started tromping around in the wrong spot, ending up lost in the marsh grass (and not for the first time). Fortunately, Zoë Meletis and Noella Gray were close by, and as they were the ones who called me initially, they led me to the spot where the bird lay:

As both Zoë and Noella are founding members of the Duke CSI, they wanted to know as soon as possible the details surrounding this pelican, including when and where it was tagged. Fortunately, when I called in the band number, I was told that I would receive a certificate by mail with those details. Sure enough, this arrived a few days later:

It turns out that you can also report bird bands and other tags online. Check here for more information.

Posted by Matthew Godfrey at 02:09 PM | Permalink | Comments (2) | TrackBacks (1)