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Cape Hatteras National SeashoreBlack Skimmers Flying over near shore ocean waters
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Cape Hatteras National Seashore
Nature & Science
 

Natural Resource Reports and Publications


Cape Hatteras National Seashore, the nation’s first national seashore, was established to preserve significant segments of unspoiled barrier islands along North Carolina’s stretch of the Atlantic Coast. Barrier islands are narrow, low-lying, dynamic landforms which parallel ocean coasts, are separated from the mainland, and are constantly moving and reshaping in response to storms, ocean currents, sea level changes, and wave and wind action. These processes continue to influence the islands today through the processes of erosion and accretion of the shoreline; overwash across the islands; and the formation, migration, and closure of the inlets.

 
Cape Hatteras NS Federally Protected Species - Piping Plover, Seabeach Amaranth, Sea Turtles

Piping Plover, credit: Sidney Maddock

Federally protected endangered species include the piping plover, seabeach amaranth and sea turtles

These forces of nature, combined with human activities on these islands, have resulted in the development and constant change of beach, dune, grassland, shrub thicket, maritime forest, and salt marsh habitats throughout the islands. Each of these habitats supports a great variety of wildlife, some commonly observed and some not so easily spotted. Although many of the plants and animals you will see throughout the Seashore are common to eastern North Carolina, the Seashore does also support several threatened and endangered species, such as the piping plover and loggerhead sea turtle.

Not only does the Seashore support a rich diversity of plants and animals, it also offers amazing views of the Atlantic Ocean and Pamlico-Albemarle Sound, beautiful and dark night skies, and dynamic weather patterns including hurricanes and nor’easters.

 
Sea Turtle
What lives on the Seashore?
Click here to find out (pdf)!
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Piping plover chick
Why Save Endangered Species?
How Do We Benefit? (pdf)
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Learn more about the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service
Endangered Species Program
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NPS Management Policies
Chapter 4: Natural Resource Management
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This artist's rendering shows the U.S.S. Monitor foundering in a storm off of Cape Hatteras in December 1862.  

Did You Know?
The U.S.S. Monitor sank off Cape Hatteras during a storm in December 1862. The wreck's location was a mystery until 1973 when a research vessel found the ship 16 miles off the cape in 230 feet of water. In 1975, the Monitor was named the nation’s first National Marine Sanctuary.

Last Updated: April 26, 2009 at 09:47 EST