Sharks of Onslow County

Sharks of Onslow County Studying the seasonal movements and behaviors of sharks and marine predators in Onslow County, NC.

Late August still looks like summer along the Onslow County coast. The sand is hot, the water is warm, and the marshes a...
08/29/2026

Late August still looks like summer along the Onslow County coast. The sand is hot, the water is warm, and the marshes and beaches seem much the same.

But as fall unfolds, the movement begins to show. Mullet gather, shrimp work their way out of tidal creeks, sharks shift along the coast, and birds arrive or disappear almost before we notice.

Different migrations overlap at different times, turning the same inlets, beaches, sounds, and nearshore waters into a changing corridor through the season.

The landscape stays where it is. The food web moves through it.

Read here: https://sharksofonslowcounty.com/fall-migrations-along-onslow-county/

There are days when the ocean seems almost empty, until you notice the fish.For nearly four hours, a narrow line of smal...
08/22/2026

There are days when the ocean seems almost empty, until you notice the fish.

For nearly four hours, a narrow line of small fish moved beside the breakers while larger fish held farther out. Every so often, the pattern broke apart in a sudden scatter or a brief disturbance at the surface.

What stayed with me wasn’t simply that the fish were there. It was how consistently they seemed to follow paths through water that, to us, looked like one continuous stretch of surf.

The structure itself was difficult to see. The movement through it wasn’t.

This week on Sharks of Onslow County, we’re looking at what those fish were revealing about the surf zone beneath and around them — from shallow-water refuge and feeding opportunities to predators, shifting habitat, and the connections that continue beyond the breakers.

Read here: https://sharksofonslowcounty.com/mapping-the-invisible-structure-fish-on-the-move-in-the-surf-zone/

At high tide, marsh periwinkles climb the cordgrass.Below them, Atlantic mud crabs wait among oyster shell and mud.It lo...
08/15/2026

At high tide, marsh periwinkles climb the cordgrass.

Below them, Atlantic mud crabs wait among oyster shell and mud.
It looks like a small relationship in a very large marsh. But follow it far enough, and it reaches into the grass, the ground beneath it, and even how well that marsh can keep its place as the water rises.

This week, we’re looking a little closer at two of the smallest residents of the marshes around Surf City, Topsail, and North Topsail—and what they reveal about the balance of the marsh.

Read here: https://sharksofonslowcounty.com/the-atlantic-mud-crab-and-the-marsh-periwinkle-snail/

At low tide, an oyster reef can look like a crowded mass of shells rising from the mud.Look closer, and it becomes somet...
08/07/2026

At low tide, an oyster reef can look like a crowded mass of shells rising from the mud.

Look closer, and it becomes something else entirely
Each shell marks the place where a drifting larva finally stopped. Together, they hold generations of oysters, traces of the people who depended on them, and the long effort to rebuild reefs once abundant enough to shape the river itself.

An oyster may spend its life fixed in one place, but the story held within that reef has never stood still.

Read here: https://sharksofonslowcounty.com/the-life-an-oyster-builds-eastern-oysters-in-the-sounds-of-onslow-county/

Look closely at a manatee, and it is easy to mistake stillness for simplicity.Beneath that broad face is an animal that ...
07/23/2026

Look closely at a manatee, and it is easy to mistake stillness for simplicity.

Beneath that broad face is an animal that remembers waterways, recognizes useful places, follows changes in temperature, and may return to the same feeding grounds year after year. Its journey can stretch hundreds of miles, yet every part of it depends on small things: a warm current, grass growing beneath the surface, a channel left open, a boat slowing in time.

We may still think of manatees as belonging to Florida. But the water does not end where our expectations do. When one reaches the sounds of Onslow County, its presence asks us to look more closely at what brought it here—and what our coast offers once it arrives.

Read here: https://sharksofonslowcounty.com/following-the-warm-water-manatees-in-onslow-county/

We spend a lifetime walking across beaches.Then one day you realize the shells beneath your feet aren't random at all.Th...
07/18/2026

We spend a lifetime walking across beaches.

Then one day you realize the shells beneath your feet aren't random at all.

They're stories.
Stories of predators and prey. Of storms and tides. Of marshes, reefs, shifting sand, and millions of years of evolution. Even after the animal is gone, the coast keeps editing every page.

Once you see shells that way, it's hard to walk a beach without wondering what story you're about to pick up next.

Read here: https://sharksofonslowcounty.com/reading-the-stories-written-in-onslow-county-shells/

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