Save cape hatteras

Dude, that Surfline article is more than a year old.

 

yea, this is old news. a better website for keeping up to date w/ this situation is islandfreepress.org. this will keep you in the know w/ everything going on down there. pretty much BS if you ask me. i'm all for protecting the environment, but cape hatteras was set up as a national park & recreation area, not just a refuge.

 

this has been going on for awhile and just gonna get worse and don't just sign a petitions join the OBPA which does alot and needs support or attend a meeting.

google earth map on whats closed is here http://www.nps.gov/caha/planyourvisit/googleearthmap.htm its updated alot

 

It doesnt really make the issue less important though. Right? The extrmeist stance that these "environmental" organizations are taking is just plain wrong. They are using Cape Hatteras situation to gain a foothold for these extreme resouce protections so that they can be incorporated everywhere. If the cape hatteras situation doenst afffect you now what comes out of it certainly will.

How would the folks along NJ and NY coast like roughly 1 mile of beach closed for months because of one bird nest? Then when that closure is lifted because the birds have finished with it imagine it becoming inaccessable because the turtles have decided to make a nest or two..

And if the best breaking bar on the island is within that closure what good is it if you cant walk/drive to it. I guess you could paddle 1000 yards or so to it but dont come ashore without risking fines/jailtime

 

what is surfrider's position on this I wonder. anybody know?

 

The policy statement and issue is not prominent on the Outer Banks Chapter home page - much of the info is kinda old actually. However, the Surfrider Foundation State of the Beach Report for North Carolina, in the Beach Access section, there is a chapter statement and March 2010 update (search for "The National Park Service (NPS) is currently undertaking a process"). Start here: http://www.surfrider.org/stateofthebeach/05-sr/state.asp?zone=SE&state=nc&cat=ba

 

such a good bar got closed off 2 days ago. it got so heavy at times. heres a video of it during the last swell.

Video By Matt Lusk Photo

 

My friends dad was kite-boarding down the beach and his kite got messed up somehow and he had to go in. since they were doing a down winder he was in the middle of nowhere and couldn't tell that it was a bird closure zone.(they are miles long)

while he was walking down the beach a park service truck was DRIVING through the "closed zone" and saw him and gave him a huge fine.(even though he probably would have drowned if tried to swim down the beach)

 

I am a Surfrider member and I see nothing wrong with closing portions of the beach for it's original inhabitants. Humans don't need to be driving up and down all over the place in their big 4x4's rutting up the beach. I've seen the way they drive up and down Frisco beach just to get to the point or just to "check". There's less than 10 miles of red zones on that map. There's plenty of other beach to go to.

 

dear ec sponger,
tell it to the locals there.
let 'em close your beach.
God gave us dominion,and we ain't hurtin' any turtles or some bird that don't wanna be there in the first place.
go eat a piping plover.

 

I am a Surfrider Foundation member and to do see plenty wrong with closing vast portions of the beach in and around Cape Hatteras. The Cape Hatteras National Seashore was set aside as a recreation area, not as a protected nature preserve.

There is a large area north of Rodanthe set-aside for that purpose called Pea Island National Wildlife Refuge ("Pristine Beach - Pea Island offers almost thirteen miles of beautiful, barrier island beach, undisturbed by vehicles. Many visitors seek the peace and solitude of the refuge beach, choosing to walk the extra distance for the quiet and less-crowded conditions. Shelling, beachcombing, and just strolling along the shoreline are popular activities.").

In the establishment of CHNS, it was deemed that certain lands on the Outer Banks of North Carolina be "administered, protected, and developed by the National Park Service for national seashore recreational purposes for the benefit and enjoyment of the people.”

There are NOT plenty of other places to go to unless you like small crumbly waves with on-shore winds during a north wind/south swell event. There is nothing more enjoying than southerly swells producing waves groomed by offshore winds as you watch the sun set into the sea.

 

please don't bring god into this. it's got nothing to do w/ him. besides, your bible even says that mankind is supposed to be a steward of the earth for future generations.

ec sponger:

the problem isn't the AMOUNT of beach closed, it's the fact that there are open areas that you can't even get to b/c it's surrounded by closed areas. so even if only 10 miles is actually closed, the area that is inaccessible might be double or triple that, depending on where the closed areas are located. for a while, the actual cape point was inaccessible, not b/c there were plover nests there, but b/c there were nests to the north & the south, which closed off access.

 

It's not even 10 total miles in conjunction, it's portions here and there, around inlets and around stretches that are outside of towns. Pea Island isn't even touched or concerned with in the recent closure. Did you guys look at the map? Why not just go to some other beach for a month or so? Where do you absolutely need to get to that you have to drive so far out of the way? There's still plenty of ramps to find.

"We recommend managing access of these areas through a combination of permitting, limiting the number of vehicles, and closures when necessary to protect the migratory species that use this area seasonally." - The Outer Banks Chapter of Surfrider Foundation

 

Seasonally? Just how long is this season and what is reasonable here?

As a longtime SF member I was very disappointed by the position taken and their statement of policy in the lawsuit. SF used to be all about access to the waves and representing the waveriding community. Now it is drowning in a membership of so-called environmentalists where the mantra appears to be little birdies first, surfriders second.

ECsponger, I am sorry to say that you do not really share the knowledge and understanding of riding the waves in the Outer Banks. It is much more than S-Turns, The Lighthouse and Frisco Pier.

 

Ecsponger read up on it then let us know what you think....

They want to shut more than 10 miles or so, those parts just have not been closed yet because they shut them down seasonally

 

dear ecsponger,
don't start preaching your anti-God,anti-human self-righteous religion to me.
Everything has everything to do with God,and He gave us dominion,and if you are from ocmd you would know that the people of Hatteras are the best stewards of the Earth there are.

 

WATCH THIS ECsponger

And This

ECsponger can suck-it!!!

 

If you're going to leave Him out of it, then do just that. Don't remove biblical references out of text, twist them around & throw them back.

The bottom line is: Common sense isn't so common, so every once in awhile, some overcompensation has to take place in regards to our impact on nature. Unfortunately, there are some environmental extremists that fund sub-human life forms called environmental attorneys. When these kind combine, they are far more self-serving than any 4-wheel driver that's ever driven over a turtle nest. They create presidences that result in indefinately cutting people off from nature.

When I was younger, people who actually cared about things like nesting turtles stood watch over the nesting sites. No press. No protests. Just productive action. I was always impressed for this truly selfless act. It doesn't provide satisfaction to the attention-needing, over-the-top protesting types, though. It just gets the job done.

 

Yet this closing only effects ONE of your above mentioned. So man created these islands for man-use only? No. Mother Nature created this place for reasons beyond known by man. And we only want use it for our pleasure? Seems that's only why opponents reject decisions made by their elected governing officials. All this coming from a Baltimorian.

I never said anything about God or religion, read again. And if they were the "best stewards of the Earth" as you so mentioned, then perhaps they would agree with some of these closings, keeping some of these rookie tourists from creating problems and disregarding rules and restrictions.


I'm as anti-government as it gets, but protecting our natural areas, whether it be a 'wildlife reserve' or a 'national park' makes a WHOLE lot more sense than protecting the interests of people who wish to use them for their own consideration, and explicitly just for that.

What ever happened to caring for needs other than your own?

I watched your videos, Crumolator. (By the way, thanks for telling me I "can suck-it") Mr. Ryan Dawson looks very impromptu in his word-for-word reading to officials, slouched over the podium and under-dressed. Why take that so seriously? Mrs. Carol Dillon, with all due respect, seems to worry more about her pets (who are technically invasive species) than the overall wellbeing of the original natural inhabitants.

My guess is you guys who oppose my opinion are all-for this proposition for offshore drilling too, huh? Need more gas for your off-road 4x4 SUVs? I wonder how their economy and tourist attraction will fare if a catastrophic oil spill calamity washes up on their beaches (as well as yours) I guess you won't have to worry about the plover anymore if that happens.