North Carolina Sea Grant's Lundie 

 Spence and Walter Clark lead the chattering 

 contingency from the Encore Center for 

 Lifelong Enrichment at North Carolina State 

 University. The mission is to learn about a trio 

 of barrier islands clustered along the state's 

 southern coast — Masonboro Island, Bald 

 Head Island and Wrightsville Beach. 



The field study will highlight the 

 respective island differences — one under 



Above: Lundie Spence points out unusual 

 features of jellyfish — a delicacy for sea 

 turtles that come ashore to nest. 



At left, top: Encore members spot shorebirds 

 at Bald Head Island with the help of Lundie 

 Spence, left. 



At left, middle: Walter Clark, right, talks the 

 dynamics of a barrier island with Jim 

 Tommerdahl. Behind them is Capt. Charlie's 

 Station, where Bald Head light keepers and 

 their families lived in the early 1900s. 



At left, bottom: Betty Poulton leads the way 

 for the Encore trek across the barrier island. 



conservation protection, one in the process of 

 being developed, and another that is fully 

 developed. 



Spence, Sea Grant's education specialist, 

 will tell the ecological, geological and 

 biological story of the natural processes at 

 work in the complex coastal system. 



Clark, coastal law specialist, will show 

 that increased human interaction with the 

 environment often results in increased policy 

 concerns. For example, while Wrightsville 

 Beach may be fully developed, public policy 

 guarantees access to its oceanfront beaches. 



Bald Head is a unique private-public 

 experiment that marries the protection of 

 natural and historic areas with controlled 

 development of this lush, subtropical island. 



"Masonboro Island, on the other hand, 

 represents the ultimate policy decision by the 

 state to purchase the property and hold it in 

 perpetuity," Clark says. One of the last wholly 

 undeveloped barrier islands along the southern 

 coast of North Carolina, it is under the 

 protection of the North Carolina National 

 Estuarine Research Reserve System. 



"Masonboro Island belongs to all the 

 people of the state. It is a living laboratory for 

 all who are interested in marine ecology and 

 science," Clark adds. 



Learn as you go 



Betty Poulton, Encore special programs 

 coordinator, has seen to every detail of the 

 three-day experience so that participants 

 broaden their understanding of the natural 

 resources as well as the history of coastal 

 North Carolina. 



Encore field trips are never run-of-the 

 mill sightseeing excursions. Destinations must 

 meet Encore expectations for programs that 

 foster intellectual stimulation and community 

 involvement, says Poulton. 



Nature-based trips are designed to 

 encourage a learn-as-you-go approach to 

 environmental issues. 



Pat Warner, a veteran Encore member 

 from Raleigh, says, 'We don't take notes, and 

 there are no tests. We have fun, learn a lot from 

 the experiences, and come away with more 

 than the average tourist." 



Warner adds that Encore's environmental 

 field studies are effective because they are well 

 planned ". . . and because Lundie is an 



excellent show-and-tell kind of teacher. It 

 seems that no matter what you pick up on the 

 beach to show her, she knows about it and can 

 relate interesting facts." 



Meanwhile on Masonboro Island, the 

 men and women are beginning to discover 

 indigenous "wildlife." 



Ghost crabs scurry and disappear beneath 

 the sandy shoreline, prompting one man to 

 ask, "What use is this tiny critter?" 



Spence explains that the lowly ghost crab 

 is an important player in nature's balancing act 

 — the food chain. Some marine biologists say 

 that ghost crabs could be casualties of beach 

 renourishment programs if they are buried by 

 sand that is unsuitable for burrowing. The 

 scientists fear the loss could lead to decreasing 

 numbers of shore birds that depend on ghost 

 crabs for food. 



A number of horseshoe crabs along the 

 shore present another teachable moment. 

 Blood from this ancient sea creature is used 

 for medical research, Spence explains. 



Horseshoe crabs have become the center 

 of controversy in some mid- Atlantic states, 

 especially Virginia and Delaware. The federal 

 government is enforcing catch limits, 

 pointing to research that suggests that 

 overharvesting will have an impact on 

 migrating shorebirds that feed on horseshoe 

 crab eggs during their spring migration. 

 Horseshoe crabs live in coastal waters, but 

 move inshore during the spring to spawn in 

 estuaries and along shorelines. 



However, Virginia's whelk fishery 

 proponents say that catch limits will devastate 

 their industry, which uses horseshoe crabs for 

 bait. 



More lessons from 

 the sea 



The island has still more lessons to 

 reveal. At low tide, a break is forming in a 

 nearshore sand bar, setting up conditions for a 

 deadly rip current. Sure enough, Spence spots 

 the telltale signs: an offshore plume of turbid 

 water just past the sandbars; foam moving 

 seaward; choppier waves and murky water 

 within the rip current. 



Even the most powerful swimmer can 

 get caught in a rip current, Spence says. She 

 tells the group that the most important thing to 



Continued 



COASTWATCH 13 



