Nature & Science

Natural Resource Reports and Publications

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Cape Hatteras National Seashore, the nation’s first national seashore, was established to preserve significant segments of unspoiled barrier islands along North Carolina’s stretch of the Atlantic Coast. Barrier islands are narrow, low-lying, dynamic landforms which parallel ocean coasts, are separated from the mainland, and are constantly moving and reshaping in response to storms, ocean currents, sea level changes, and wave and wind action. These processes continue to influence the islands today through the processes of erosion and accretion of the shoreline; overwash across the islands; and the formation, migration, and closure of the inlets.

 

Federally protected threatened or endangered species include the piping plover, seabeach amaranth, and sea turtles

Plover image credit US Fish and Wildlife Service

These forces of nature, combined with human activities on these islands, have resulted in the development and constant change of beach, dune, grassland, shrub thicket, maritime forest, and salt marsh habitats throughout the islands. Each of these habitats supports a great variety of wildlife, some commonly observed and some not so easily spotted. Although many of the plants and animals you will see throughout the Seashore are common to eastern North Carolina, the Seashore does also support several threatened and endangered species, such as the piping plover and loggerhead sea turtle.

Not only does the Seashore support a rich diversity of plants and animals, it also offers amazing views of the Atlantic Ocean and Pamlico-Albemarle Sound, beautiful and dark night skies, and dynamic weather patterns including hurricanes and nor'easters.