Carolina senior Allison Dawn has always been drawn to nature.
She remembers running around her grandparents’ 40-acre plot of land as a kid. While her three siblings stayed inside, Dawn played outside all day.
“I just find the most solace when I’m outside,” Dawn said.
Dawn’s love for nature led her to Carolina, where she is majoring in environmental sciences and minoring in marine science, both in the College of Arts & Sciences. Her path to Carolina, however, wasn’t a traditional one.
After high school, the Fayetteville native went straight into real estate and property management, working in that industry for seven years.
Photo Credit: Wayne Davis, oceanaerials.com
“I grew up fishing the Cape and I’ve watched the seal population grow over the years and completely decimate surf fishing on the back beaches from Race Point to Nauset,” said Matt Perachio of Tighten Up Charters out of Provincetown. “Nobody’s fishing off those beaches anymore.”
“Ten years ago, we never saw seals, but now they’re everywhere,” said Willy Hatch, who’s been fishing the Cape and Islands for over 25 years as the captain of Machaca Charters in Falmouth. “They’re at Squibnocket Beach, Vineyard Sound, the Elizabeth Islands, Woods Hole, the Muskeget Channel. Often, the seals hear me anchor up and set up behind my boat. If I manage to hook a fish, a seal takes it right off my line. It gets worse every year as their population increases and their range expands.”
The Over-whale-ming Plastic Problem
Plastic pollution has infiltrated every ecosystem in every ocean on the planet, but perhaps the most iconic organisms impacted are the whales. The problem is monumental. For example, consider the blue whale. Our most optimistic estimates put the global blue whale population size at about 25,000 individuals (down 89 percent since before commercial whaling began in 1911). Based on recent estimates, an amount of plastic waste equivalent to about 3.5 times the weight of the entire blue whale population is put into the ocean every year. That staggering figure alone is enough to make one feel, well, blue, but the devastating impact is underscored by the now-familiar images of deceased whales their guts bursting with plastic bags or completely entangled in derelict or discarded plastic fishing gear.
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Maritime Activity Reports, Inc.
(Image: Teknicraft Design)
Bellingham, Wash. boatbuilder All American Marine announced it recently secured a contract to construct a research vessel for BLUETIDE Puerto Rico. The 73- by 26.7-foot aluminum catamaran will be constructed to USCG Subchapter T standards for use on both near coastal and ocean routes.
The twin-engine vessel will be BLUETIDE’S first for its marine research, education, innovation and conservation work based out of Puerto Rico. The mission of BLUETIDE is to influence, innovate, support and increase the eco-responsible economic impacts of a sustainable blue economy in the US Caribbean”.
The vessel s semi-displacement catamaran hull was developed by Nic de Waal of Teknicraft Design in Auckland, New Zealand, and is based on the R/V Shearwater, also designed by Teknicraft and built by All American Marine in 2020 for Duke University Marine Lab. This vessel integrates the signature Teknicraft symmetrical and asymmetrical co