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Kitty Hawk Pier Surf Report & Forecast

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Kitty Hawk Pier

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Bennett St, Kitty Hawk

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Nags Head Pier

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Outer Banks Fishing Pier

Current Surf Conditions

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1-2FT

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0.8FT4sN11º

3.6FT7sSSE161º

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13ktsSSW

33kts gust

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1.3

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54

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NAGS HEAD, N.C. — It's not every day, every month or every year that an orca is spotted off the coast of North Carolina, but that's just what happened last week miles offshore of Kitty Hawk.

“We shouted so loud, we blew out the audio panel in the plane," said Meghan Bradley, the lead for the North Carolina Right Whale Aerial Survey Team.

That was Meghan Bradley and her team’s reaction once they got close enough to confirm it.

“We thought it was a right whale calf at first. Thought it was a shark at first, and then we realized what we were looking at," said Bradley.

“There have been sightings of killer whales in North Carolina waters before, but boy, are they rare," said Dr. Ann Pabst, professor emerita at University of North Carolina Wilmington and a Marine Mammal Biologist.

Dozens of different species of mammals have been documented in the Outer Banks and North Carolina’s coast.

“We have a lot of whale diversity, lots of different species, and that's probably the oh wow of my career. I just didn't see that coming. I think we've documented 35 different species of just cetaceans, which is a taxonomic term that refers to whales, dolphins and porpoises,” said Keith Rittmaster, the director for Bonehenge Whale Center.

"It's off the North Carolina coast where the "cold finger" or the Labrador Current meets the Gulf Stream. So we have a high diversity of species, both southern species and northern species, and we also have very nutrient-rich waters. North Carolina is the place because it offers resources for our whales, our whales are here for either feeding or moving or probably giving birth," said Pabst.

In the Outer Banks specifically, some of the ones we might see are North Atlantic Right Whales and Humpback Whales. An unusual mortality event has been declared for both, Humpback Whales since 2016 and Right Whales since 2017. A dead juvenile humpback washed up in Kitty Hawk in late December of last year.

“Two days ago we surveyed and right at the shelf break, about 30 miles offshore of Rodanthe, there was just a pile of 40-50 humpbacks in that area, so definitely a hot spot for them this time of year," said Bradley.

Since late fall of last year, dozens of right whales have been documented on North Carolina’s coast.

“We've narrowed it down to 41 individual Right Whales, and just to put that into perspective, they are critically endangered, and that's around 11% to 12% of the species sighted on the North Carolina coast since November," said Bradley.

Though it's special for any person to be able to see whales in their natural habitat, researchers are also thinking about conservation efforts. That includes fishing line entanglements, ship strikes and even marine debris like balloons.

“We don't really understand yet how climate change will be affecting all of these species. As waters warm, as prey move, and the threats that these animals face as they make these movements, from ship strikes and entanglements is a real concern for all of us," said Vicky Thayer, the North Carolina Marine Mammal Stranding coordinator.

"There has been a big push now to look for ropeless gear, which is a really cool new technology that you don't have vertical line anymore. We know that these whales are entangled in vertical line pretty extensively," said William McLellan, an adjunct professor at UNCW and the co-founder of the Marine Mammal Stranding Program at the school.

Great white sharks have long been considered the top of the food chain in waters off North Carolina’s Outer Banks, but not anymore.

The sharks reach 21 feet, but something much bigger and a lot more aggressive has shown up.

“On March 13, (an) aerial survey team spotted an unexpected guest, an orca, off the coast of Kitty Hawk, NC,” the Clearwater Marine Aquarium Institute wrote in a March 20 Facebook post.

“This was an exciting discovery for our team as this is the first time they have spotted an orca since survey efforts began in the area five years ago!”

A size estimate was not provided.

Orcas are “the ocean’s top predator,” NOAA Fisheries says, can reach 32 feet in length, weigh up to 11 tons and live up to 90 years.

They also tend to travel in groups of up to 20, which means the whale was likely not alone, experts say.

Orca diets vary by region, but the menu includes multiple types of sharks, studies have shown.

In March 2024, the Natural History Museum in London reported a pair of killer whales had been attacking great white sharks off South Africa “for their nutrient-rich livers.”

Orcas have also been documented eating bull and blacktip sharks in the Gulf of California, Livescience.com reports.

White sharks, which grow to 4,500 pounds, are common off the Outer Banks, due to their use of the East Coast like a seasonal highway. In the winter, they leave waters off New England and go south for warmer conditions. In the summer, they head back north for cooler waters, experts say.

Researches with OCEARCH theorize the white sharks also might be using waters off the Outer Banks as a breeding ground.

The Clearwater Marine Aquarium Research Institute, based in Clearwater, Florida, is dedicated to studying “aquatic ecosystems and the threatened species that call them home.”

This story was originally published March 21, 2025 at 10:53 AM.

From SamWalkerOBXNews.com

After being delayed due to last month’s winter storm, the North Carolina Marine Fisheries Commission will hold its first meeting in Dare County since 2018 on Wednesday and Thursday at the Hilton Garden Inn in Kitty Hawk.

Due to the delay, the agenda has been condensed from three to two days for the nine-member panel that oversees regulation of fishing in the marine and estuarine waters of North Carolina.

Commercial and recreational fishing advocates and local leaders have been calling for the commission to hold at least one quarterly meeting per year in the northeast corner of the state.

The panel’s previous chair had been content with just holding their meetings along the central coast, including in New Bern, Beaufort, and Emerald Isle in 2024.

That met the commission’s statutory requirement that at least three meetings each year in coastal regions, and one meeting in Raleigh.

The Dare County Board of Commissioners passed a resolution in February 2024 calling for at least one meeting be held annually in the county that produces the state’s highest volume of seafood and value.

Former Marine Fisheries Commission chair Rob Bizzell, a pharmacist from Kinston and recreational fishing appointee by former Gov. Roy Cooper, told The Virginian Pilot following the Dare resolution that he preferred a centralized location to give “equitable access”, and would not make changes.

Bizzell’s term on the commission expired at the end of last June. The panel is now led by Sammy Corbett, a commercial sector representative from Hampstead who had previously served as chair in the late 2010s.

The location of the other three meetings, scheduled for May, August and November this year, have not been finalized, according to the MFC website.

Topping the agenda of this month’s meeting in Kitty Hawk is final adoption of the state’s Spotted Seatrout (speckled trout) Fishery Management Plan Amendment 1; approval of the draft Southern Flounder Fishery Management Plan Amendment 4 for public and advisory committee review; review public comment and selection of preferred management options for the Oyster Fishery Management Plan Amendment 5 and Hard Clam Fishery Management Plan Amendment 3.

Dare County commissioners passed a resolution last month calling on the Marine Fisheries Commission to reconsider cuts to the quota for speckled trout, and more equitably divide it between the commercial and recreational sectors.

The Marine Fisheries Commission also plans to adopt final rules on simplifying pot marking regulations, False Albacore management, and an interstate wildlife violator compact.

An update on Blue Crab Fishery Management Plan Amendment 3 Adaptive Management, and a presentation by NOAA officials on the Marine Recreational Information Program, were to take place at the meeting in February but have been pulled from this week’s agenda.

The meeting will begin at 2 p.m. on Wednesday, March 12, with a public comment session. The commission will also hold a public comment session at 6 p.m. on Wednesday, March 12, to allow additional opportunity for in-person comments; however, due to schedule constraints, the commission will vote on some agenda items prior to the 6 p.m. comment session. The meeting will begin at 9 a.m. on Thursday, March 13.

The following information pertains to the in-person public comment sessions:

The public may also submit written comments via the following methods:

The deadline to submit written comments for this meeting is 4 p.m. on Monday, March 10. Those who submitted comments for the February meeting, which was postponed due to inclement weather, need not submit them again.

The meeting will be livestreamed on YouTube. The link will be posted on the Marine Fisheries Commission Meetings webpage. After the meeting, a recording will be posted online.

The full agenda and briefing book are posted on the Marine Fisheries Commission Meetings webpage.

KITTY HAWK, N.C. — You can find houses being built and rentals in the Outer Banks. But the price tag is what worries locals like Christian Antonis.

"I wouldn't be able to afford to live here," said Antonis, who has lived in Kitty Hawk since 2007.

The only reason he can…

“I live with my parents," said Antonis.

Watch previous coverage: Data shows homeownership for the everyday Outer Banks worker is significantly out of reach

For Christian and fellow locals in the Outer Banks, housing availability and affordability are an issue they face every day.

“I don't know what the solution could be to fix it, but I feel like renting an apartment for a mortgage of a house isn't going to work," said Antonis.

This type of feedback is what the Dare County Housing Task Force and East Carolina University have teamed up to hear about, using a number of open houses focused on finding a way to give housing opportunities to the everyday workforce.

Watch previous coverage: Report outlines progress, steps forward to addressing housing in the Outer Banks

“You kind of have everyone that works in the hospitality and tourism industry, but also you have your essential workers, like teachers and firefighters, police force, etc. And all of them need to be able to supply the services to both residents and visitors, but they also need a place to be able to stay," said Emily Yeager, an assistant professor in the department of recreation sciences at East Carolina University.

For many working on the Outer Banks, that might mean commuting.

“We find that a lot of people in that essential workforce category tend to commute fairly far to come and provide those services here in the county. And for some people, that's not a problem, but for other people, that can make it kind of difficult to want to consider these jobs here," said Yeager.

Something that locals like Christian see as well.

Watch related coverage: The impact that housing challenges are having on the Outer Banks workforce

“We got people traveling from Elizabeth City to come down, and we have people traveling from Columbia to come work on the beach and stuff. So I feel like it's just spread so thin every which way," said Antonis.

The open houses are seeking to hear what the Outer Banks community wants the future of workforce housing to look like.

“Our goal is, again, just to be to bring positivity and optimism to solutions that could be had to solve this problem," said Yeager.

Watch related coverage: A Dare County task force is taking a look at housing challenges in the Outer Banks

A problem people like Christian hope will be solved one day. For now, worries remain.

“I don't really know if it's going to get better. I'd like to see it get better, but I just don't know how," said Antonis.

Dare County residents are encouraged to participate in this survey, so the Dare County Housing Task Force and ECU can get a better understanding of what the solutions can be for the future. The open houses feedback and survey will be compiled into a report and recommendations will then be made in the coming months.

The next open houses are Thursday, March 6 at the Coastal Studies Institute from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. and 4 p.m. to 6 p.m. and Thursday March 27 at the Rodanthe Community Center from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. and 4 p.m. to 6 p.m. at the Fessenden Center Annex in Buxton.