At first, Nawal Baker thought she’d been bitten by a shark.

The 30-year-old Henrico resident and a friend were swimming in the ocean Sunday by Jennette’s Pier in Nags Head when she felt a severe pain on her foot. Knee deep in the Atlantic, she feared she was about to be pulled under, and yelled for her friend to get out of the water while heading for shore herself.

“I was looking down initially, because the water is so clear, and just as I looked up, I felt something. I was 100% sure it was a shark,” she said.

When she got out of the water, there was a “good amount of blood,” and it looked like someone had stabbed the top of her foot with a pencil. It didn’t take long to figure out the culprit was a stingray, not a shark.

“It looked like nothing, but the pain was indescribable,” she said.

Baker credits Debbie Wilson, a paramedic from Virginia, for keeping her calm as she was treated on the beach before being taken to the hospital.

“Debbie held my hand from start to finish, my eyes were on her the whole time,” Baker said.

Ray stings are relatively uncommon on the Outer Banks, local experts say, but do happen — we just don’t always hear about them.

“When our staff gets stung while teaching surf lessons, we simply have them soak their foot in a bucket of hot water, which helps immensely,” said Daryl Law, spokesman for Jennette’s Pier.

There are several types of stingrays in the waters around the Outer Banks and coastal North Carolina, with the Atlantic stingray the most common, according to the N.C. Department of Environmental Quality. A video from Jennette’s Pier on Sept. 1 showed several butterfly rays in the water around the time Baker was stung.

Rays are bottom-feeders with flattened, oval bodies and a long, venomous spine for self-defense. They can reach up to 6 feet long, but most are roughly 2 feet when encountered, the DEQ website said.

Law said people often confuse stingrays and harmless skates, noting rays “have whip-like tails that possess a sharp barb shaped like a long fingernail. Skates have sticker-like bumps on their tails but no stinging barb.”

Treating Baker’s sting began on the beach with hot packs, then continued in the hospital with immersing her foot in nearly scalding water, which helps neutralize stingray venom. Baker said she went into the ocean “knowing full well” she was sharing the water with plenty of sea creatures, but she didn’t expect an encounter with a stingray.

“The most traumatizing thing was thinking there was a shark and trying to shove my friend out of the water,” Baker said. “I genuinely thought that was the last moment of my life.”

Now, Baker’s thinking about getting a stingray tattoo on her foot when the wound heals.

Wildlife experts say ocean swimmers and waders can avoid rays by doing the “stingray shuffle.”

“Just shuffle your feet across the bottom and stingrays will feel the vibration and swim away, decreasing chances of being stung,” Law said.

A 0.3-mile stretch of beach in Buxton already had been closed for more than a year, with the expansion adding about a quarter of a mile more, the park service said in a release.

The beach is now closed from the southern end of beachfront homes in the village of Buxton at the end of Old Lighthouse Road to south of the old lighthouse jetties. The closure includes the beachfront in front of the southern groin and the Old Lighthouse Beach parking lot.

“The closure may change over the coming days based on ongoing field observations,” the release said.

Park rangers noticed “strong petroleum smells” Thursday morning along Old Lighthouse Beach, near the former U.S. Navy and U.S. Coast Guard facilities just north of the Cape Hatteras Lighthouse’s original site, the park service said.

They also found erosion from strong winds and wave action this week “uncovered significant quantities” of concrete, rebar, wires, PVC and metal pipes, metal fragments, and cables at the former military site.

“Soil and groundwater that is apparently contaminated with petroleum from historic military use of the site is now exposed to the beachfront during low tide, and wave action during high tide,” the release said.

All Buxton visitors should stay out of the area, the park service said.

Rangers reported observations of the petroleum exposure to the National Response Center, operated by the Coast Guard, Army Corps of Engineers and other state of North Carolina agencies that assist with pollution response, the park service said. The park service also requested assistance from the Regional Response Team, an interagency team that can help coordinate response and provide technical advice during oil spills or pollution events.

On Sept. 1, 2023, the park service closed two-tenths of a mile of beach near the exposed debris, then expanded the closure in March to roughly three-tenths of a mile.

In May, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers removed one pipe at the site thought to be leaking petroleum on the beach. Cleanup efforts have stalled as federal agencies and the military grappled with who is responsible.

The site is part of a 25-acre area the park service formerly leased to the military. A Navy base operated there from 1956 to 1984 on a submarine monitoring project kept classified until 1991. The facility was then used as a Coast Guard base until 2013 before returning to park service control.

After some recent fox squirrel sightings in Currituck and other areas of the state, the N.C. Wildlife Resources Commission is turning to the public to help confirm the species has moved into those areas.

The fox squirrel is the largest tree squirrel in North Carolina, nearly twice the size of the more common gray squirrel, the commission said in a news release.

“It lives primarily in mature longleaf pine and open pine-oak forests in the sandhills and southern coastal plain,” the release said, but has been verified in western parts of the state where there are open hardwood forests surrounded by pastureland. According to the North Carolina State Parks website, the fox squirrel’s range has primarily been west of the Albemarle Sound.

Fox squirrels look different, too. Though they have a variety of colors including gray, black and rust, those spotted in the coastal plain are usually gray with patches of black on the head and feet and white patches on the nose, paws and ear tips, the commission said. Some are nearly all black with dark gray patches and those in the northwestern part of the state are often tawny with some white patches.

If you see a fox squirrel, state wildlife biologists ask that you take a photo, note the location (GPS coordinates preferred) and contact NC Wildlife Helpline, via email at HWI@ncwildlife.org.

The commission is especially interested in sightings from Currituck, Lincoln, Granville and Madison counties.

The Coastal Humane Society invites all four-legged friends and their humans to attend its 5th Annual Soggy Dog Pool Party at the Outer Banks Family YMCA on Sept. 7 from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m.

For just $10 per dog (cash or check at the gate), your furry friends can enjoy a day of splashing fun while supporting the Coastal Humane Society’s Emergency Assistance Fund. To keep owners and their pets safe, proof of vaccination is required to attend.

The Outer Banks Family YMCA is at 3000 S. Croatan Highway in Nags Head.

The eatery known by the slogan “Hot Soup for Cool People” moved into the site of a former Arby’s at 1901 S. Croatan Highway nearly a decade ago and was a popular spot for locals and tourists.

“Since December 2014, we have ladled our way through the years serving our wonderful Outer Banks community that has never let us down and we thank you for all of your support, as well as our friends that have come from near and far to visit us while they vacation here, we thank you!” the post said.

The franchise owner and Ladles Soup corporate office did not return requests for comment. The restaurant posted several times in late July and throughout this month that it would be closed due to illness.

“This winter will be a little colder without Ladles soup,” Kill Devil Hills Mayor John Windley said in reply to the farewell post.

At one time, the South Carolina-based Ladles Soups had 12 franchised restaurants, but with the Outer Banks closure, only two are left, one in downtown Charleston and the other in James Island, South Carolina.

The whale was stranded in Corolla’s Ocean Hill neighborhood Wednesday afternoon, with beachgoers calling for help and trying to keep the whale alive by dousing her with buckets of ocean water.

Marina Doshkov, database technician and marine mammal stranding coordinator at the North Carolina Aquarium on Roanoke Island, said the female whale, scientifically known as kogia breviceps, was euthanized and taken to the North Carolina State University Center For Marine Sciences and Technology for a necropsy.

Veterinary students and representatives from the N.C. Division of Marine Fisheries, the Department of Environmental Quality and the North Carolina Aquariums were involved in the exam, which showed a severe crassicauda infection, a common finding in sperm pygmy whale deaths, Doshkov said.

Pygmy sperm whale euthanized after stranding on the Outer Banks

Crassicauda is found in many species of whale, purpoise and squid, among other animals, and attacks the central nervous system, spinal cord and brain.

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration reports sperm pygmy whales have been stranding along the southeast coast this month, Doshkov said.

“Ten-year average shows that August is the most popular time to see kogia stranding, so it’s pretty typical for this time of year,” she said in an email.

Sperm pygmy sperm whales are a toothed, deep-diving species found in temperate and tropical seas worldwide, according to NOAA Fisheries. Little is known about the species, which is considered rare and under the protection of the Marine Mammal Protection Act.

The stranding is the seventh whale death on the Outer Banks and in Virginia Beach this year. Within one week in March, three whales stranded in Nags Head: a pregnant dwarf sperm whale, her nearly full-term fetus and a juvenile male believed to be her offspring that was too young to survive on his own.

Doshkov said Thursday she is still waiting for a histopathology report to shed light on their deaths.

Earlier in March, a 26-foot female minke whale was found dead north of Corolla on the four-wheel drive beach. The whale showed evidence of infectious disease, Doshkov said.

The Outer Banks strandings came days after the deaths of two humpback whales that washed up March 2 and 3 in Virginia Beach. Scars on both animals revealed they had been entangled during their lives.

The whale was stranded in the Ocean Hill neighborhood in the late afternoon, with beachgoers calling for help and trying to keep the whale alive by dousing her with buckets of ocean water.

Marina Doshkov, database technician and marine mammal stranding coordinator at the North Carolina Aquarium on Roanoke Island, said the female whale, scientifically known as kogia breviceps, was euthanized and taken to the North Carolina State University Center For Marine Sciences and Technology for a necropsy.

Veterinary students and representatives from the N.C. Division of Marine Fisheries, the Department of Environmental Quality and the North Carolina Aquariums were involved in the exam. Necropsy results should help determine what caused the stranding, but NOAA reports kogia have been stranding along the southeast coast this month, Doshkov said.

“Ten-year average shows that August is the most popular time to see kogia stranding, so it’s pretty typical for this time of year,” she said in an email. “Common necropsy findings for this species is crassicauda (parasite) infection that travels in the central nervous system.”

The stranding is the seventh whale death on the Outer Banks and in Virginia Beach this year. Within one week in March, three whales stranded in Nags Head: a pregnant dwarf sperm whale, her nearly full-term fetus and a juvenile male believed to be her offspring that was too young to survive on his own.

Doshkov said Thursday she is still waiting for a histopathology report to shed light on their deaths.

Earlier in March, a 26-foot female minke whale was found dead north of Corolla on the four-wheel drive beach. The whale showed evidence of infectious disease, Doshkov said.

The Outer Banks strandings came days after the deaths of two humpback whales that washed up March 2 and 3 in Virginia Beach. Scars on both animals revealed they had been entangled during their lives.

Volunteer researchers found the ring and some shards of pottery last summer in archaeological pits at the Elizabethan Gardens on Roanoke Island near modern-day Manteo, North Carolina. The First Colony Foundation — a nonprofit dedicated to conducting archaeological and historical research on Roanoke Island — has been searching for the Algonquian village encountered during Sir Walter Raleigh’s first expedition to the New World 440 years ago.

“This is an amazing find with an intriguing story to tell,” said Eric Klingelhofer, the foundation’s vice president for research, who led the Elizabethan Gardens dig. “After lying hidden in the ground for more than four centuries, this piece of copper now confirms that we have indeed located the site of Roanoac, the Algonquian village that welcomed the first English explorers in 1584.”

An analysis conducted by Madison Accelerator Laboratory at James Madison University in Harrisonburg found that copper used to make the ring was of European origin, rather than from a North American source, the foundation said in a news release.

The Spanish and French, Klingelhofer said, were never close enough to Roanoke Island during 16th century expeditions to have left the ring at the village.

During the tribe’s first contact with English explorers Philip Amadas and Arthur Barlowe in 1584, the wife of the village chief treated the men to a woodland feast.

“We were entertained with all love and kindness,” Barlowe wrote in his journal, “and with as much bounty, after their manner, as they could possibly devise.”

Klingelhofer said there’s no way to be sure, but it’s possible the explorers repaid the village’s hospitality with a gift of the copper earring.

The explorer’s first successful encounter with the Roanoac paved the way for another voyage from England in 1587, when 117 settlers arrived on Roanoke Island and established a colony. But when British ships returned with supplies three years later, the settlement had vanished — and the Lost Colony became one of history’s most enduring mysteries.

Roanoac village was abandoned in 1586, so the earring must have been presented as a gift or exchanged in trade before then, the foundation release said.

“Either during the 1584 visit by Amadas and Barlowe or the 1585 military outpost under Ralph Lane, rather than during Sir Walter Raleigh’s final effort, the 1587 civilian settlement led by artist John White,” the foundation wrote.

For the native tribe, copper was rare and to be cherished.

“They treasured it. It was actually spiritual,” Klingelhofer said in an interview after the ring’s discovery last year.

The NPS this summer entered into a cooperative agreement with the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill to evaluate transportation and resource management strategies on the barrier island, only accessible by vehicle and passenger ferries.

The park service will hold a public information session about the study Sept. 4 at the Ocracoke Community Center.

Researchers from North Carolina State University, Duke University, East Carolina University and representatives from the North Carolina Department of Transportation, Hyde County and Tideland Electric Membership Corporation also will participate in the multi-year study, the park service said in a release.

The stretch of highway near the ferry terminal is protected by artificial dunes created with large sandbags along the road. After a fatal accident in February during overwash flooding, NCDOT awarded a $489,000 emergency contract to replace and repair more than 800 sandbags along N.C.12. A storm in March stalled that work, and caused more damage to the sandbagged shoreline.

It also halted ferry service and cut the island off for days, with the Coast Guard stepping in to deliver medication and other necessities to stranded residents.

“The evolution of Ocracoke’s dynamic barrier island in response to storm events and sea level rise presents challenges to the maintenance of the transportation corridor that spans the length of Ocracoke Island,” the park service release said. “Climate change may amplify these challenges by increasing hurricane longevity, intensity and rainfall.”

Mitigation strategies such as the sandbags, “that have been used for decades” to maintain N.C. 12 and the South Dock Ferry Terminal “may have inadvertently contributed to the low elevations and narrow island widths that currently make transportation susceptible to disruption,” the release said. The park service on Friday didn’t immediately return a request to explain how sandbags and dune rebuilding caused those impacts.

The park service said the study will include three management scenarios: Maintain the existing location of N.C. 12, conducting beach nourishment projects and exploring “how the barrier island would migrate in response to other transportation alternatives,” the release said.

The Sept. 4 information session from 1-2:30 p.m. will provide an overview of the study, review the modeling exercise and solicit feedback, the park service said.

Results from initial modeling and public feedback will be incorporated into the second year of research, which will examine transportation strategies before concluding with a second information session next summer.

To learn more about the study,  see c-coast.org/ocracoke-adaptation-study.

The elusive horse came out of nowhere Aug. 14 with his equally mysterious mom, Rotor, confirming a lesser-known fact about the feral “banker” horses that live on Corolla.

“There are a handful of horses that we are lucky to see once or twice a year because they live deep in the marsh in places that are difficult (or often impossible) for us to access,” Corolla Wild Horse Fund herd manager Meg Puckett wrote on Facebook.

“The horses have about 7,500 acres of land to roam and … it is quite vast once you get away from the oceanfront. Easy for a couple of horses like Rotor and Dash to stay hidden for months at a time!”

A herd of just over 100 wild horses roams the Corolla area, including some that have managed to stay hidden for years.

In 2023, the Corolla Wild Horse Fund announced a secretive family of horses — two adults and a foal — was discovered living like castaways on an island in the sound west of Carova Beach.

“We always assume there are probably a handful more that we never see,” the fund wrote.

It isn’t completely understood why some hermit horses suddenly show up on beaches, then just as suddenly disappear. Puckett said it could have to do with the disease-carrying horse flies that plague the islands when conditions are damp and hot.

There comes a point when even the most stoic of wild horses can no longer stand the biting and head for beaches where coastal winds thwart the insects. That’s likely what caused Dash and his mom to materialize, Puckett said.

“I’m not really sure why there are some that don’t come out of the marsh and woods very often, when the majority of them do go back and forth pretty regularly,” she said.

“Probably just behavior that has been passed down for many generations. I’d say there are maybe around 10 to 15 that only come out around the houses and onto the beach a couple times a year, and maybe half of those are even more elusive and we’re lucky to see them once a year.”

Their disappearing acts prove a lot of wild habitat still exists on North Carolina’s barrier islands, and the horses use it, she said.

Either by instinct or by trial and error, they know how to find secret places too remote and too wet for humans.

“Development is definitely a huge issue and presents a lot of dangers to the horses. Development doesn’t just mean houses going up and loss of habitat. It also means traffic, garbage, more septic systems and wells going in, more people in general, etc,” Puckett said.

“But knowing that A) there really is a lot of untouched habitat west of the dunes and B) it really is so vast that there are horses that can disappear back into it for months at a time helps you stay hopeful for the future. … It’s also a reminder of how wild these horses are, and how capable they are of taking care of themselves in their natural habitat.”