Mark VanDyke Photography
Cape Hatteras National Seashore OBX North Carolina
Bodie Island Brown Seaweed Sunset Wave Crash
Dare County, Coastal North Carolina
Accessed via NC-12 (Outer Banks Scenic Byway)
Date taken: August 20, 2015
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While easterly facing sunrise photography abounds along the Cape Hatteras National Seashore, westerly facing sunset photography can be a bit more challenging as access to the sounds are a bit more restrictive than that to the ocean. So, some evenings after running up and down state highway twelve searching unsuccessfully for good sunset opportunities, I would just end up returning to my campsite at Oregon Inlet and walking the beach looking for reflected light opportunities.
I was somewhat in my own head when I stumbled upon a stretch of beach that was thickly blanketed with seaweed. The stretch had caught my eye before, but now the tides had progressed and some interesting interaction was occurring. I can only assume that the physical weight of the seaweed was creating some neat scouring in the nearshore sand as the Atlantic was lapping at the beach. I immediately snapped back to earth and noticed some similarities between the interaction here and that which I had photographed with friend and photographer, Dave Allen, a few years back between Coquina Rock and the Atlantic Ocean in Florida. While the interaction here was far less dramatic, the opportunity and the feature was very odd and rare for me along the Cape Hatteras National Seashore (I returned the following morning to try my hand at a sunrise but the tides had completely erased the elevation changes and features away and left only a smooth beach with some brown seaweed).
I believe that the seaweed was Pelagic Sargassum, a brown alga that is free-floating in the Atlantic Ocean washing ashore when winds blow a certain direction. While it's decaying smell can be somewhat abrasive to some visitors, the seaweed performs a number of valuable services within the beach ecosystem, the least of which might be beach nourishment and stabilization. This mass of seaweed was found along the four-wheel drive beach access on Bodie Island. Bodie Island is not a true "island" as it remains connected to neighboring Nags Head and the Northern Banks; however, most resources denote Bodie Island as the ten or so mile stretch from Whalebone Junction to the Oregon Inlet Bridge via state highway twelve.
Cape Hatteras National Seashore OBX North Carolina
Bodie Island Brown Seaweed Sunset Wave Crash
Dare County, Coastal North Carolina
Accessed via NC-12 (Outer Banks Scenic Byway)
Date taken: August 20, 2015
Website | Facebook | Google+ | FAA
While easterly facing sunrise photography abounds along the Cape Hatteras National Seashore, westerly facing sunset photography can be a bit more challenging as access to the sounds are a bit more restrictive than that to the ocean. So, some evenings after running up and down state highway twelve searching unsuccessfully for good sunset opportunities, I would just end up returning to my campsite at Oregon Inlet and walking the beach looking for reflected light opportunities.
I was somewhat in my own head when I stumbled upon a stretch of beach that was thickly blanketed with seaweed. The stretch had caught my eye before, but now the tides had progressed and some interesting interaction was occurring. I can only assume that the physical weight of the seaweed was creating some neat scouring in the nearshore sand as the Atlantic was lapping at the beach. I immediately snapped back to earth and noticed some similarities between the interaction here and that which I had photographed with friend and photographer, Dave Allen, a few years back between Coquina Rock and the Atlantic Ocean in Florida. While the interaction here was far less dramatic, the opportunity and the feature was very odd and rare for me along the Cape Hatteras National Seashore (I returned the following morning to try my hand at a sunrise but the tides had completely erased the elevation changes and features away and left only a smooth beach with some brown seaweed).
I believe that the seaweed was Pelagic Sargassum, a brown alga that is free-floating in the Atlantic Ocean washing ashore when winds blow a certain direction. While it's decaying smell can be somewhat abrasive to some visitors, the seaweed performs a number of valuable services within the beach ecosystem, the least of which might be beach nourishment and stabilization. This mass of seaweed was found along the four-wheel drive beach access on Bodie Island. Bodie Island is not a true "island" as it remains connected to neighboring Nags Head and the Northern Banks; however, most resources denote Bodie Island as the ten or so mile stretch from Whalebone Junction to the Oregon Inlet Bridge via state highway twelve.