Free Concert Sunday on Holden Beach

This Sunday, May 26th, come enjoy a free concert with The Imitations.

The Imitations are a Wilmington based group that started in ’95 as three friends just having fun. While primarily a beach music group our playlist includes some great rock & roll and Motown classics as well as a few Imitations’ original beach music songs. The selection varies with every performance for variety and to suit our audience.

This installment of the Holden Beach Concert Series starts at 6:30PM on the Pavillion stage under the Holden Beach bridge.

Get ready for a fun time at Holden Beach! Dance a little and smile a lot! Music ranges from beach music to variety

Refreshments are on sale to help fund the events, so be sure to bring a little of cash.

For the full Summer Concert Series Schedule Click Here!

All concerts are FREE and are held at the Holden Beach Pavilion

 

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Shallotte Farmers Market

The Shallotte Farmers Market begins it’s seventh year opening for the season on Saturday April 27th, 2013. The Shallotte, NC Farmers’ Market is held every Saturday  through October 6th from 8:00am until 12:00 noon. Here you will find locally grown fruits and vegetables as well as handcrafted items such as pottery, jewelry, glassware and homemade bread, cakes and cookies. Enjoy shopping in the open air filled with music by local musicians.

• Products include locally Grown Produce, Herbs & Plants, Home Made Crafts, Fresh Eggs, Cakes, Jewelry, Painted Glass, Pottery, Aprons, Painted Gourds, Jellies, Jams, Pickles, Honey, Cookies and Fresh Lemonade!
• Providing a place for local growers, producers, artisans and crafters to sell their goods, to encourage & promote locally grown farm products and educate consumers about local farming and seasonal eating.

The market continues to add crafters each week.

The market is open 8 a.m. to noon Saturdays through October at Riverside Park, just off N.C. 130 at Main Street.  If you have any questions email peternauta@aol.com or call Loretta Nauta at 910-754-3728, or call Town Hall at 754-4032.

for more information.

Iron Man 3 Out in Theaters!

We can barely believe it’s been a year since Robert Downey Jr. and the rest of the crew were in our area filming Iron Man 3, due out in theaters May 3rd. But we can’t wait to see the action packed scenes filmed right here on our beaches! It seems like just yesterday when stuntmen were parachuting on Oak Island following an explosion sequence.

The plot of Iron Man 3 follows Tony Stark and Pepper Potts against a new terrorist The Mandarin. Tony Stark will face difficult challenges after aligning himself with the Avengers, as Mandarin aims to destroy Tony’s world, he must face this new villain alone.

Check out the trailer for the film, and don’t forget to see it in theaters on May 3rd!

And here’s the footage of Iron Man 3 being filmed on Oak Island!

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How to Cook an Oyster

Fried Oysters

Drain oysters, and dry thoroughly between paper towels. Sprinkle with salt and pepper, and roll in cornmeal or fine cracker crumbs. Deep-fry in fat at 365° to 375° until brown. Drain on paper towel.

 

Scalloped Oysters

½ cup cracker crumbs
½ cup butter, melted
1 pint oysters
1 cup fine bread crumbs
salt, pepper, and paprika to taste

Combine ¼ cup cracker crumbs and ¼ cup melted butter in a shallow, greased baking dish. Spread evenly in a thin layer. Cover with half of the oysters, and season to taste. Make a second layer of cracker crumbs and melted butter. Cover with remaining oysters, season, and top with bread crumbs. Moisten with oyster liquor. Bake, uncovered, at 350° for 30 minutes.

Oyster Cocktail Sauce

10 teaspoons oyster liquor
½ cup tomato ketchup
1 teaspoon Worcestershire sauce
1 drop Tabasco sauce
2 lemons, juiced
Salt to taste

Combine ingredients, and refrigerate. Serve chilled. Pour over oysters or on the side.

 

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Shallotte Point Gets Boat Access

Plans are under way for Shallotte Point to get a boating access area that should relieve some of the congestion at the county’s southwestern boat ramps. The commission has plans to turn land at the intersection of Brick Landing and Devane Roads into a dual-lane boat ramp on the Intracoastal Waterway.

Plans call for the site to have 24 parking spaces and handicap parking. It will be able to accommodate boats up to 25 feet long and possibly larger.

There is no date set for completion, but the town hopes for a date sooner than later, especially with the access point in nearby Ocean Isle Beach frequently packed. The only holdup is the approval of a Coastal Area Management Act permit for the project, which the commission recently applied for.

Bringing a boat access point to that area of the county has been in the work for years. At one time, Brunswick County tried to purchase the land but then began working with Wildlife Resources to get something started. The county’s focus eventually shifted, so the state agency took full ownership of the project.

The county’s funds dried up, and after a few years, we took another look at the project and were able to purchase the land. The agency paid $846,000 for the property, and the construction of the access area is being funded by a $350,000 state grant.

 

Endangered Whales in Area

Seeing a whale in its natural environment can feel like a once-in-a-lifetime experience. But during the next few months, residents and visitors to the North Carolina coast may have multiple opportunities to spot one.

During a girls weekend at Topsail Beach, a few early risers got an experience of a life time when they spotted whales about 100 yards offshore.

On any given day from November through March and April, we could have right and humpback whales off of our coast. Marine biologists at the University of North Carolina Wilmington have said that they do not have a sense of how many are offshore currently but that they do know that this is an important time when whales are moving through the waters.

Neither humpback nor right whales live in North Carolina waters on a consistent basis. Both species are migratory, spending their summers in cooler, northern-hemisphere waters and then travelling to warmer, subtropical seas, where they mate, calve and spend the winter. That travel cycle places the giant mammals – particularly the North Atlantic right whale – near beaches throughout the Cape Fear region for roughly five months out of the year. It was our understanding was that right whales migrated in the fall and migrated back up in the spring, but now we’re learning that right whales may stay along the coast, and move past the coast, throughout the winter.

Though both species may be nearby during the same time period, humpback and right whales are fairly easy to tell apart. Humpback whales can be identified by their long, white fore-flippers, while right whales are characterized by V-shaped water spouts, broad, flat backs and lumpy patterns on their heads, known as callosities.

Each species has been spotted off nearby beaches in recent weeks. Humpback whales have been confirmed in the waters near Topsail Beach, and right whales have been seen swimming past Wrightsville Beach.

Both right and humpback whales are endangered, making it illegal to be within 500 yards – or 1,500 feet – of either. The right whale is one of the most critically endangered whales in the world, with NOAA estimating the global population at around 400.

The slow-moving mammal is particularly vulnerable to ship strikes, prompting NOAA to partner with the Coast Guard in a project known as Operation Right Speed, a five-month period during which vessels of a certain size are required to cruise more slowly.

From Nov. 1 to April 30, regulations require vessels 65 feet or longer to operate at speeds 10 knots or less in designated right whale migration routes and calving grounds. Those designated routes bubble along sections of the East Coast, including a particularly large corridor that extends from Wilmington past Savannah, Ga.

The speed reduction regulations, in effect since December 2008, are a protective measure, designed to give both whales and ship operators more time to notice and avoid each other – especially around the entrances to deepwater ports, like Wilmington. Because right whales have no dorsal fin and swim close to the surface of the water, they can be particularly difficult to spot.

Many assume that due to their size right whales would be easy to see, but just a slight difference in the texture on the water’s surface is often the only clue that a whale is present.

 

Fun Whale Facts:

Right Whales

-       Large, rotund and black, with large heads and no dorsal fins.

-       Characterized by lumpy white growths on their heads, known as callosities.

-       Can grow up to 53 feet in length and weigh up to 80 tons.

-       Most critically endangered whale in the world, with global population estimates of around 400.

-       Right whales are the rarest of all large whales.

-       Right whales were named by whalers who identified them as the “right” whale to kill on a hunt.

-       Because of their thick blubber, right whales also float accommodatingly after they have been killed.

-       Because females do not become sexually mature until ten years of age and give birth to a single calf after a yearlong pregnancy, populations grow slowly.

 

Humpback Whales

-       Dark grey, with a variable amount of white on fins and belly.

-       Characterized by large, white fore-flippers.

-       Can grow up to 60 feet long;

-       females are larger than males.

-       Males sing complex songs that can last for 20 minutes and can be heard up to 20 miles away.

-       Mothers and their young swim close together, often touching one another with their flippers with what appear to be gestures of affection.

-       These whales, like others, regularly leap from the water, landing with a tremendous splash. Scientists aren’t sure if this breaching behavior serves some purpose, such as cleaning pests from the whale’s skin, or whether whales simply do it for fun.

-       Humpbacks are powerful swimmers, and they use their massive tail fin, called a fluke, to propel themselves through the water.

-       Females nurse their calves for almost a year, though it takes far longer than that for a humpback whale to reach full adulthood. Calves do not stop growing until they are ten years old.

 

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