Morehead. 
City, aufort 
o\ 
Cape 
Lookout 
NORTH 
Figure 1. Location of study sites at Bogue Banks, North Carolina. The 
nourished beach (N) is located at Fort Macon State Park and 
the comparison beach (C) is located at Emerald Isle. 
Behind the dune at both beaches is a relict dune and swale system covered 
by maritime forest. Several of the swales contain freshwater in enough quan- 
tity to support small mammals. Fort Macon is the site of a partially restored 
pre-Civil War brick fort. The Fort Macon beach is subject to fairly heavy 
usage by bathers during the summer months. Fort Macon State Park is a favorite 
spot for sport fishing, but no commercial seining is allowed from the beach. 
The nourished beach at Fort Macon (Fig. 2) consisted of a segment of ocean- 
facing beach stretching from the park's western boundary marker east to a point 
on the beach even with the Coast Guard station, or a distance of approximately 
1460 meters. The slope of the beach was gentle, averaging less than 3 percent 
(3 meters of drop per 100 meters of run), but during high-energy conditions, 
storm scarps were prevalent. This beach has been described previously by 
Pearse, Humm, and Wharton (1942). 
The unnourished comparison beach was the same beach described by Leber 
(1977). It is located approximately 20 kilometers west of the Fort Macon beach 
(Fig. 3). The study area begins near the end of James Street in Emerald Isle 
and stretches east a distance of 1460 meters. The beach slope here was also 
gentle averaging 2 to 3 percent (2 to 3 meters of drop per 100 meters of run) 
and was also subject to storm scarping during high-energy situations. 
Both beaches are typical high-energy sandy beaches as described by Pratt 
(1973) and Riedl and McMahan (1974). Both received waves averaging 0.3 to 1.0 
meter from crest to trough during this study. Semidiurnal tidal fluctuations 
