Carolina Ocean Studies

11/18/2024

We have opened up multiple Homeschool & Family field trip dates next spring for our Shackleford Banks Adventure program! Cruise to an uninhabited barrier island with knowledgeable educators to crab, explore the marsh, and comb the expansive beach for shell treasures. Get the chance to learn about how the Banker ponies of Shackleford Banks have lived on the Island for hundreds of years! Click the link below to buy tickets and we hope to see your family out on the water with us!
https://tickets.carolinaoceanstudies.com/

11/15/2024

CALLING ALL NORTH CAROLINA TEACHERS

Governor Cooper has released funds exclusively for field trips for students throughout the state of North Carolina. The "Learning Happens Here Field Trip Fund" is a program of the North Carolina Department of Natural and Cultural Resources (DNCR), in partnership with PBS North Carolina (PBS NC), that provides reimbursements to public schools throughout North Carolina to engage in enriching, experiential field trips at DNCR's 100+ locations around the state! Many of the Civil War forts, state aquariums, and recreational areas are near our marine educational programs as well! Please find more information about the grant by clicking the link below.

Explore available opportunities for financial support for field trips to NC Department of Natural & Cultural Resources' locations.

09/25/2024

This week's instructor spotlight is on Jane! She is our program coordinator (and a great crab wrassler) for the Island Explorer field trip, which is designed for the 5th graders in New Hanover County. She majored in English, minored in Biology, and has a master's in K-12 education. Jane is an Adirondack Mountain girl at heart, but happily adapted to the wonders of the salt marsh, tidal creeks, beach, and maritime forest ecosystems 10 years ago with COS! She has worked with Mother Hubbard's Cupboard (a local emergency food bank) for over 22 years and played the violin in the Wilmington Symphony Orchestra for 27 years. In her own words, "Humans are my favorite animal. I love my kids, my husband, my brothers, their families, and my friends; I love people in general - but kids of all ages are my favorite subgenre!" Jane loves walking, hiking, swimming, kindness, car trips, avocados, fireballs, storytelling, live music, recycling, and dancing! Next time you see her, ask what her favorite local hike is!

09/18/2024

We're just as excited about our Fall season ramping up as these students touching this big Atlantic blue 🦀 crab! With the help of North Carolina Coastal Reserve and Masonboro.Org, Carolina Ocean Studies is on track to have every public school 5th grader in New Hanover County on a field trip to Masonboro Island! If you live in the Wilmington area, please consider volunteering to help! Please click the link below for more information and how to sign up.
https://calendly.com/masonboro-org

09/16/2024

This week's instructor spotlight is Amanda! Amanda is leading students on a squid dissection through Snow's Cut! She has been a part of the Carolina Ocean Studies' team since 2014 and graduated with a BA in K-12 education and biology from UNCW. Amanda loves fishing, boating, kayaking, exploring the trails with her sweet German Shepard Emma, and New Orleans Saints Football! Her love for the hook & line came from pond fishing with her mom and grandmother which she hasn't looked back from, dedicating herself as a saltwater fishing guide specializing in red drum, flounder, and speckled trout! Next time you see Amanda on the water, ask her what's biting!

08/06/2024

A Banker pony checking out our educational stations and gear on Shackleford Banks! These beautiful horses have lived here for hundreds of years and historians believe they arrived by swimming from Western European ships that sunk off the coast of Core Banks. The horses drink freshwater from the surface of tidal creeks after a rain storm or lenses that fill pools, seeps, or digs. If you see these horses, observe from a distance of at least 50 feet as they are wild!

08/02/2024

This week's employee spotlight is on Deborah! She is showing off a nice cannonball jellyfish to students on Shackleford Banks. Don't worry, the nematocyst or stinging cells are too small to puncture her skin so she is not getting stung in the photo! Deb helps run our field trips in the Harkers Island/Atlantic Beach area and loves shelling, anything to do with the ocean, knitting, and reading. When she was a toddler camping on Shackleford Banks with her family, a wild Banker pony came into their tent and gave them quite a scare! If you see Deb combing the beaches around Carteret County, stop and ask her to ID the shells she found!

07/30/2024

A student catching a nice dogfish shark! On our Coolest Catch field trip, these sharks are commonly caught in Bogue Sound and put up a nice fight on our light tackle rods that the students use! These small sharks will only grow to a max of 4 feet and feed on crustaceans, jellyfish, squid, and smaller fish. This shark was released after the photo was taken.

07/15/2024

Carolina Ocean Studies wouldn't be anywhere without our incredible instructors! This week, we are beginning an "employee spotlight" series to highlight our knowledgeable instructors! First up from our Carolina Beach/Cape Fear location is Jacquie! She has taught for half a century and half of that has been in the field with COS (and still as sharp as a blue crab pincer)! Jacquie has competed in 11 marathons in Boston, Chicago, Detroit, and Louisville! Besides running, she also enjoys kayaking around the back creeks of Masonboro Island and considers herself a birding novice. She adores her St. Louis family and best 4-legged friend, Baylee! If you see Jacquie out for a paddle, stop and say hi!

07/10/2024

Crabbing on Masonboro Island at sunset! This past spring, Carolina Ocean Studies hosted over 5,000 students on coastal field trips. Students learned about our estuaries, caught fish and crabs, dissected squid, and so much more! We are so grateful for every school that has come out with us and look forward to the fall season!

04/05/2024

We can never get enough of this view! The south end of Masonboro Island has dramatic elevations changes that give us this wonderful vantage point. People might confuse it for a natural dune but it is actually dredging spoils from Carolina Beach inlet. In 1952, this artificial inlet was created by Carl Winner. With the help of a king tide (one of the highest tides of the year), dredging, and explosives on the sand, he was able to open up this inlet. With dredging help from the Army Corps of Engineers, this inlet is used still to this day by fisherman and boaters to get out to the ocean! To learn more about this island and its history, come out on a homeschooler field trip or ecotour by clicking the link below!
https://tickets.carolinaoceanstudies.com/

01/09/2024

Students not floundering around when it comes to fishing off Kure Beach Pier! These two students reeled in this beautiful southern flounder last fall during our Pier into the Ocean field trip. There are 3 different species of flounder found off the coast in North Carolina: southern, gulf, and summer. These fish are ambush predators and will camouflage along the sandy bottom while waiting for a shrimp, minnow, or crab to come on by!

01/04/2024

How bloated we feel after the holidays! All jokes aside, the Northern Pufferfish will puff its body out to deter predators by inhaling water through a special chamber near its stomach.

The flesh of the northern puffer is edible unlike other pufferfish found throughout the world. This fish became a common meal due to meat rations during WW II. Students caught a ton of these fish during our field trip last fall out of Calabash 🐡 🐡🐡

This puffer was released.

12/14/2023

Come explore the wonders of the Carolina coast with your homeschooler! Our field trips can accommodate children of all ages and include lessons and activities on marine invertebrates, the natural history of our beaches, and estuarine ecosystems! The Island & Sound Exploration program takes place on Masonboro Island, the largest uninhabited barrier island in southeastern North Carolina! The Shackleford Banks Adventure gives groups the chance to see the wild Banker ponies and learn how these large mammals have lived on the island for hundreds of years. Click the link below to buy tickets and we hope to see your family out on the water!🦀🦑🐎
https://tickets.carolinaoceanstudies.com/

12/12/2023

LAND HO! Did you know that Carolina Ocean Studies takes every New Hanover County public school 5th grader on a field trip to Masonboro island?! With the help of North Carolina Coastal Reserve, Masonboro.Org, and Island Cruises, we host the Island Explorer program for these inquisitive field scientists. This program, which is endorsed by the state of North Carolina, teaches students about ecosystems, marine invertebrates, and so much more! We hope this field trip will help children cherish this special island reserve through generations to come Masonboro Island Reserve 🦀🐠🐚

12/07/2023

These students pulled up ace of an Atlantic Spadefish this Fall during our Pier into the Ocean program at Kure Beach Pier! These fish have a reputation for being strong fighters and are quite common, ranging from Massachusetts to the Caribbean. Fingers crossed that they will be biting for us next Spring!

12/05/2023

Getting squidy! During our ocean ecology cruise and pier into the ocean programs, students are able to dissect this smelly, oily, slimy, and disgusting mollusk 🦑. The beak or mouth of the squid is made of chitin and is surrounded by muscular tissue called the buccal mass. This hard calcium structure binds with soft tissue and has been studied by biomedical scientists for the use of prosthetics!