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In death, a living legacy may thrive at Veterans Memorial Reef
Military veteran Thomas Marcinowski’s final wishes to be interred beneath the waves prompted him to form a nonprofit that enables others who served to have their cremains interred in eco-positive reef modules, including nine whose ashes are to be placed on the seafloor Monday.
Spotlight
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I grew up on this coast; I won’t watch right whales disappear
Critically endangered North Atlantic right whales face a crisis they can’t outswim — and a recent move by the federal government threatens to make a dire situation even worse.
News Briefs
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Marker to recognize court case that reshaped voting rights
Nancy Bazemore, 47, of Bertie County, won a court case against the county board of elections that in the early 1960s reshaped voting rights in the state.
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Coastal Land Trust to host 16th annual Flytrap Frolic June 6
The N.C. Coastal Land Trust’s 16th annual Flytrap Frolic scheduled for June 6 in Wilmington will include carnivorous plant-themed games, arts and crafts and a limited number of ethically-sourced flytraps for sale.
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Wildlife Resources, Highway Patrol urge safe holiday boating
Though the number of boating incidents reported in North Carolina is down slightly this year, compared to 2025, boating fatalities have increased.
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Sea turtle program coordinator Matthew Godfrey to speak
Godfrey, the North Carolina Sea Turtle Project coordinator for the Wildlife Resources Commission, is the the featured guest this month for the North Carolina Coastal Federation’s “Green Drinks” speaker series in Morehead City.
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Corbett, Coastal Studies Institute executive director, to lecture
The public is encouraged to attend Dr. Reide Corbett’s lecture, “Holding the Line? Coastal Change and Barrier-Island Dynamics on the Outer Banks,” May 28 in Wanchese.
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Special Coverage

America’s 250th Celebration
This July Fourth, the United States will commemorate the 250th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence. Coastal North Carolina sites and residents played an outsized role in the Revolution. Explore their history.
News & Features
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Coastal Land Trust to host 16th annual Flytrap Frolic June 6
The N.C. Coastal Land Trust’s 16th annual Flytrap Frolic scheduled for June 6 in Wilmington will include carnivorous plant-themed games, arts and crafts and a limited number of ethically-sourced flytraps for sale.
Science
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Scientists record female sperm whales assisting in calf’s birth
A research team was working the summer of 2023 off the coast of Dominica when they made the “impossibly rare” observation of a mother sperm whale giving birth and the newborn assisted by the other whales in taking its first breath, all while recording their underwater vocalizations.
Commentary
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I grew up on this coast; I won’t watch right whales disappear
Critically endangered North Atlantic right whales face a crisis they can’t outswim — and a recent move by the federal government threatens to make a dire situation even worse.
Our Coast
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In death, a living legacy may thrive at Veterans Memorial Reef
Military veteran Thomas Marcinowski’s final wishes to be interred beneath the waves prompted him to form a nonprofit that enables others who served to have their cremains interred in eco-positive reef modules, including nine whose ashes are to be placed on the seafloor Monday.
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Oral history project from 1977 connects App State, Core Sound
A project to digitize back editions of the local newspaper has led to Core Sound Waterfowl Museum and Heritage Center on Harkers Island to acquire recordings of Beaufort residents made in 1977 as part of the Appalachian Oral History Project.
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Our Coast: A Journey to Sleepy Creek
Historian David Cecelski writes that when the mailboat Violet arrived in Marshallberg, News & Observer correspondent C.J. Rivenbark discovered a whole village where life seemed to revolve around soft-shell crabbing.
Featured Photo
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Pit viper stare-down
Two cottonmouths, aka water moccasins and known scientifically as Agkistrodon piscivorus, came face to face while foraging Sunday at the North Carolina Coastal Federation’s 6,000-acre North River Wetlands Preserve, with one rising up and the other backing down. One of six venomous snakes in North Carolina, the cottonmouth is the most aquatic, preferring wetter habitats. It’s a pit viper, having a pit on its face that senses heat. The North Carolina Wildlife Resources Commission offers tips on how to coexist with snakes. Photo: Doug Waters






