Learn More About Hope Spot: Hatteras at www.hopespothatteras.org
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.This short film was created by POP intern Tara Rudo as part of a UNCW Environmental Studies Graduate Program Independent Study. Tara, Matthew Kierce, and Krista McKinney acquired the footage through their visit to the North Carolina coast and selected videos from work done by Plastic Ocean Project. This will become part of a larger film production with Internationally award winning producer, Jo Ruxton from "A Plastic Ocean" and upcoming filmmaker Jason Andre. Please consider donating to our Feature Film, "If the ocean could talk."
To learn more about Hope Spots visit: Mission Blue. |
What is a Hope Spot?Apart from being a designated National Wildlife Refuge and National Seashore, Dare County lies along a newly established Hope Spot. Hope Spots are areas in the ocean recognized by international non-profit Mission Blue, founded by world-renowned marine scientist and ocean advocate, Dr. Sylvia Earle, for their ecological, economic, and historic importance. The Outer Banks is home to one of the most economically important and productive fishing sites in the southeastern US.
This is in part due to the convergence of large warm and cold water currents occurring along the continental slope (a short 40 miles from Hatteras island) and large windrows of free floating Sargassum weed that provide a suitable habitat for commercially important fish species (mahi mahi, tuna, flounder). It is also known to be a potential calving area for the critically endangered species North Atlantic right whales, popular site for leatherback sea turtles, beaked and sei whales). In fact, scientists have discovered 33 cetaceans that visit or are residents to Hope Spot Hatteras. That is more than half of the known cetacean species in the world. The Outer Banks beaches consistently rank among the highest endangered sea turtle nesting activity in North Carolina. |
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Hope Spot Hatteras Presentation
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