Walking along the ocean is for many its own reward, but if you happen to visit when waves have deposited — or dug up — a bit of bounty on aNorth Carolinabeach, is it your treasure to claim?
As beach season begins, here’s a roundup of the rules.
Can you keep what you find on North Carolina beaches?
That depends on whether it’s managed by the federal or state government or a local municipality.
All 320 miles of N.C. coastline are owned by the public but managed by different entities with different regulations.
The National Park Service oversees two sections: the 70-mile Cape Hatteras National Seashore and the 56-mile Cape Lookout National Seashore.
Within their boundaries, thesame rules applyas those in all other national parks:
Except for shells and driftwood, which are legal to collect, anything found on the beach is protected by law and may not be removed because it might be a historical artifact.
That includes items like the huge fragment ofhumpback whale skull that washed up last weeksouth ofSalvoonHatteras Island, as well as debris and infrastructure left behind when a beachfront home is knocked down by the ocean.Some of that turned up inCape Hatteras National Seashorelast weekas well.
A septic tank wouldn’t make much of a souvenir, but plenty of people on social media wondered last week how hard it would be to load a chunk of whale skull into a pickup truck to carry home and turn into yard art.
Neither is legal to take.
The same goes for the remains of shipwrecks that lie under the sand on various beaches until they get uncovered by storms. Take pictures, but nothing else. The waves and wind will bury and expose the old bones again and again for others to see.
The N.C. Division of Parks and Recreation has three oceanfront properties: Fort Fisher, Fort Macon and Hammocks Beach.
Technically, it’s illegal to take any resource from any N.C. state park, but rangers generally will allow visitors to collect a few shells. Don’t haul off the driftwood.
Beaches managed by North Carolina towns have their own rules. All allow visitors to collect a few shells. But while it may seem obvious, it’s worth stating that they don’t allow the wholesale removal of sand. Some property owners tried this several years ago when they needed to fill sandbags in the hours before a hurricane was due to arrive.
Are metal detectors allowed on North Carolina beaches?
Metal detecting is specifically prohibited in national and North Carolina state parks, including Cape Hatteras National Seashore and Cape Lookout National Seashore, as well as Fort Macon, Fort Fisher and Hammocks Beach state parks.
The one exception is that if someone loses something such as a piece of jewelry within a state park, someone with a metal detector can get a special permit from the superintendent’s office to search for the item in the area where it went missing.
Beach municipalities generally do allow metal detectors, as long as you stay on the beach and out of the dunes. Also, be courteous; if you dig a hole because the metal detector pinged, fill the hole when you’re done. In fact, many beach communities can now fine people for leaving unfilled any hole dug deeper than 12 inches.
Steven RayofNewporthas been summoned to N.C. beaches countless times over the years throughThe Ringfindersnetwork, and has hunted down tens of thousands of dollars’ worth of rings, watches and other items. The quicker he or someone else gets the call, he said, the more likely it is the item will be returned to the original owner and not discovered years later by someone else (who, by the way, can legally keep it — or they could take it to the police department or town hall).
Ray said he also has found buttons from Civil War-era military uniforms and bits of 50-caliber bullets from World War II — all on municipal beaches and all of which were OK for him to add to his collection.
Once, Ray said, a woman called him to search for her engagement ring atAtlantic Beach. She had been on the sand somewhere over here, she told him, but she had thrown the ring somewhere over there.
“She had gotten into an argument with her fiance,” Ray recalled. “There was alcohol involved.”
As far as he knows, it’s still out there, waiting to be found.
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