Press Releases

The North Carolina Department of Environmental Quality’s Division of Marine Fisheries recently certified a new state record for the Graysby Grouper (Cephalopholis cruentata).

MOREHEAD CITY – State recreational water quality officials today lifted a water quality swimming advisory at a sound-side site in Beaufort County.

Recent rainfall helped improve drought conditions in some parts of the state, but most of the state remains in extreme or severe drought, according to the N.C. Drought Management Advisory Council. The exceptional drought classification has been removed.

The N.C. Artificial Reef Program this month completed two major reef enhancements at offshore reefs off Cape Hatteras and off Ocracoke.

As the summer beach season begins, the N.C. Department of Environmental Quality’s Division of Coastal Management (DCM) Public Beach and Coastal Waterfront Access Program reminds coastal residents and visitors about its helpful, interactive public beach and waterfront access map. The map can be accessed directly from mobile devices and desktops to help locate public beach and waterfront access sites along North Carolina’s coast. The map includes a “Find Sites Near Me,” feature that helps users locate sites within 10 miles of a location.

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s (NOAA) Red Snapper South Atlantic Exempted Fishing Permits (EFP) for southeastern states, including North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia and Florida, are no longer in effect until further order from the United States District Court for the District of Columbia. The recreational harvest of Red Snapper in the South Atlantic remains closed.

The NC Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ) State Energy Office (SEO) is accepting applications statewide until June 26, 2026, for projects that modernize and upgrade the electric grid.  SEO is seeking applications through the third grant cycle of the Preventing Outages while Enhancing the Resiliency of the Electric Grid (POWER Up) program.  

Drought conditions have intensified in five counties in western North Carolina, while extreme and severe drought continue across most of the state.

The NC Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ) Flood Resiliency Blueprint program (Blueprint) will hold a public information session on June 11 at 6 p.m. to provide information and gather feedback on the draft Neuse River Basin Action Strategy.

As the summer water recreation season approaches, the N.C. Department of Environmental Quality's Division of Water Resources (DWR) reminds the public to avoid contact with discolored water that could indicate the presence of an algal bloom.