The North Carolina Aquarium at Pine Knoll Shores has more than 50 exhibits and over 4,500 animals as the NC Aquarium takes you on an aquatic journey from the mountains to the sea. Watch river otters play, touch a stingray, and talk to divers as they swim among giant sharks and other marine life. With more than 400,000 visitors annually the aquarium is an ideal place to learn about coastal habitats and the plants and animals.
However, it is also one of the many places along the coast of North Carolina experiencing shoreline erosion from sea level rise, increasingly variable storms, and high wave activity.
The Projects
In 2024, the Coastal Federation along with construction partners and the North Carolina Aquarium at Pine Knoll Shores constructed a 4,214ft living shoreline focusing on high erosion areas identified by project team members: NC Aquarium at PKS staff, NC Parks staff, researchers at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration Beaufort Laboratory and East Carolina University, and Native Shorelines.
The restoration was built using several materials, including Natrx ExoFormsTM, QuickReefTM, and Oyster CatcherTM materials. Volunteers joined staff in planting thousands of marsh grass plugs as part of the project.
The project will be used to protect educational infrastructure and nature trails. Through this project, valuable salt marsh and oyster habitats will be restored and protected in the future.
This project was supported through funding provided by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service-Southeast Aquatic Resources Partnership, as well as state appropriations funding.
Funding from this project will also support a 3-year study conducted by Dr. Rachel Gittman and Dr. Hannah Sirianni at East Carolina University, and Dr. Joel Fodrie at the University of North Carolina Institute of Marine Sciences to study the correlation between living shorelines and the distribution of seagrass and salt marsh, fish habitat value and use, turbidity, and sedimentation. This study will improve our understanding of how living shorelines impact the surrounding ecosystem and will help to inform the design of future living shorelines.
Working with the Aquarium
In 2022, the Federation and partners constructed a 350 linear foot offshore sill using QuickReefTM, and Oyster CatcherTM as part of this project 10,000 plugs of salt marsh grasses were also planted to help further restore the eroded area.
In 2017, an oyster marsh toe revetment was built to hold sediment in place and absorb wave energy. An oyster sill will also absorb wave energy and allow sediment to accumulate and promote salt marsh growth. Salt marsh plants will be planted landward behind the sill in the spring following the deployment of the oyster reef materials.
In 2001, the Federation stabilized a portion of the shoreline along the aquarium’s property with a stone sill and landward salt marsh grass plantings, 1,500 marsh plants, and 6,000 pounds of oyster shells.