Hatteras Inlet has a stormy history, but the changes in the past decade have created storms that have little to do with the weather. The original inlet was south of the current inlet and closed in 1764. The current inlet was opened in 1846 by the same storm that opened Oregon Inlet about 50 miles to the north.
The N.C. Department of Transportation operates a fleet of ferries that cross the inlet to connect Hatteras Island with Ocracoke Island via NC 12. The ferries carry between 750,000 and a million passengers annually. The ferry channel is a lifeline for village businesses and commercial and charter fishermen, plus the marinas and tackle shops who service recreational fishermen who visit Hatteras Island.
The channels have required occasional maintenance-dredging in the past, but that need increased dramatically after Hurricane Isabel came ashore in 2003. A U.S. Army Corps of Engineers study showed that maintenance dredging was done only six times between 1975 and 2004, but it has been almost constant over the past 11 years.
Hatteras Inlet was approximately a half-mile wide in 1985. It has grown to more than 200 miles in width since Isabel, and it doesn’t appear to be slowing. The combination of ocean swells and sound currents are eroding the south end of Hatteras Island and the north end of Ocracoke Island, created so much shoaling in the ferry channel that it was abandoned last year. An alternate channel, which adds several miles to the trip, follows a path into Pamlico Sound from each ferry terminal and crosses the inlet in the sound.
The USACE said there are no federal funds available to continue dredging, so maintenance costs for the ferry channel have fallen to the state, which does not have the funds, either.
The ferry channel, having been abandoned, is no longer marked or maintained. Fishermen continue to use Hatteras Inlet, and they have requested the U.S. Coast Guard or someone plot and mark the channel from the ferry terminal to Hatteras Inlet.
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