So I am constantly working on new ideas that will enhance the Brackish Life product line while staying true to our commitment to preserving our coastal environment and its natural resources. It is also an outlet for my artistic side.
In the past I have found old boards that wash up on our beach at the river and used them to make the Brackish Life signs that you see in all of our retail locations. You get some pretty interesting driftwood off the water's edges so I am always thinking of ways to share these images with others.
Since I love oyster roasts so much during the fall and winter months out here in the Brackish Life, I have been working on some ideas for our own custom-made oyster knifes that can be made from products found in our coastal areas. Here is a picture of one sample I recently crafted out of a cedar branch that washed up on our beach following one of the frequent storms this winter:
It is still a work in process but I like the challenge of using only those natural materials we can find in the coastal waters without damaging the resources for future generations.
We also like playing aroung with our creative side here at the Brackish Life. So stayed tuned and we will keep you posted on how our oyster knife evolves and what other ideas we can come up with!
Posted By: brackish
january 22, 2013 08:05pm
Happy New Year - 2013
I hope as you are reading this you are thinking about how great 2013 has started out for you and that you are excited about all of the tremendous possibilities that await you and your loved ones this New Year! From my family at the Brackish Life, we say “Thank You!” for all of your support in 2012 and “Best Wishes” for an even better 2013!
Last year for me was filled with wonderful memories as we tried our best to enjoy life to the fullest – we had a once in a lifetime opportunity to take a sailboat cruise through the British Virgins Islands in March; we spent as much time as possible this past summer enjoying the Pamlico River; we enjoyed several trips to Morehead City with great friends; a unique opportunity to shoot skeet at the historical Grimes Plantation; an annual golf trip into the Low Country of Pawleys Island, South Carolina; and my annual deer hunting trip at the North State Club were just a few of the highlights. Sometimes people question my idea of the Brackish Life with a “Hey, where’s the brackish water on that adventure?”, but I say, “Brackish means, where the fresh water mixes with the salt, so sometimes I have to take the Brackish Life out and mix it with the rest of the world.” And if you enjoy the coastal lifestyle – salty, fresh or brackish – or you just simply enjoy outdoor activities, then you too are a part of the Brackish Life!
I recently went back to a quote from Andy Dufresne in the movie, Shawshank Redemption, while I was thinking about my own plans for the New Year: “It comes down to a simple choice, get busy living, or get busy dying.” I choose to “get busy living” this year, and let all of the “glass half empty” crowd worry about the negativity that dominates our world these days. There is a lot of living to be done in our short time here on this earth so we better enjoy it while we can. This doesn’t mean I plan to shirk any of my responsibilities to my family and sail off into the sunset, but quite the contrary. Work hard so I can play hard is more like it. There have been plenty of challenges with my little Brackish Life company and there are plenty more to come. But the opportunity to pursue our dreams is still what makes this country the greatest in the world!
So that is my simple advice for the New Year – get busy living!
Posted By: brackish
november 18, 2012 05:12pm
Responsible Growth?
Now that the elections are over, many of the issues that divide our country continue to worry me. In a presidential election where around 50% of voters support the winner and just under 50% supported his opponent, we cannot get much more evenly divided and still have a winner. One of my biggest concerns as an “environmental capitalist” is how our country will balance economic development and job creation while protecting our precious coastal natural resources? Nowhere is this challenge going to be more difficult to navigate than in my home state of North Carolina where we have elected a republican governor on the strength of his claims as the best candidate to solve the unemployment stagnation in our state. A big part of his economic development plan includes natural gas and offshore oil exploration in partnership with our neighbors in Virginia and South Carolina.
The October 28th edition of the News and Observer included an article entitled, “Natural gas glut brings big winners and losers”. It looked at both sides of the possibility of “fracking” for natural gas extraction in central North Carolina. Proponents see the potential of a new billion dollar industry for our state and all of the new jobs that would come with it. Opponents point to the track record of the environmental impact that comes with natural gas exploration including well blowouts, chemical spills and contaminated water systems.
Oil exploration off the coasts of North Carolina, South Carolina and Virginia has plenty of proponents and even the recreational fishing lobby touts the abundance of marine life that develops and thrives around the artificial reef that is created with an offshore oil rig. But have we learned any lessons from the BP Deepwater oil rig disaster that flowed unabated for three months and devastated the Gulf Coast fishing communities? The spill caused extensive damage to fish and wildlife habitats, and to the Gulf Coast fishing and tourism industries.
There have also been recent stories in the news about the killing, by gunshots, of three endangered red wolves in eastern North Carolina. Once common throughout the eastern and south central United States, red wolf populations were decimated by the early part of the 20th Century as a result of intensive predator control programs and the degradation and alteration of the species' habitat. The red wolf was designated an endangered species in 1967, and shortly thereafter the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service initiated efforts to conserve the species. Today, more than 100 red wolves roam their native habitats in eastern North Carolina, the only wild population left in the world. It appears that the endangered red wolves may have been caught in the crossfire of the state legislature’s approval of night hunting as a way to control coyotes, which are non-native predators that prey on poultry, small livestock and pet dogs and cats. Local landowners and farmers requested the night coyotes hunting rules as a tool to protect livestock and rid communities of the aggressive predators, while environmentalist groups have filed legal challenges to the new night hunting because of the danger to the red wolf population that resembles the coyote in appearance and its nocturnal habits.
My question is, “How do we balance the needs of our human population with our responsibility to protect our marine and other natural resources?” Why can we not have responsible economic development that provides jobs, income and recreation for the residents of our state without causing irreparable damage to our coastal resources? I am interested in the thoughts of others on where you stand on this issue. Does it have to be an “all or nothing” political division, or can both parties sincerely come together for “responsible growth”? Is there such a thing as “responsible growth” or must you side with either the capitalists or the environmentalists?
Posted By: brackish
october 03, 2012 08:16pm
Celebrating America Day 2012
Last night around the dinner table, my youngest high school-age son asked if we still had any of the Brackish Life Flag-Crab design t-shirts left from this summer. One of his friends from school had texted him earlier to see if he could get one to wear to school the next day as part of "America Day" conjunction with the week-long celebration of football homecoming week.
I was happy to find that we did have a few of the smaller sizes left including one that would fit his friend. "And I hope you and your brother will both be proudly wearing your Brackish Life Flag shirts as well." "Well, if Ned is already going to be wearing one then maybe I should wear something different", questioned my youngest son. I quickly jumped on a simple marketing lesson for both of my teenage sons. "I hope everyone that owns one will all wear them on the same day and then everyone that doesn't have one will walk around school all day with their lips stuck out asking, 'Why don't I have a Brackish Life Flag Design t-shirt, too?'."
"And then I hope there is such an uproar of jealousy and peer pressure that the school system bans the wearing of all Brackish Life shirts. At that point the demand will become overwhelming as high school kids across the state begin a frenzy of buying because they all want something that the adults have said they can't have."
"Then the university will call and ask me to be a guest lecturer on marketing because of the phenomenal success of the Brackish Life brand."
Of course then I got off track talking about how I would still give low grades to college athletes for not coming to my class as scheduled, and we all had a good laugh imagining how those conversations would go.
In the end they both looked great in their Brackish Life shirts while proudly displaying their patriotism and love of America. After all, where else in the world can you live free and simply, enjoy the coastal lifestyle, and grow up to sell great t-shirts?
Posted By: brackish
september 30, 2012 03:43pm
Pesticide-Laden Runoff Kills Blue Crabs
I wanted to share this excellent article from the NC Coastal Feederation website. Important questions raised about the impact of pesticides used in agriculture operations near estuarine waters and who is in charge of oversight.
By Catherine Kozak
BATH -- Hilton Waters was picking through baskets of live blue crabs a few weeks ago, counting them as he culled out peelers to put in his shedding tanks. It was about 5:30 p.m. on a Friday, and he and his wife were leaving for a much-needed vacation the next day. But something looked wrong.
“We just noticed the crabs seemed to be acting funny,” Waters said in a telephone interview on Friday, recounting the Aug. 10 incident.
By about 7 p.m., he said, some of the crabs in the shedding tanks were flipping end over end -- something he had never seen before. Two hours later, most of the crabs were flipping continuously. At about 11 p.m., all 2,000 or so of the crabs in the tanks were on their backs, quivering. Then, during the night, their claws and, sometimes, entire legs were falling off.
By morning, Waters said, every crab was dead. A lifelong waterman, Waters immediately suspected pesticide poisoning of the canal at the mouth of St. Clair’s Creek, which empties into the Pamlico River at his operation between Bath and Belhaven. A neighboring farmer had ground sprayed his cotton fields with a pesticide the day before, and there had been a rain deluge of 1.5 inches that afternoon. The farm field drains into a ditch that drains into the canal, which supplies water for his tanks.
“Everything hit wrong,” he said. “It came with a heck of a downpour at the same time the runoff came with a very low tide.”
Waters saved a water sample, and froze some of the dead crab. The next morning, he called a state environmental emergency number and he was soon contacted by Lynn Henry, a marine biologist at the state Division of Marine Fisheries office in Elizabeth City. A report was taken, Waters said, but Henry did not visit the site.
But a person from the state Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services did come out that Monday to look around, he said, and came back the next day to collect the samples.
Jennifer Almond, pesticide operations specialist with the agriculture department, confirmed that an inspector visited the site on Aug. 13, and found that the pesticide bifenthrin, which is highly toxic to crab, shrimp, and other aquatic life, had been used by the farmer, Mike Godley of Bath. The matter is still under investigation and she said she could not comment further.
Henry said that there is no indication that the pesticide was applied improperly. "I think it was just the timing was terrible," she said. "I have not heard that the farmer did anything wrong."
Pesticide poisonings seem to be isolated in the crab operations in the Albemarle-Pamlico estuaries, said Anne Deaton, section chief of habitat protection with the division. But lately, she said, she has heard that crabbers proactively take their pots out of the water when there’s a heavy rain.
“The question for us -- we see a bunch of adult crabs dying -- so what’s happening below the surface to the juvenile or post-juvenile crabs?” Deaton said. “The important thing is to figure out how much of these chemicals are getting into the water.”
Crabs are already stressed out when they’re shedding, said Henry, and crabbers always try to get the best water quality possible. Oxygen content, temperature and handling are also issues in mortality, so crabbers are vigilant in keeping watch on the potentially lucrative crabs in the tanks.
A kill like Waters suffered, Henry said, is a concern to anyone who cares about the water quality in that agricultural region.
“If these chemicals are doing this to him, what is it doing to all the other critters in the environment?” he said. “What is this stuff doing to the aquatic environment in these small creeks and nursery areas?”
Apparently, no one really knows. Thanks to a combination of government budget cuts and entangled bureaucratic regulations, there appears to be no clear-cut understanding of the impacts of pesticide use near estuarine waters or who is in charge of oversight.
In 2010, the state eliminated funding for “rapid response teams” in the Neuse and Pamlico river basins, and along with that, the emergency phone number to call about fish kills or water pollution was eliminated. Now, calls about all environmental emergencies go to the state Division of Emergency Management (800-858-0368) and the appropriate agency is notified.
With the Waters case, after consulting with the Division of Marine Fisheries and the Division of Water Quality, it was decided that because it was pesticide-related, it should be handled by the state Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services, said Steve Lewis, the emergency response coordinator for the Division of Water Quality.
Lewis said that under the federal Clean Water Act, stormwater runoff from agricultural operations is not subject to the act’s regulations, even if the runoff contains enough pesticides to kill crabs.
And if the farmer applied the pesticide according to the label, there may be very little recourse even if there is a kill.
What happened in this incident, Lewis said, it that the pesticide, which is relatively non-toxic to mammals, was washed from the cotton into the waterway where it was not intended to go. There, it became very deadly to invertebrates in the water.
“It wasn’t that it was super-concentrated,” he said about the pesticide. “It’s just that it was so toxic.”
The bottom line is that it is difficult to regulate pesticide use that may result in accidental pollution of waterways, said Matt Matthews, chief of surface water protection for the division in Raleigh.
“In order to address the situation in some way, we’re trying to address this with outreach and education,” he said.
Matthews said he has found that farmers try to use the “least environmentally impactful” chemical available, but it can be a balancing act finding the right herbicide and pesticide.
There are 323 monitoring stations located in waterways throughout the state that look for indications of chemical, physical and biological contamination, but Matthews said he is not aware of any targeted state studies of agricultural pesticide effects on estuarine aquatic life.
“We do not have those kinds of resources right now,” he said.
A 2009 Duke Marine Lab study by Dan Rittschof, prompted by a large blue crab kill in Swan Quarter, studied varying degrees of toxicity to crabs during their life stages of four commonly-used pesticides, with the one in the same chemical family as bifenthrin considered the most toxic.
Rittschof is one of five authors of a 2012 report on the toxicity of pesticides to crabs published in the Journal of Experimental Marine Biology and Ecology.
“The sensitivity of molting blue crabs to these pesticides makes frequently molting juveniles particularly vulnerable to pesticides in estuaries,” the report said.
If Waters has anything to be grateful for, he said, it’s that his operation was not at its maximum of 5,000 crabs. It’s still not known whether he’ll be able to collect insurance money from Godley, who Waters characterized as a “good guy” who would not intentionally hurt anything. Not only is he out of about $4,500 for the crabs, it is unclear when it will be again safe to use the canal and when his shedding operation will fully recover.
But he said he is disappointed in the state’s slow response to his calls, and says that no one was there fast enough to see the hundreds of dead grass shrimp lining the quarter-mile canal after the rain, not to mention the crabs that were not in his tanks -- because all the poisoned creatures soon sank to the bottom, unseen and unknown.
“From my standpoint, that’s just my word,” he said. “It’s never been documented. It’s not just my shedders; it’s killing everything.”
About the Author: Catherine Kozak has been a reporter and writer on the Outer Banks since 1995. She worked for 15 years for "The Virginian Pilot." Born and raised in the suburbs outside New York City, Catherine earned her journalism degree from the State University of New York at New Paltz. During her career, she has written about dozens of environmental issues, including oil and gas exploration, wildlife habitat protection, sea level rise, wind energy production, shoreline erosion and beach nourishment. She lives in Nags Head.
