They’re also considering the effect that nourishing one local beach could have on neighboring beaches with different goals, for example, Masonboro Island.ĭr. This breathtaking video shows the fish life under the surface in a way you may not have ever seen before. JUPPER FRYINGPAN (Mile Marker 8 upstream to Ruedi Reservoir) FLOW: 228 CFS and increasing again soon WATER CLARITY: Clean except for after small bumps in flows, which are beginning to see OVERALL RATING: 7 out of 10 when clean, 5 out of 10 if off-color FOOD SOURCES PRESENT: Blue Winged Olives, Mysis shrimp, Midges, Winter Stonef. Researchers also want to know how dredging would affect the benthic environment – the ecosystem at the ocean floor that holds invertebrate crustaceans, zooplankton, phytoplankton, and supports the entire marine life cycle.Īnd that $137 million outlay by local governments for sand? If regional collaboration came into play, researchers want to know whether costs would drop for everyone. Thanks to many things, Frying Pan Shoals and especially Fry Pan Tower attracts massive amounts of fish of many species. There are a host of other species that raise important questions about the impacts of dredging, including several different types of shark, blue crab, shrimp, King and Spanish Mackerel, and striped bass. If these fish are found in rivers, why would ocean dredging affect them? We explore that question in this episode. UNCW Fisheries Science Professor Fred Scharf with an endangered Atlantic sturgeon If dredging takes place during the study, scientists will also observe how long it takes the ecosystem to recover. NMFS worries that dredging operations could hurt the resource for both commercial and recreational fishermen.īOEM is paying for a study that will examine what Frying Pan Shoals is made of, who lives there, who breeds there, who moves through the area and when. The National Marine Fisheries Service considers Frying Pan Shoals an essential fish habitat. The shoals are on the seaward southeastern side of Bald Head Island. Recently, the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, the same federal agency that manages the leases for wind energy in the Atlantic, has started to look at Frying Pan Shoals as a possible source for sand. But it’s not enough and it’s not always beach-quality. Some sand comes from maintenance dredging of navigational channels. In fact, the owner even documented Hurricane Arthur hitting the tower in 2014.

Government officials continue to look for beach-quality sand sources to keep the tourists coming, and protect public infrastructure and private property. But they’re eroding on a regular basis, and according to a 2020 analysis by Kearns & West, local beach municipalities have spent $137 million to put sand back on their beaches over the last couple of decades. As the human population in the Cape Fear region grows, the beaches remain key draws.

Frying pan tower fishing reports