Crystal Coast Ecotours

01/02/2025

Crystal Coast Ecotours honors one of North Carolina's most avid and professional birders, John Fussell. At the end of 2024, John passed away at the young age of 74. John was a friend of Crystal Coast Ecotours and taught us much about birds on the Crystal Coast. We read his books and sought his advice. Crystal Coast Ecotours was honored several times with hosting John and friends to see some of the cool birds of the area. John will be missed. Rest in Peace. (first photo is by Brad Rich of the Carteret News Times- the other is one of our excursions together).

01/01/2025

Good morning 2025! We had such a fabulous year thanks to YOU, our customers and Facebook family!

A few months ago, TripAdvisor announced that we won the “2024 Traveler’s Choice Award.” This is one of the most important recognitions in the travel industry. It means we consistently deliver positive experiences that inspire our tour guests to write great reviews. It also means we’re in the top 10% of experiences on the TripAdvisor platform. You make this endeavor such a pleasure and it warms our hearts to read your kind words. We are honored to receive this award. Thank you for allowing us to be your first choice for your Crystal Coast adventures!

Happy New Year,
Capt. Jess and Capt. Tony!

12/24/2024

NEED YOUR VOTE! Santa hats or no Santa hats…

Merry Christmas from Captain Jess and Captain Tony. May this season bring hope, peace, joy and love to you and your loved ones. We hope to see you soon. May the Lord bless you and keep you.

11/29/2024

We hope everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving! Earlier this week, this great family from California got to create some special memories with Crystal Coast Ecotours. Exploring, shelling, dolphin watching, wild horse watching and some good fishing filled our day with joy.

Let’s reserve a date for you! We’re running tours all year ~ rated #1 on TripAdvisor year after year with 480 reviews! We’ve recently won the “2024 Travelers Choice Award” placing us in the top 10% of experiences worldwide, making us your top choice for your Crystal Coast adventures.

All of our trips are private and tailored to your interests ~ Cape Lookout, Shackleford Banks, wild horses, dolphins, shelling, sand dollars, lighthouse, fishing and more. It’s up to you. Hop on and let’s make some memories.

We’re near Beaufort NC, Atlantic Beach, Emerald Isle and we depart out of the Morehead City waterfront. To check availability or to book a trip, email us at [email protected]
or call 252-241-6909. See what others are saying on TripAdvisor. Follow us on Facebook/Instagram and check out our website too. See you on the boat!

11/27/2024

Had some great weather this week and took some friends out to Cape Lookout. We saw tons of dolphins, beautiful blue skies, the majestic Cape Lookout Lighthouse, the wild horses of Shackleford and thousands of birds. Most of the birds were cormorants (see black birds in photos). Did you know that cormorants eat on average a pound of fish per day! Brown pelicans have already adopted Sandbag Island (Tony and I call it Pelican Island) that was refurbished with sand from dredging the Drain last winter (also in photo). Our day was capped by seeing a large school of fish pinned on the beach by a large shark (no photo-shucks). Turned out the fish were large bluefish and they were hungry. They left my friends with memories of a lifetime. What a great day. Thanks for wanting to go out on such a pretty day!

11/07/2024

Continuing to have fun on the Crystal Coast! This many repeat customer got to experience a beautiful day in a beautiful place. She also got to catch a fish of a lifetime! She got to see our Lighthouse, dolphins, black tip sharks feeding behind a shrimp trawler and many birds such as oyster catchers, brown pelicans and godwits. A great day! Come join us!

Let’s reserve a date for you! We’re running tours all year ~ rated #1 on TripAdvisor year after year with 480 reviews! We’ve recently won the “2024 Travelers Choice Award” placing us in the top 10% of experiences worldwide, making us your top choice for your Crystal Coast adventures.

All of our trips are private and tailored to your interests ~ Cape Lookout, Shackleford Banks, wild horses, dolphins, shelling, sand dollars, lighthouse, fishing and more. It’s up to you. Hop on and let’s make some memories.

We’re near Beaufort NC, Atlantic Beach, Emerald Isle and we depart out of the Morehead City waterfront. To check availability or to book a trip, email us at [email protected]
or call 252-241-6909. See what others are saying on TripAdvisor. Follow us on Facebook/Instagram and check out our website too. See you on the boat!

11/01/2024

HAPPY BIRTHDAY Cape Lookout Lighthouse, 165 years old! The Diamond Lady was officially lit for the first time on November 1, 1859. She stands 163 feet tall above the desolate but refreshing barrier islands of the Cape. She flashes every 15 seconds and is visible 12 to 19 miles out to sea. She is one of the only lighthouses with the checkered daymark. The intent of this paint scheme is not only to differentiate it from other similarly built lighthouses, but also to show direction. The center of the black diamonds point in a north-south direction, while the center of the white diamonds point east-west. She is the most remote lighthouse in NC and is only accessible by boat. This is actually the second lighthouse erected at Cape Lookout; the first one, built in 1812, proved to be too short at only 96 feet tall. This current lighthouse has been standing in place since 1859 with its 28-foot diameter base and its 9-foot thick walls. It has witnessed much history in the past 165 years including major hurricanes, civil war, and German U-boats. She warns mariners of the ever dangerous shoals, shifting sandbars and converging currents of the cape. Not everyone heeds the warning, however, and as a result, Cape Lookout is the final resting place for centuries of shipwrecks.

Have you visited Cape Lookout lately? Crystal Coast Ecotours is an authorized and permitted tour guide of the Cape Lookout National Seashore. See our Facebook and Instagram pages for more photos and fun. Read over 480 reviews on TripAdvisor. See our website for more info. Let us know if we can reserve a date for you.

11/01/2024

Visitor from across the Pond! Crystal Coast Ecotours was honored to show a local and her friend from England some of the natural beauty of the Crystal Coast! We got to find some sand dollars and see a rare giant hermit crab (I added another picture from an earlier find)! Also, we got to see black skimmers congregating before their big migration, as well as our beautiful brown pelicans hanging out on a sandbar. We are continuing to run nature tours in the fall. Come join us!

10/27/2024

These transplants from Minnesota truly enjoy living in NC. They loved today’s adventure on the Crystal Coast. We found some nice shells, caught a few fish and enjoyed each other’s company.

Let’s reserve a date for you! We’re running tours all year ~ rated #1 on TripAdvisor year after year with 480 reviews! We’ve recently won the “2024 Travelers Choice Award” placing us in the top 10% of experiences worldwide, making us your top choice for your Crystal Coast adventures.

All of our trips are private and tailored to your interests ~ Cape Lookout, Shackleford Banks, wild horses, dolphins, shelling, sand dollars, lighthouse, fishing and more. It’s up to you. Hop on and let’s make some memories.

We’re near Beaufort NC, Atlantic Beach, Emerald Isle and we depart out of the Morehead City waterfront. To check availability or to book a trip, email us at [email protected]
or call 252-241-6909. See what others are saying on TripAdvisor. Follow us on Facebook/Instagram and check out our website too. See you on the boat!

10/15/2024

Beautiful day on the Crystal Coast! Sunny, cool and light winds set the stage for this local from Ward Creek and her friends from the Winston-Salem area. Wild horses, dolphins, lighthouse, shelling and fishing provided all the fun as we created many fond memories today.

Let’s reserve a date for you! We’re running tours all year ~ rated #1 on TripAdvisor year after year with 480 reviews! We’ve recently won the “2024 Travelers Choice Award” placing us in the top 10% of experiences worldwide, making us your top choice for your Crystal Coast adventures.

All of our trips are private and tailored to your interests ~ Cape Lookout, Shackleford Banks, wild horses, dolphins, shelling, sand dollars, lighthouse, fishing and more. It’s up to you. Hop on and let’s make some memories.

We’re near Beaufort NC, Atlantic Beach, Emerald Isle and we depart out of the Morehead City waterfront. To check availability or to book a trip, email us at [email protected]
or call 252-241-6909. See what others are saying on TripAdvisor. Follow us on Facebook/Instagram and check out our website too. See you on the boat!

10/12/2024

SHELLZAM!! We got very lucky today on this “girls only” trip! Shelling was the plan…and Shackleford Banks gave up some super-nice whelks, helmets and the ever elusive Florida horse conch! This fun trio from Martinsville, VA had a grand ole time on the Crystal Coast.

Let’s reserve a date for you! We’re running tours all year ~ rated #1 on TripAdvisor year after year with 480 reviews! We’ve recently won the “2024 Travelers Choice Award” placing us in the top 10% of experiences worldwide, making us your top choice for your Crystal Coast adventures.

All of our trips are private and tailored to your interests ~ Cape Lookout, Shackleford Banks, wild horses, dolphins, shelling, sand dollars, lighthouse, fishing and more. It’s up to you. Hop on and let’s make some memories.

We’re near Beaufort NC, Atlantic Beach, Emerald Isle and we depart out of the Morehead City waterfront. To check availability or to book a trip, email us at [email protected]
or call 252-241-6909. See what others are saying on TripAdvisor. Follow us on Facebook/Instagram and check out our website too. See you on the boat!

10/11/2024

Today’s tour guests want to focus on shelling. We’re having some good luck! It’s a beautiful day in the neighborhood.

10/09/2024

What is one person's seaweed is another's home for wonderful critters. Last week this family got to experience mounds of Sargassum washing up on our beaches. The floating grass comes from the Sargassum Sea and is someimes washed on shore from the Gulf Stream with a hard southwest wind. We found Sargassum crabs, Sargassum filefish, a Sargassum sea slug, saw blue button jellyfish, along with finding some great shells and seeing some beautiful sights. Thanks for going out with Crystal Coast Ecotours. We love showing folks how great the fall is on the Crystal Coast!! Come and see.

10/09/2024

HAPPY ANNIVERSARY SHELLEBRATION! This fun couple from Greenville, NC had a spectacular day celebrating their anniversary with Crystal Coast Ecotours! What a great idea! Shelling and fishing was their plan…and it did not disappoint!! Shackleford Banks produced some huge whelks, helmets and a very rare flat scallop. The fishing was equally as hot as we caught so many fish we lost count. (All fish were released)

Let’s reserve a date for you! We’re running tours all year ~ rated #1 on TripAdvisor year after year with 480 reviews! We’ve recently won the “2024 Travelers Choice Award” placing us in the top 10% of experiences worldwide, making us your top choice for your Crystal Coast adventures.

All of our trips are private and tailored to your interests ~ Cape Lookout, Shackleford Banks, wild horses, dolphins, shelling, sand dollars, lighthouse, fishing and more. It’s up to you. Hop on and let’s make some memories.

We’re near Beaufort NC, Atlantic Beach, Emerald Isle and we depart out of the Morehead City waterfront. To check availability or to book a trip, email us at [email protected]
or call 252-241-6909. See what others are saying on TripAdvisor. Follow us on Facebook/Instagram and check out our website too. See you on the boat!

10/07/2024

Love it when a plan comes together! 😉 Starting off the week strong with this part-time local crew from Nashville, TN. They wanted to learn about the area, see the sights and find some nice shells! We checked all the boxes and had great weather too! Would you look at that baby wild horse? 🤩

Let’s reserve a date for you! We’re running tours all year ~ rated #1 on TripAdvisor year after year with 480 reviews! We’ve recently won the “2024 Travelers Choice Award” placing us in the top 10% of experiences worldwide, making us your top choice for your Crystal Coast adventures.

All of our trips are private and tailored to your interests ~ Cape Lookout, Shackleford Banks, wild horses, dolphins, shelling, sand dollars, lighthouse, fishing and more. It’s up to you what we do. Hop on and let’s make some memories.

We’re near Beaufort NC, Atlantic Beach, Emerald Isle and we depart out of the Morehead City waterfront. To check availability or to book a trip, email us at [email protected]
or call 252-241-6909. See what others are saying on TripAdvisor. Follow us on Facebook/Instagram and check out our website too. See you on the boat!

10/06/2024

Finishing off the week with some fantastic shelling at Cape Lookout! These two sisters sent their husbands off on a fishing charter to catch dinner so they could focus on the real prize ~ soaking up the breathtaking beauty of the Crystal Coast! We had close encounters with many dolphins and wild horses, visited the Cape Lookout lighthouse and found some fabulous treasures on the beach. We can’t wait to do it all again! 😉

We’re running tours all year! Let’s reserve a date for you on the best boat tour on the Crystal Coast. We’re rated #1 on TripAdvisor year after year with 470 reviews! We’ve recently won the “2024 Travelers Choice Award” placing us in the top 10% of experiences worldwide, making us your top choice for your Crystal Coast adventures.

All of our trips are private and tailored to your interests ~ Cape Lookout, Shackleford Banks, wild horses, dolphins, shelling, sand dollars, lighthouse, fishing and more. It’s up to you. Hop on and let’s make some memories.

We’re near Beaufort NC, Atlantic Beach, Emerald Isle and we depart out of the Morehead City waterfront. To check availability or to book a trip, email us at [email protected]
or call 252-241-6909. See what others are saying on TripAdvisor. Follow us on Facebook/Instagram and check out our website too. See you on the boat!

10/05/2024

Fun first-time crew had an amazing day with Capt. Jess celebrating this young man’s BIRTHDAY! Encounters with dolphins and wild horses, visiting the famous Cape Lookout lighthouse, and a little fishing filled their day with joy and created some lasting memories. A day on the water can sure make you tired. (Last picture) 🤩

We’re running tours all year! Let’s reserve a date for you on the best boat tour on the Crystal Coast. We’re rated #1 on TripAdvisor year after year with 470 reviews! We’ve recently won the “2024 Travelers Choice Award” placing us in the top 10% of experiences worldwide, making us your top choice for your Crystal Coast adventures.

All of our trips are private and tailored to your interests ~ Cape Lookout, Shackleford Banks, wild horses, dolphins, shelling, sand dollars, lighthouse, fishing and more. It’s up to you. Hop on and let’s make some memories.

We’re near Beaufort NC, Atlantic Beach, Emerald Isle and we depart out of the Morehead City waterfront. To check availability or to book a trip, email us at [email protected]
or call 252-241-6909. See what others are saying on TripAdvisor. Follow us on Facebook/Instagram and check out our website too. See you on the boat!

10/04/2024

Our hearts are with our neighbors in western NC, SC, TN, GA and FL. Even now, days later, there are still some areas in our home state that are unreachable by land. We on the coast are no strangers to the fury of a hurricane, yet each new goliath of a storm brings new devastation and heartache for so many. We send out our love and send up our prayers for each and every person affected.

The destruction from Helene was unprecedented, massive, and swift. For some, family members and friends are missing, and others have lost every material possession they own. In some areas, power will be out for weeks. It will take many months and years for thousands of people to rebuild their lives. It is an overwhelming, surreal, and heart wrenching situation.

If you are looking for ways to immediately help, even from far away, please consider donating to any of the below groups (and others we may not have listed) who are, and have been, on the ground and in the air delivering help and supplies. Everything from monetary donations, non-perishable food and water (both for people and pets), warm clothing (fall and winter come swiftly in the mountains), medical and cleaning supplies, and more are needed.

Please consider sharing this information with your own friends and family. Every little bit helps, even if all you’re able to do is get the word out a little bit further.

“When I was a boy and I would see scary things in the news, my mother would say to me, 'Look for the helpers. You will always find people who are helping. '” - Mr. Rogers

Operation airdrop: https://www.operation-airdrop.com/?fbclid=IwY2xjawFrrfpleHRuA2FlbQIxMAABHWjmZXBqc6OgbRD36H4249ABGvVyrtKMDn3DFXDd-OVIVHb7OMztJplU0w_aem_K8i_X8_WEXp_sJG5xlxdXQ

Baptists on Mission: https://baptistsonmission.org/Mission-Projects/By-Mission-Type/Disaster-Relief/Hurricane-Helene

Samaritan’s purse: https://www.samaritanspurse.org/disaster/hurricane-helene/?utm_campaign=m_YHEL-24SM&utm_source=SPFacebook&utm_medium=social&utm_content=1004-HurricaneHelene-FBlinkEFHpost

Other information and resources:
https://www.bpr.org/bpr-news/2024-09-28/list-ways-to-donate-and-help-flood-victims-in-western-north-carolina-after-hurricane-helene

Hurricane Helene unleashed devastating flooding in the mountains of North Carolina. Here are ways to help local flood victims in Western North Carolina by donating relief funds or volunteering.