Coastal and Barrier Island Dilemmas and
Decision Making for the Future

Guest: Dr. Lundie Spence

Thursday, April 22, 1999
Students: Transcript

The coast of North Carolina is constantly changing. More and more people are using the limited land and waters. This situation results in coastal issues that are exciting, based in science, and must involve needs of the people.This student session has a focus of coastal issues, specifically what to do when large structures, such as the Shell Island Resort near Wrightsville Beach and Cape Hatteras Lighthouse on the Outer Banks, are threatened by island migration.

Before the meeting, students should read the web resources on the Shell Island Dilemma and look at the Coastal Photojournal sections of Cape Hatteras and Oregon Inlet. Also, students should look at old articles of the News and Observer to get information on the current controversies with the Cape Hatteras lighthouse and Oregon inlet.  Students should use the keyword search feature to find the articles.

Your objective is to investigate the issues concerning the fate of large structures on barrier islands. Use the WEB sites for Shell Island and Cape Hatteras for two examples. See if you can identify the positions of the different stakeholders. We will discuss Shell Island first and then Cape Hatteras Lighthouse.  In the town meeting, we can debate their futures for these and other ocean front structures. Many people, perhaps someone in your class, own or rent a beach house that is on the ocean front. 

Students may want to consider the following items:

  1. Who owns the beach? Or, what is public and what is private property?
  2. What is coastal erosion (or island migration)--is it natural?  What causes it?   What can speed up or change erosion?
  3. Is your position for or against building a hard structure to protect the Shell Island Resort?
  4. What arguments support your position?
  5. What other individuals, interest groups, or organizations do you think would agree with your position?
  6. What other individuals, interest groups, or organizations do you think would disagree with your position?
  7. What are some arguments against your position?
  8. How would you respond to these arguments?
     

Internet Links

Shell Island Dilemma
http://www.ncsu.edu/sciencejunction/terminal/lessons/coast/shell/index.html

Coastal Photojournal sections of Cape Hatteras and Oregon Inlet
http://www.ncsu.edu/sciencejunction/terminal/lessons/coast/pjournal/ncnorth/index.html

News and Observer
http://www.news-observer.com/

NC Sea Grant
http://www2.ncsu.edu/sea_grant/seagrant.html

 

Dr. Lundie Spence

lundiespence.jpg (16725 bytes)

Dr. Lundie Spence is the marine education specialist with the NC Sea Grant program, located on the North Carolina State University campus. She teaches undergraduate and graduate courses in oceanography, coastal issues and environmental education. During the summer, she coordinates and instructs special courses for teachers--tropical rainforest/coral reef education in the Amazon Basin, Peru and Belize and coastal and oceanographic processes, Operation Pathfinder (http://www.coast-nopp.org/), located in 1999 in Nags Head, NC and Chesapeake Bay. She initiated the statewide waterway litter cleanup, North Carolina Big Sweep (http://www.landmark-project.com/bigsweep/ ). She has edited and written curriculum guides, natural history articles, and recently is focusing one cotourism through paddling trails. Lundie and Barbara Doll, Sea Grant's water quality specialist, have just published "Coastal Water Quality Handbook." Other publications are listed on Sea Grant's WEB site. Lundie has conducted professional development for teachers in marine and tropical topics across the U.S. and also led natural history field trips in the U.S. and South and Central America.

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Last updated: 11/18/05