Source: Jack Igelman, CAROLINA PUBLIC PRESS, 7/18/22

Editor’s note: This article, part 1 of the 5-part award-winning series Changing Tides, originally posted Sept. 13, 2021. The series is being reposted in July 2022. The series was made possible in part through support from the Pulitzer Center.

A small net dipped into a patch of grass submerged in shin-deep water near the edge of a salt marsh on the central North Carolina coast.  Retired National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration scientist Jud Kenworthy of Beaufort lifted the net to reveal a colorfully striped juvenile pinfish, no bigger than a pinkie, among the strands of green and brown vegetation.

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