Title: Coast watch
Identifier: coastwatch00uncs_11 (find matches)
Year: 1979 (1970s)
Authors: UNC Sea Grant College Program
Subjects: Marine resources; Oceanography; Coastal zone management; Coastal ecology
Publisher: (Raleigh, N. C. : UNC Sea Grant College Program)
Contributing Library: State Library of North Carolina
Digitizing Sponsor: North Carolina Digital Heritage Center

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vocal opponents, science alone suggests that the prudent action is to shelve the plan. Coastal geologists have consistently questioned whether the Corps could prevent erosion on Pea Island and Cape Hatteras National Seashore — although the latest sand- bypassing plan is currently under scrutiny — and ask why the jetties are necessary to begin with. Commercial and recreational vessels already ply Oregon Inlet regularly. Scientists such as Stanley Riggs at East Carolina University, Duke University's Orrin Pilkey and a constellation of others argue that the Corps' plan does not give enough consideration to factors such as barrier island migration or the possibility of increased sea level rise in response to potential global wanning. Not long after meeting Jarrett on the Pea Island groin, I attend a lecture by Riggs in the public aquarium on Roanoke Island. According to Riggs, the inlet history of the Outer Banks has much to say about the future of these islands. An inlet at or near the present site of Oregon Inlet appeared as "Port Ferdinando" on a 1585 map of the region and was called "Gun" or "Gunt" inlet by later cartogra- phers. It closed sometime before 1798 and remained plugged with sand until the 1846 hurricane and Midgett's hard day in the dunes. Just look at what has happened with inlets along the northern Outer Banks, Riggs says, and it's easy to tell that the only thing constant about this coastline is change. From 1585 to 1600 along the stretch of beach from Cape Henry to Cape Hatteras, six inlets were open at one time or another. From 1600 to 1800, five. In the 19th century, there were three. From 1900 to 1945, two. And from 1945 to the present, only Oregon Inlet. "With rising sea level," Riggs says,
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Wanchese patriarch Copt. Will Etheridge Jr. says the fishing industry is looking for a helping hand, not a handout. "we have moving sands, and those sands are closing inlets." Coastal geologists insist that Oregon Inlet is in no imminent danger of closing, with or without stabilization. But attempts to lock it into place will come at a great cost to distant generations and to the current one. Six hundred million dollars (give or take) will dent future federal and state budgets, but plenty of Outer Bankers will say that Oregon Inlet's current status exacts a price from them every day. The commercial fishing industry in Dare County is struggling, and its viability largely depends upon a reliable Oregon Inlet. Capt. Will Etheridge has become a spokesperson for Outer Banks watermen — he is president of the Oregon Inlet Users Association, a group that has long lobbied for construction of the jetties — and he meets me on a shopworn fishers' dock on the Wanchese waterfront. The Wanchese fishing industry stands to benefit greatly from a jettied Oregon Inlet. In the late 1970s, banking on the eventual construction of the rock breakwaters, more than $10 million in state and federal funds was poured into the construction of a Wanchese seafood processing facility that could handle the larger commercial trawlers a stabilized inlet would attract. But without the jetties, the Wanchese Seafood Industrial Park has few fish to process. We motor around the docks in Etheridge's workboat, watching a man in orange coveralls hose down the decks of the trawler Capt. Ralph. Longline mackerel and tuna boats line up at the dock, and power tools whine from a bustling little boatyard where gleaming white sportfishing boats are corralled, but Etheridge insists the seafood park is on the skids. "We had a ship lift here that went broke .... Used to have plenty of boats," he says. "No more." In recent years, trawlers operating out of Wanchese might lose 10 or 15 working days each season due to conditions in Oregon Inlet, he says. "That restricts your working time," he adds morosely. "Cuts your production." With jetties, the Corps plans to 12 HIGH SEASON 1998

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