60 MARINE FISHERIES OF NORTH CAROLINA 



readily understood. On the other hand, lulls between times of adverse 

 weather, the milder conditions between the Capes, and the near-by harbors, 

 such as Ocracoke, Beaufort, and lower Chesapeake Bay ports, are sufficient 

 to enable a large trawler fleet to work this coastline during the winter, which 

 is the most severe season (Figure 26). Perhaps, if greater strides are made 

 with wave forecasting techniques that have been developed during the recent 

 war, the area will be fished with far greater ease. 



A miscellany of other conditions should be included in completing an 

 account of the over-all hydrographic conditions. Air temperature has been 

 referred to several times in discussions of water conditions. For a more 

 detailed record than offered in Figure 14, Table 10 is presented, giving the 

 monthly averages since 1875 for the central Hatteras station. Fog is another 

 weather condition important in considerations relative to the water. The 

 North Carolina coast is favored by the lack of this. At Cape Hatteras there 

 are 10 days of dense fog per year (see U. S. Dept. Agriculture Yearbook, 

 1941 ) . With the exception of the southern tip of Florida, no other coastal area 

 in the United States has as little fog (there are 40 to 80 days of fog per year 

 on Cape Cod). Data compiled by Dailey (1946) shows that most of the fog 

 around Hatteras occurs during winter. 



The subject of hurricanes or, more technically, tropical cyclones, demands 

 what little consideration is possible here. Since one hears so much about 

 hurricanes moving northward along the coast and since North Carolina's 

 coastline is so prominent, there has been a tendency to think of this region 

 as being especially subject to hurricanes. On looking at the numerous re- 

 corded hurricane courses on maps by Tannehill (1945) in his comprehensive 

 discussion of these storms, it is clear that North Carolina is hit about as 

 often as any other east coast area, any part of which may be struck by the 

 highly varied courses. The disadvantage of this coastal prominence is that it 

 may be struck by a storm directly off the sea, weakened only to the extent 

 that such storms may die as they move northward and not subject to the loss 

 in strength that inevitably results from an overland course. Also the nature 

 of the offshore bar makes that area extremely vulnerable to any appreciable 

 storm. If the reader will recall the comments on the instability of the offshore 

 bar, given in the section on the Offshore Bar and Its Inlets, and, better yet, 

 if he has been there, he may join with the writer in amazement that residents 

 and dwellings have survived the full force of any great hurricane. That they 

 have done so is clearly a matter of record, however, one example being the 

 1944 hurricane, the center of which passed over Hatteras with winds of about 

 100 miles an hour and tides 7.0 ft. above mean low tide (Sumner, 1944). 



