More than 30 homes have collapsed due to coastal erosion along North Carolina’s Outer Banks since 2020, with the majority falling since 2024. Others have been moved preemptively. But shoreline erosion goes well beyond the ocean coastline, says Sam Holberg ’25 MSE, a Ph.D. student in biological and agricultural engineering. “There are shorelines eroding in our estuaries, in our Intracoastal Waterways, on rural properties in North Carolina that are far away from the ocean,” he says. “It’s happening everywhere at different speeds.” 

“There are shorelines eroding in our estuaries, in our Intracoastal Waterways, on rural properties in North Carolina that are far away from the ocean.”

Holberg says even minor changes in sea level can lead to rapid shoreline erosion, something he’s hoping to curb. Inspired in part by natural oyster reefs and offshore wave generators, both of which reduce wave energy before it reaches the shore, Holberg is researching the effects of oyster farms on nearby shorelines. If the farms prove to be a viable option to slow erosion, the benefits would be both environmental and economic.

With help from Sea Grant and N.C. Coastal Reserve, Holberg is testing sediment core samples from Permuda Island, located in the sound between mainland North Carolina and the Outer Banks, to determine their sediment grain size and how quickly they erode.

He’s analyzed 40 samples so far. There are variables he cannot control, he admits, but even with real-world limitations, he’s seeing results: The core samples taken near the oyster farm show less erosion than samples taken on the opposite side of the island, which has no oyster farms. Holberg posits two reasons for these early results: the oyster cages, which sit on the surface of the water, dissipate wave energy before it reaches the shore, and the sticky bio deposits that the oysters excrete could make the nearby sediment more cohesive and harder to erode. 

Now is the time to be exploring these kinds of solutions, he says, because “shorelines are exponentially eroding faster” due to sea-level change. And the effects of that are far-reaching.

“Shoreline erosion doesn’t discriminate between what income [bracket] you’re in,” Holberg says, adding that it will happen if you’re living in a small place on “the Pamlico Sound or if you’re in a million-dollar house on the Outer Banks.”

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